Meet the Former Volleyball Star Behind the Sport’s Hottest Hair Tie Brand
Anwar Stetson
What started as a simple idea has swept the nation. Prep Network speaks to Andrea Nucete-Elliott, the leader of the hair tie brand volleyball players can’t live without.
A Full Life
By 2013, Andrea Nucete-Elliott had already lived a full life. At just 22-years-old, the Venezuela native had lived in two countries, escaped an abusive home, spoke multiple languages, was a model and Miss Universe Italy finalist, and played two sports. But she had no idea how her journey would evolve in the next decade, and how she would go on to build one of the hottest new companies in the volleyball world.
Andrea Nucete-Elliott always wanted to be a neurosurgeon. That was the goal when she first came to the United States. Originally from Isla de Margarita off the coast of Venezuela, Nucete-Elliot describes her childhood as “abusive.” At eleven years old, she left with her grandmother to Italy, where she was introduced by a local coach to the sport of volleyball.
Building on her natural athleticism and hand-eye coordination, she began playing professional volleyball in Italy as a teenager. She also modeled, and was a finalist for Miss Italy 2012. After eight years of pro volleyball in Italy, she moved to Texas, attending a local community college and then the University of Texas at Austin to further her education.
“I moved with $375 in my hand and a suitcase.” Nucete-Elliott said.
All the while, UT Austin’s volleyball coaching legend Jerritt Elliott was developing an idea.
Starting with his own players at Texas, the Big 12 and NCAA champion women’s volleyball coach sought to develop a hair tie to keep his players from constantly having to adjust their hair. Elliot had the idea, but he didn’t have the practical experience to fully understand the solution: Coach Elliot is completely bald after all.
“I laugh about it because it’s pretty hilarious,” Andrea says. “Because you’ve never experienced the feeling of putting your hair up. You have no idea what that feels like.”
A True Partnership
Before there were pro leagues in the U.S. like LOVB, Andrea reached out to Elliott in 2013 for opportunities to continue her playing career at Texas. At 22, Elliott told her she was “too old” to join the team.
But she stayed in contact with the coach, attending as many Texas women’s volleyball games as she could. By 2014, the pair were a couple, and four years later, they were married.
But the volleyball star, model, and college student who wanted to be a neurosurgeon suddenly found her career at an impasse. She made the decision to work with her husband on his simple, yet effective idea: building TIY hair ties into a real business.
“I found our relationship to be really very different and special, something I never had,” she explained. “So I said, ‘You know what? I know I’m going to be successful at whatever I put my mind to.’ At the time, I didn’t know what it was going to be. So it was a little scary.”
Coach Elliott had the idea, but Andrea had the execution. They tirelessly tested the product, with input from other players, and Andrea herself, until they had built a hair tie better than the competition.
“So I kind of was the tester for that,” Andrea said. “When it comes down to coming up with the loops and coming up with the actual fabric, and doing all the due diligence for creating a company and a brand. I thought that it was incredible the way the fabric held your hair.”
It seems like such a simple concept, so how did it get so successful?
A Simple Concept
“We have a saying in Italian,” she explained. “The essential, more often than not, is invisible to the eye.”
“I think the simplicity of the idea is what makes it obvious,” she continued, “But I believe that the nature of the product, meaning hair accessories, especially hair ties, haven’t received the attention that most likely they needed.”
TIY, (pronounced T-I-Y, which is short for “tie it yourself”) is deceptively simple. “It doesn’t stretch out and break at the same rate of our regular, drugstore cheap elastic,” Andrea explains.
“We actually put a lot of effort and thought into how we make it last longer, how we make it have fun colors, how we make it be actually protective for your hair.”
What started as a solution to a minor annoyance evolved into a product layered with intention: functional, durable, and expressive.
The real success, however, came during the pandemic.
We have a saying in Italian, the essential, more often than not, is invisible to the eye.
Gifts of Affection
In 2020, Andrea came up with a “share campaign”—she sent the product for free, with customers only paying shipping costs. She wrote thousands of notes, leading to people sending the product to friends as tokens of encouragement during quarantine. The former Italian volleyball star’s investment paid off, spurred by her love language: gifting.
“I said why not? I can give all this for free as long as they pay for shipping. I wasn’t getting paid. I was just sitting there trying to connect with these people. The response was insane. People loved it. And then I really honed into, ‘okay how do I do this right?’ Website, messaging, marketing. For two and a half years after that, it was just me. It was social media, email, customer service, shipping orders, figuring out how to print all the labels together when we had more than two orders a day…so that was me for two and a half years, and more collegiate girls started to wear the product.”
The company has seen year-over-year growth of over 200% since 2020.
The Big Leagues
TIY hair ties were already the talk of women’s college volleyball before ESPN featured them in a profile earlier this month. Andrea thought the initial email from the worldwide leader in sports was a scam.
“I was just like, ‘No way.’ You know, like, I read the email and I just thought it was a scam for sure…I see the espn.com [email] and I say to myself, “Wow, these scams are getting really good, you know?” she said, laughing. But the profile is representative of the company’s growth.
ESPN interviewed multiple players who love the hair ties, and said that nearly every team in the upcoming NCAA tournament will have players wearing the product.
After years of doing everything on her own, Andrea has hired a small staff of all women. Every order is fulfilled personally, with care taken in packaging, messaging, and customer service.
“I love that there are brands that are made for women and you know we do that in our customer service. We are attentive and I take big pride in that.”
What’s Next, Where to Buy
As TIY continues to grow, Andrea’s plans are ambitious, including new product launches in 2026, new hair tie colors, a bigger office, and a small storefront in Austin. TIY will also expand its presence at major volleyball events and appear in Allure Beauty Box.
Though she never would have guessed where her career would take her a decade ago, Andrea Nucete-Elliott proves that sometimes the essential is invisible to the eye. And the essential qualities of a good business—hard work, perseverance, and a whole lot of love—can take you around the world, and also bring you home.