Two entrepreneurial mums have started their own line of affordable natural haircare after learning how much damage supermarket products can do to people’s locks.
Renee Lee quit her corporate marketing job to team up with her friend, Jade Hart, and create Everblue, a natural luxurious haircare line without the price tag.
Jade was going through a fertility journey and through her research found some chemicals in many supermarket shampoos and conditioners contained hormone-disrupting additives such as parabens.
Renee on the other hand told FEMAIL before Everblue she had to wash her hair single everyday to keep the build up of oil at bay because of the generic brands she was using.
The pair, who are both from New Zealand, spent 18 months trialling and testing the formula they belived would not only treat hair long-term but was good to the body and the earth.
Mums Renee Lee (left) and Jade Hart (right) set out to start their own natural haircare line after learning about the nasty chemicals found in supermarket brands
In June 2021, Everblue was launched in New Zealand’s Woolworths’ counterpart Countdown and saw six months worth of stock clear the shelves in just five weeks.
Renee said she had always had oily hair but never considered it could be the result of the big-brand shampoos and conditioners she was using.
‘When we started, we were everyday customers who would just grab whatever brand off the shelf and didn’t really consider what was inside,’ she said.
‘Jade had quite a personal journey trying to get pregnant and that steered her to being more conscious of the ingredients inside.’
When Jade and Renee teamed up they started looking into what was really going into the haircare they were using and were shocked by what they found.
Renee quit her corporate marketing job to team up with friend Jade Hart and create Everblue , a natural luxurious haircare line without the price tag
‘We were learning as we went about things like silicone. It’s in so many products. It coats your hair and makes it feel amazing afterwards but the truth is, it’s not actually healthy for your hair,’ Renee explained.
‘A lot of supermarket products are too harsh and strip your hair and scalp of their natural oils, so they begin to overproduce it – this means way more washing.’
They also discovered parabens, found in many cosmetic products including haircare, can disrupt the normal function of hormone systems which is a huge concern for parents trying to get pregnant.
Parabens can be absorbed through the skin and interfere with the hormones in both female and male reproductive systems.
With this in mind, the co-founders started working with chemists to formulate natural haircare products without the nasty chemicals at an affordable price.
Going into business was a daunting prospect for Renee who had been working in corporate and marketing jobs.
‘It was so nerve-wracking especially because I was in my early thirties at the time and had got a really high up position, my creature comforts were definitely there,’ she said.
There were nervous moments and challenges while starting Everblue and Renee said there were many times she thought they might not get their beloved brand off the ground
‘You haven’t really had to think about your spending for a while and then to have to go back to watching every dollar go out and making sacrifices.’
There were more nervous moments and challenges through the process of getting Everblue on the market, and Renee said there were many times she thought they wouldn’t get their beloved brand off the ground.
The night before Renee and Jess were to send the final design details to the manufacturers to make the 80,000 bottles and labels, they had a sudden change of heart.
They felt the brand’s original name, Earthling and Co, wasn’t the right fit and changed it to Everblue at the eleventh hour even before the trademark was approved.
‘Sometimes you go off your gut but then you start to get this niggly feeling that it’s not quite right, and it’s like, “Am I brave enough to make that change now?”,’ she recalled.
‘This is why it’s great to have a few people in the business…because you want to have someone with those perspectives who you can bounce ideas off.
‘We took a bit of risk there but it paid off, we love where the branding landed and where the name landed.’
The pair fought tooth and nail to get Everblue on Countdown shelves.
Thankfully customers were quick to respond and Renee and Jade had to work overtime to keep up with demand.
‘I remember the first week of sales, we were 50 per cent ahead of forecast and still rolling out to all stores and we thought, “Oh god we’re going to have to quickly accelerate this”,’ Renee said.
After using natural haircare products and Everblue now only washes her hair twice to three times a week instead of daily as it takes a lot longer for oils to build up
‘That’s when we had to bring a second bottle manufacturer in because we saw potentially we couldn’t make more in time. It’s a good problem to have though.’
Aside from her business successes Renee, who now has a three-month-old daughter, said Everblue helped her and now-mum-of-two Jade on their fertility journeys.
Both she and Jade ‘took a little bit longer to get pregnant’ however they partly attribute a switch from hormone disrupting paraben-dense haircare to their own natural products to their eventual success.
‘We actually joke sometimes that using Everblue can get you pregnant,’ Renee laughed.
Renee also noticed a huge difference in her hair after she made the switch, but she wasn’t convinced at first.
Everblue has just launched its haircare range in Australia and is available exclusively online at Coles. One bottle of shampoo or conditioner is sold every minute at the supermarket giant
‘Because the natural products didn’t make my hair feel great instantly, because of that lack of silicones, I just went back to what I was using before,’ she said.
‘But actually understanding that, no, I’ve got to commit to a little bit and then seeing the change in my hair was just a really cool journey to go on.’
She now only washes her hair twice to three times a week instead of daily as it takes a lot longer for oils to build up.
‘It’s like anything, you go to the gym one time, you eat something healthy one time and there’s not going to be an instant change,’ she said.
‘But we know in our mind if we commit that it’s really good for us long term, and that’s the same thing for beauty products and hair products.’
Everblue has just launched its haircare range in Australia and is available exclusively online at Coles from $15.
Aussies are also loving Everblue with one bottle of the shampoo or conditioner sold every minute at the supermarket giant.
The range includes repair and hydrate, volume and shine, and dandruff shampoos and conditioners as well as an intense hydration hair mask.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .