EP153. From mainstream neglect to indie beauty success

The beauty industry is very Eurocentric and.

It has historically always promoted this beauty ideal of a white woman with straight hair. But what baffles me is that here we are in 2023 and this beauty ideal still persists, not just in marketing and advertising, but also in the very products that the beauty industry provides for its customers. The inherent message is just accept what we sell. We know best. This will work for your skin or hair. We're the experts. But are they really? And when it comes to textured hair in particular, does the mainstream beauty industry.

Really cater for that?

I just spent a couple of minutes.

On the l' Oreal website before recording.

This podcast and I didn't even have the option to search for a shampoo for textured hair, for instance. It just wasn't there. But why is that? Now we know that when it comes to beauty, hair is probably one of the most emotive subjects out there. People with textured hair often hold real trauma from their experiences. And this is of course, why there are an increasing number of black hair care brands cropping up in many parts of the world. Because they see the massive potential to create hair care solutions that people need. So today on the podcast, I am joined by one of those inspirational entrepreneurs, Equi Chukwudjinene, founder of Ekwi Botanics, who's here to talk about how she started a successful natural hair care brand to cater for people with textured and Afro hair. She's also going to share a few.

Stories with you that will make your.

Jaw hit the floor. So settle in for a great inspiring episode.

Welcome to Green Beauty Conversations, the podcast that challenges you to think about how.

You buy, use, make or sell your green beauty formulations.

In my weekly episodes, I explore the sustainability of the beauty industry and encourage.

You to join me in changing the industry for the better. I'm your host, Lorraine Dallmeyer.

I'm a chartered environmentalist, a biologist and.

The circumstances CEO of award winning online.

Organic cosmetic formulation school, Formula Botanica.

We have thousands and thousands of students.

In over 180 countries around the world.

Who study with us to become organic beauty formulators and entrepreneurs, visit our website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course.

And if you want to be the first person to know what's happening in.

Green beauty, and I know you do, then make sure you subscribe to this podcast in your favourite podcast podcast app. So in today's episode, I'm joined by Ekwi Chukwujinene, who is the founder and CEO of Equi Botanics, a wholesome vegan hair care solution for textured hair. After losing her own hair to scalp inflammation, Equi decided to solve her hair problems and she launched her beautiful hair care brand. She's a mum of two and a former chartered management accountant who's consulted for l', Oreal, Conde Nast, the Financial Times, and she has built Equi Botanics from bootstrapped to multiple six figures to date. So impressive. She is on a mission to inspire hair freedom for busy, high performing women with textured hair all over the world by creating multi purpose hair care solutions.

Hi, Equi, how are you doing today?

I'm fine, thank you, Lorraine. Thank you for having me. It's wet and rainy here, but I'm good otherwise.

Well, we're going to warm things up with this conversation and I'm thrilled that you're here. So let's start from the top. Can you tell us please, why you decided to start your own natural hair care brand? You know, what led to you launching Equi Botanics? It's a.

It's a strange story. I never set out to be one, a business owner or a brand owner. And there are three things that happened in my life at the time. It was 12 years ago. And the first thing was that I was taking out hair care extensions. And back then we used to have them sewn in on, threading it. And what the hell happens is it goes around in a circle all the way up to the crown. And the crown is where the sewing and the knotting happens to keep everything intact. So when I got to this stage, my hair strand very dry and brittle because I had no idea about conditioning, moisturizing or hydrating. So I'd had my braids in for a while, my extensions in for a while, and then taking them out, the hair fell out with the hair extension. Scalp inflammation had occurred. My hair was brittle and dry. That was one story. And then the second story was again, I had braids because that's all I knew. And not to say braids are bad, but you have to be careful to take them out, wash your hair, etc. Now, I'd had them in for long. I was studying and I was on the train, Victoria Line going from Kings Cross home and one of the braids fell out, literally just fell on the floor of the train station. I didn't realize this and a girl across from me started laughing and pointing and I thought, what's she looking at? So I bent down and I saw a braid there. That was so embarrassing, but also traumatized. Because I knew my hair strands was tied into that braid. And then the third thing that happened, it was my. My first daughter. She was six at the time because she's now editing at university. And her. Her hair was coarse and dry, just very difficult to manage. And every time I was going to her to do her hair with my hair bag, combs, everything, she'd be running because she knew that it was a terror session about to occur. So those two things, I kept mulling over them with my trauma of losing my own hair myself let me start to research. So my sister sent me a YouTube video, and I watched that and I thought, oh, fantastic. But every YouTube video was recommending products in the US so I would import them and then try using them, but they're just thin. And I started looking at the back of the ingredients. So what's going on? Another time, I worked for a large conglomerate, one of the top five, and the cosmetics firm, and I. I was getting free products. I thought, oh, surely something here will work. But again, nothing. So I started mixing my herbs in the kitchen. And I knew I wasn't alone because a lot of people were doing it then. And my hair started growing back. And my daughter's hair session became manageable, even enjoyable. And today, they're like a breeze, literally. They sleep while I do their hair. So I started sharing my recipes with people and saying, these are the ingredients. This is where you can buy them, and this is where you can. How you can make them. When no one wanted that, I think maybe one or two tried and gave up. And I also didn't understand preservatives at the time. So people said, why don't you make this and we'll pay you? Okay, sure. No, I really looked down on having anything to do with hair. I thought, oh, no, I'm a business corporate woman. Like, I work for a large. Why should I be doing this? And then I had to let go of my ego for a bit and start to serve. And that's how Botanics was born five years ago.

Wow, what a story. What a journey you've been through to get to where you are today. And I'm so sorry. It must have been really traumatizing to have your hair fall out and to be in that situation and not know what to do with it. But it sounds like you've turned that around by creating your own incredible formulations. And we're going to talk a little bit more about those in a minute. Tell me a bit about the formulations that you sell and what's the ethos behind them.

So the first thing is the textured hair. Afro hair is curved, obviously different from straight hair. And at every point in the curvature is a potential for breakage. And because sebum doesn't travel from our scalp all the way down to the ends of the hair, it leads to dryness and therefore breakage and then short hair. And so people think that hair doesn't grow. So when a lot of women come to me, they come for, oh, I want my hair to grow. But the hair is actually growing, it's just not being retained. So the first principle of my ethos of formulation is what will keep the hair moisturized and hydrated for long. So we don't use any ingredient fillers or any obviously toxic ingredients. Is so out because I read a study by the Silent by the institute in US somewhere I've forgotten the name and they said that 70% of products I get about black women had toxic ingredients in them and that was leading into the absorption into our bloodstream. So there was a rise in obesity in our girls and fibroids and different cancers. So we obviously stacked all those toxic ingredients. But also mother nature has given us so much to play with all the plant botanicals. So we use a high concentration of plants and then water. So the first ingredient is always water because hydration is the first thing. And secondly we steer it from toxic ingredients. And then thirdly, I like to make sure they are multi use so that we don't have. Because I serve high performing women who have businesses and they have corporate jobs. They don't have time to be following trends and carrying multiple products. So I try and create products that are more to use. So those are the my three principles and my first obviously market to service Afro hair, textured hair.

So tell me about the exact products you sell. How many have you got? What sort of products have you got?

Right now we have five in five products. And I came out with the one that was the one for like a year. I had formulated three products but I could only afford to bring one to the market. Now the leave in conditioner, the marula oil leave in conditioner, that's the best seller. I mean people buy that in droves and people actually come back to the brand for that product. It's a three in one. So it's a leave in, it's an oil and it's a cream. It contains marula oil obviously which is high in tocotrienols and it's very easily absorbed into the hair. So what I do with my Ingredients is I make sure that I study the lipids analysis and they have a hyaluric steritic and all the acids that penetrate the hair shaft. So that product does that very well. But then also it has protective oils that protect from the weather because with the season changes, textured hair completely is affected. So we have to make sure we cater to that as well. And also, even with menopause now, people are going through, most of my customers are going through menopause. So the black seed hair elixir caters to the hair loss that happens during menopause. So we have 33 herbs in that one. A lot of Ayurveda, Brahmi, Bingaraj in there. Really potent. Some people have to actually have to dilute it with other oils because it's quite strong. And I have had case studies of alopecia being reversed from that. So those are the two bestsellers. And then we have the other three, which, you know, I don't like my children, I love them all the same. We have the rice water and green tea. That's our laced at lunch is a mist. So you can just mist your hair and go. And you'll be sure that you have all the nutrients your hair needs. And it's hydrated, it's moisturizing, there's protein in there as well. And if you don't want to play around with the leave in conditioner, you've got that. And we have then the Baobab sulfate free cleanser, which I don't like to say the shampoo because it's like a soft foaming agent that cleans your hair as well as a shampoo. And we stay away from sulfates because as you know, sulfates were created to clean heavy machinery in the industrial age. So we don't use those. And then my last product is the Babassu Deep Treatment mask, which is a fan favorite of mine because that one, it replenishes the breakages along the hair strand. Obviously the cosmetic, you have to do it more often, like once it's so rich you can do it once a month actually. But when you first come onto the brand, we ask you to use it once every two weeks and then you can grow once a month and it's really, really strong. It really retains your hair moisture and reduces breakage.

Sounds incredible.

And I love some of the herbs you were talking about in there. Some of the plants, you know, the marula oil, the black seed oil, sounds absolutely phenomenal. Everyone listening obviously go and check out Equi's website, which will be with the podcast Show Notes. But first listen to the rest of the podcast because we have more to delve into. So I want to talk a little bit more about your journey. Obviously you designed your first formulations and you realized they worked. You realized, in fact, that you had made something that you haven't been able, hadn't been able to buy anywhere, despite importing from the U.S. you know, talking to the big employer that you worked for. In fact, did you talk to your former employers and tell them about your breakthrough and say, look, I've made these products and actually they work?

What was their response if you did?

Yeah, I did. I actually took the train, took the Eurostar to Paris and I went to pitch the products to, to them to say, I've been working for you for a number of years and I know you have a brand that seems to cater to the multicultural market. However, it doesn't work for these reasons or the ingredients. This is why. And I've, I've come up with these formulas and maybe we'll go partner and I could help to grow that aspect of your company. And they said, I actually, you know, black women will buy whatever you give them. They have these sales already. These are the numbers. This was many, many, many years before I launched. And black women will buy whatever you give them. So why would we fix it if it's not broken? Essentially.

Wow.

Black women will buy whatever you give them. What an awful thing to say.

My goodness.

I'm sure all of our listeners are currently reeling as well. How did that make you feel?

At first I thought to myself, what is he talking about? Like, we are quite discerning as a people. So it's just a lack of education and a lack of understanding as well. I was shocked at what I was hearing firstly, and I thought, and I was angry and then I felt helpless, like, if these people don't help me, what am I going to do? Like, where do I even start? So I had no idea about the industry and where to start. So. And I said, you know what, I'm going to try and do this myself. But I had to go through the ups and downs of low self belief and low self esteem to actually get to launching the brand in 2017. So obviously I didn't, I didn't feel good about it. And I always share that story to encourage others who may hear that massive big no from maybe someone you admire, someone you think would be your lifeline and your help. But you can, you can still push through that.

Absolutely. And I hope everyone listening feels that listening to you as well, particularly given that you've now been in business for five years and you have proven them wrong, which is probably one of the most satisfying steps of all. But coming back to that, I can imagine you're visiting one of these major mainstream beauty brands. They tell you black women will buy you whatever you give them. Why do you think the mainstream industry doesn't cater properly for textured and afro hair? Because that's really what this boils down to. And when you hear an ignorant statement like that, you realize that they really don't cater for it. But why is that?

Do you know what I think? Big conglomerates are big brands is like turning a massive ship. They're big, and they listen to people who work for them. So, for example, I had also gone to. When they said no, I went. I was looking for a cosmetic scientist to help me bring this. And back then, there weren't many scientists of color, so no one really understood Afro hair in that space. And I finally got the number of a very prominent male chemist. And I said, I pitched my ingredients to him on my phone. I said, I found something that actually penetrates a hair shaft. Would you believe it? And it actually stops breakage. And he laughed and he said, I don't know what you think you've invented, but nothing works for black hair. And I should know because I work for. He named, like, the top five. He works for all of them, and he uses the same formula for all of them.

Well, now we know why it doesn't work.

Right?

You know, and. And he said that he's tried. I said, well, how would you know? You're. You're a white man with straight hair and probably possibly balding. How would you know what works for black women? So I think this is what the problem is. I think the people who work for these brands do not understand the history of black hair or textured hair or the trauma that comes along with it. And the change, the movement, the change from the acceptance of the Western beauty standards as the ideal to embracing what grows out of your scalp and nurturing that and finding out that it's beautiful, it's multifaceted, and, you know, you can do so much with it. So he's so unaware of that movement. So clearly that's. I think that's one of the main issues we have today.

Yeah.

Yes.

That makes perfect sense. So how do you think we can change the mainstream beauty industry's attitudes to textured hair, to Afro hair? Do you think that mainstream beauty is going to Start changing the products they offer? Or do you think we're going to rely on indie brands such as Equipotanic, such as what you've created to fill that void?

I think, I think hopefully, I think the first, the first thing is them realizing how much money is because obviously it's return on investment for them. Because I've worked so I know what they look at is the balance sheet. So if there's no return on investment, they will not be making that investment. But to be fair, they don't understand the huge market that awaits them if you do cater properly. It's not just bringing out a new product every season and throwing marketing dollars at it without understanding how pure these formulation should be so that they actually work. Now indie brands are doing their absolute best. But obviously we can talk more about the struggles of the indie brand right now. The supply chain, getting the capital to even market as well as put into inventory. There's always two things I think about, oh, what should I do first? Like do inventory or should I do marketing? That's a struggle. So I think if the big brand would listen to the indie brands, there is, there is actually a, there's room for us to work together because we could capitalize on their distribution networks and their marketing dollars and they could capitalize on our innovation and us being on ground and listening to the people, listen to the community. There could be a meeting in the middle.

Yeah, well, hopefully some of those big brands are listening. Quite a few big beauty brands employees do listen to this podcast. So if you're listening, take note, there's an opportunity here. Now you talked about some of the big challenges faced by indie hair care brands, Black indie hair care brands in particular, inventory marketing. What Are there any other big challenges that are really making it hard for those black hair care brands to make it to market?

Yeah, I think to be fair, it's the fact that any product based businesses, they know how much is tied into creating the product. So for ingredient suppliers for example, we have so such high minimum order quantities that can be crippling for an indie brand. So by the time you order 75 kg of one ingredient, like you have to wait to raise more money to order more ingredients for another. Because we are very innovative, innovative and we create products that are really lush, that actually work. So I don't play around with my ingredients, I make sure I get the best and for them to actually work because I, I want my customers to feel the ease when they, you know, manage their hair. So that costs money. But Then the minimum order quantities are so high that that stops you from even being more creative, from launching new collections because you're tied down by the old collections and the other ingredients who customers love. And you dare not discontinue that because you have to keep that ship running, then the marketing as well. So by the time I've invested in inventory, there's little pound left for marketing. So we can't even. Sometimes we can't run ads because we just rely on organic, and then the reach is low. And also, I guess there's a lot of noise from the big brands that takes away from people seeing us, but it is what it is. I have such close connection with my customers. I was doing lives. I did lives every. Almost every Sunday for a year. And they've come on Instagram, so they've come to know me and understand my journey. And. And that is one of the ways I think, that we, as indie brands, especially black indie brands, can move faster than the bigger brands because they see a face to the brand and that sort of bridges the gap a little bit. But there is a long way to go.

Yeah, yeah, there is. What about a capital investment? Is that part of the struggles as well that a lot of black hair care brands face in really scaling up?

Oh, yes. Like right now, I am pitching for investment, but I'm hearing more and more that this is a niche. There is not a lot of market for this.

Do they have any idea how many people have textured hair? I mean, this isn't a niche. This is like a huge demographic. How odd.

Absolutely. How odd. And also things like, oh, there is already a prominent hair brand, therefore, why would I invest in you? But the thing is, one brand cannot serve the needs of different types of women. And that is the truth, because I have customers to prove it, and I'm always out of stock. Right now, before I got on this podcast, I was looking at my stock and thinking, oh, my gosh, there is. I need to order more because it's running out. So they lack the understanding of the niche. They lack the understanding of how huge and massive the market is, and that obviously the pounds are not given to investment. You have to either get a loan, which is high interest rates. Yeah, yeah.

That's a real barrier to market. And it's something we've talked about here on the podcast a little bit, but I hope to explore in more detail. You're right, and it isn't right. And particularly when someone goes, this is too small a niche. I mean, do they live in the Real world. Anyway, how has business been now that you've been in business for five years? Because you've been going, you've got these loyal customers, you've just sold out again. How are things going?

Business is going amazing. Honestly, I just. Sometimes I wish I could clone myself so that there'll be more of me. I have very loyal customer base. Last time we checked, about 60% returning customers of our last year's sales. Yeah. And I just want to do more for them. And I feel sometimes, oh, gosh, I have to choose, you know, do I bring out a new collection? What do I do? And I've learned a lot behind the scenes. It was a very steep learning curve. So understanding marketing, supply chain, how to delegate, how to hire, how to fire all those things that come along with it. But I think for me, mostly what I've always done is listen to my customer, understand her Persona first and foremost and cater to her, and then everything else falls into place. Some of them are actually on WhatsApp basis with me and people who have been there from way back when I was making them in my kitchen, and they give me feedback. So sometimes we will change and adjust things due to customer feedback because we're that close. I've had people who ordered for 16 times because I was doing a VIP list to send out gifts for top people who'd ordered. And I'm struggling because over 400 people who are VIP and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I don't have 400 gifts to give because they've ordered a certain number of times, 16 times, spent over a thousand pounds with us. So business is good.

Yeah, amazing. Oh, I love. I love hearing that. Well, I'm glad that business is going well and I'm glad that obviously your customers absolutely love what you're doing. So what are your plans for Equi Botanics? Where do you want to take your brand?

There's. There's so much growth potential globally, but obviously we're still just scratching the surface. I. I also want us to become more sustainable. And I'm looking at, once the. The packaging we have finishes getting into more sustainable packaging, getting into more sustainable product lines as well. So there's less use of water, transportation and branching out into other channels, not just direct to consumers, because a lot of people, when I do my lives and I'm showing how to do my own hair, they don't want to do their hair. They want to go to a salon. So we need more people who know how to handle black hair in the salon. So they that's another angle that we're looking at working closely with Salon. So there's a lot to do and it's so exciting. The future looks bright.

Wealth domination awaits. I can't wait to watch your journey. Equi, it's been such a pleasure talking to you today. Thank you so much for sharing your story and sharing all of your thoughts on on hair and on beauty.

Where can our listeners find out more.

About you and come and buy your lovely products?

Well, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate this opportunity. You can find me at the www.equipotanics.com or on Instagram equipotanics. We answer our DMS yeah, so we're always there. We're available 247 perfect and all of.

Those links will be on our website in the show notes. Come and buy Equi's products. You're going to love them. Thank you so much.

Oh, thank you so much for having me. Louhi, it's been a pleasure.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this episode. Why on earth would someone tell Ekwe.

That black women will buy whatever you sell them? What do you think is wrong with.

The mainstream beauty industry? Tell me what you think. Leave us a comment on our social channels as both the Formula Botanica team and I love hearing from you. And if you want to hear more about some of the topics we covered today, please do delve back into the podcast archives. Go and listen to episode 140 in which I talk about sustainability in the hair care industry and how hard it will be to achieve sustainability without first addressing the issues that people with textured hair face every day.

Or go and listen to episode 101.

101, in which I interview Dija Ayedeli on why black skin care matters.

Or go and listen to one of.

Our first ever episodes, number 29, in which we talk to Aqua of Shea Butter Cottage on the best ingredients for starting an ethical natural hair care brand. There's a wealth of information in our old episodes and I do encourage you to go back and listen to them.

Thank you for joining Equi and I.

For this latest episode of Green Beauty Conversations. I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please do leave five star review so that other people can enjoy these conversations too. And make sure you subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever your favorite podcast app is. And stay tuned for the next episode. Follow Formula Botanica Formula Botanica on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn.

We're everywhere and come and give me.

A Follow Lorraine Darmeyer on Instagram Visit our website@formulabotanica.com and sign up for our free online formulation course today.