Alli Webb knows that her life probably looked exciting and glamorous from the outside.
The co-founder of Drybar spent nearly a decade, starting in 2010, growing her mobile hair-styling side hustle into a popular chain of salons that now has more than 160 locations across the U.S. The company was acquired by Helen of Troy in 2019 for roughly $255 million, and Webb racked up accolades and startup fame along the way.
“I knew my life was going to change forever,” Webb, 48, tells CNBC Make It.
But a thriving business isn’t always a recipe for happiness. Within seven years of launching Drybar, “everything was starting to unravel for me personally,” she says.
She and her first husband, Drybar co-founder Cameron Webb, divorced after 16 years of marriage. Her mother died from cancer. Her teenage son went to rehab for addiction issues.
Webb buried herself in work, avoiding those difficulties until they were too large to ignore — a topic she tackled in her book “The Messy Truth,” which published in November 2023, and continues to talk about today.
“I wish I had paid more attention while I was in it, so it didn’t crash down the way it did,” says Webb. “I think sometimes our rock bottoms and everything crashing down is how we learn.”
Specifically, she learned how to recognize and address signs of burnout, and prioritize her mental health without feeling like she was sacrificing her career or family, she says. Here’s how.
Face your problems head on
In 2018, Webb experienced what she described in her book as her “great depression.” She was burnt out, both physically and emotionally, and internalizing a great deal of self-inflicted guilt from her decision to end her marriage and her son’s subsequent struggles.
“Am I ruining my family? Our lives?” Webb asked herself at the time, she wrote.
Those struggles were a result of her unwillingness to fully reckon with problems in her life, and their effects on her, while they were happening, she says. Drybar helped her avoid confronting her…
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