Episode 29: Talking Ethical Natural Haircare

Hello and welcome to the Formula Botanica Green Beauty Conversations podcast. My name is Gemma. I'm the relationship manager of Formula Botanica and I also have the privilege of being the host of this awesome podcast. If you would like to find out a bit more about Formula Botanica, who we are and what we do, head over to formulabotanica.com and try out our free sample class. In this episode, I am interviewing Akuia Wood from Shea Butter Cottage, who is legendary in the natural and organic world. She has an ingredient store, she has her own brand, and she also has an ethically driven business. I really hope that you enjoy our interview with Akuya.

So, hello and welcome to the podcast, Akuya.

Thank you for inviting me, Gemma.

I've been waiting so long to get you on the podcast. I first met you back in 2015 when you gave the keynote speech at our first ever Formula Botanica conference, wasn't it? Yeah. In Bath. Yep.

Yeah. That was time ago. Gosh.

Yes. So I've been absolutely thrilled to have you here as a guest and thank you for making time for us. I know you're a busy lady and obviously I know you and your background and your wonderful business, but I thought for the benefit of our listeners, if you could introduce yourself and tell us who you are, where you're from, what you do and, yeah, a little bit about yourself.

So my name is Ekuia Wood. I'm a very, very proud Ghanaian. I live in Reading with my family, two children, and my husband and I own Shea Butter Cottage. I call it Shea Butter Cottage because I still think it's a cottage industry. Although we've grown over the years. We make our own toiletries. We used to have a brand, Chocolatina, but we thought that it was confusing customers, so we decided to rebrand it all as Shea Butter Cottage. So actually, I started as Chocolatina all those years ago.

Yeah, I remember because it was chocolatina back in 2015.

Yes. I started that in 2002. And then it wasn't until 2004 that I added Shea Butter Cottage to the, what you call it, business model. But then Shea Butter Cottage seemed to have grown in size, so I decided to rebrand everything. Yes.

So let's talk a little bit about Shea Butter Cottage and Chocolatina, because I'm focusing the questions on hair care. Because we're having hair care, man. And you are kind of like a legend in terms of the hair care industry and especially in terms of naturals. You're one of the first people we ever Came across certainly that was formulating amazing natural hair care. Yeah. I think Lorraine and I both idolize you a little bit. I mean, when we had our first conference, we were both like, a career has to come. It has to be her giving the keynote speech. Because we'll get onto it a bit later in the podcast because obviously you have a few elements to your business, but let's talk about hair care. So when did you start formulating hair care?

Back in 2002, because I came to UK. Oh, my goodness. Was in 1994 or something. And obviously at the time, to be honest with you, I came with relaxed hair because those were the kind of images that we were seeing in Ghana. Like, your hair is too tough. Well, my hair was tough and used to break combs when I was in secondary school. So when I came to uk, I sort of continue with a relaxed hair. Then I realized that obviously the weather wasn't that great for my hair, so I had to sort of strip it back and become natural. And I wanted to offer people like myself, who maybe had sensitive scalp or sensitive issues as well as dry hair, the opportunity to use products that were kinder to the scalp and the hair. So I think it was back in 2002. Yeah. When I started Chocolatina. I can't really remember. The first product is going back so many years now.

That's why I say you're one of the pioneers of natural hair care in the uk. So obviously your products are mainly designed for people with coily hair like yourself. Obviously, that's who you primarily formulate for.

Yeah, we try not to discriminate, though. So we offer for both. Yeah. Afro textured hair as well as Caucasians.

I mean, I've tried quite a few of them myself and we've recently bought some more because we're doing a live stream in our Facebook group on hair care. And we wanted to feature your products because they're so unusual, the ingredient combinations.

Yes, I know. I mean, when I look at other brands, I see the ingredient listing most of the time. Maybe a small amount of oil with so much surfactant or whatever. And I just want to stay true to my brand that we are offering natural products. So I don't want to hide behind a label and say, hey, it's natural. And then you read the ingredients and it's a whole load of what you call it, chemicals or something that. And I tried to use ingredients that would enhance each other because of what I want as an end product.

Yeah. So how did you learn all those years ago how to formulate hair care. Because there wasn't that many training courses or anything.

No. Well, to be honest with you, I've never been on a training course. Never ever. It's all self taught. And I think it stems from my dad when we were growing up because he was, we used to sort of tease him because he would put things together not necessarily for the hair, but for the skin. If he had a bruise or something, he would say, go and get these hairs, put them together. And at the time I was quite naive. I didn't really ask him what the herbs were, why we were using those kind of herbs. I was a bit inquisitive. Yes. He used to put like soup scraps together and form a different kind of soap. So I think I enjoy that kind of kitchen chemistry.

Yes.

From that. Yeah. And so when I had the chance to put things together, that's sort of where it came from. And I sort of look at the properties of each ingredient and think, okay, let's use this and not the other.

Yeah. Because I was using your. Was it Argan and Rooibos?

Yes.

You had conditioner, which I absolutely loved. And yeah, it was one of my favorite products and I used that for my kids as well. So my kids have got quite different hair to me because my husband's Colombian. So I just, I loved that combination of ingredients.

Yeah.

And I know that you've got shampoo bars now which are like Marula shampoo bars and black molasses shampoo bars.

Rasu shampoo bar, I think has been one of the oldest kind of shampoo bars that we have and it's one of the best sellers as well because I think it helps all hair textures and the reason why we tend to leave them unscented is because of sensitivity. So not that I'm being boring, how should I say, lazy, but yes, that's the reason why we don't tend to use essential oils in most of our shampoo bars. And then we sort of took off the inventory the Afro shampoo bar. But we had people asking when is it going to be back on the shelf and all that. So we reintroduced in that very shortly.

And you've got your Argan and cocoa butter liquid shampoo.

Yes. That is so tedious to make, but I enjoy the fact that people love using it.

Well, this was my next question because you've got your clay shampoos, you've got your shampoo bars. I mean, what has been the main challenges with formulating all of this amazing, kind of exotic and interesting Hair care products.

Yeah. It's sort of knowing if it would work because the worst thing is for someone to use it and give you a bad review as to why did I waste my money on that and whatever. So I try to put these things together because I want someone to enjoy using it. And the fact that the clay shampoo came about, this is the honest truth. There was a point in time with the company where I wanted to sort of resell other brands. And I contacted one company and they came back with some sort of nasty response. And so I thought, okay, fine, I'm not going to stock your product. And then around the time my sister, who is called Sewa, that's why the shampoo is named after her, she was complaining of how difficult it is to wash your hair and comb it and all that. So I thought, okay, why don't we come up with our own clay shampoo? But then using natural ingredients that obviously I love and I think would work quite well. And thank goodness I did that.

Yeah. So is that also another bestseller, then?

It is, yes.

Wow. I know that people are so interested in shampoo bars at the moment because of the fact.

Waste not.

Yeah, yeah. And you've already incorporated that quite a lot into your brand, it seems. I mean, just talking about that a little more, like I said in the start of the podcast, I mean, when Lorraine first got started in the natural kind of skincare hair care sector when she was first interested in it, and then I sort of shortly after became interested in it, Shea Butter Cottage was this sort of beacon of light because you were one of the only places that were stocking ingredients because you also have an ingredient side to the business, don't you?

That came about after I started Chocolatina. And at the time, I wanted. Every brand wants to be different. So where people were going for, let's say, scented products and basic ingredients, I just wanted to go the other way. But then going the other way was costing me a lot of money because the big boys want you to buy like 25 kilo buckets of something. And with Chocolatina, I couldn't use all that 25 kilos within a month. So I thought, right, why don't I sort of sell the remaining ingredients? And I also wanted to showcase the resources that we have in Ghana because I think it's really untapped. And so that's why. Yes, we decided on that kind of variety of ingredients to offer because most of the ingredients we use ourselves in the toiletries.

Yeah. Because we obviously promote our students to Come and buy the ingredients from Shea Butter Cottage. And you've always been incredibly helpful in, if we asked, oh, maybe you can stock this because we have a lot of people, because I know they will be very, very grateful for that because I know that quite a few of them buy their ingredients to make their products from you. Yeah, like I say, you were one of the first, you were a pioneer really in making those sorts of ingredients available to people who were interested in making their own formulations. So I just wanted to talk a little bit more about that because obviously you mentioned that you wanted to showcase what available ingredients from Ghana and all the kind of amazing natural resources that Ghana has to offer. And Shea Butter Cottage is a, you know, an ethics driven business. You know, you clearly have ethics at your heart. Anyone that follows Okoya or Shea Butter Cottage on Instagram will see, you know, all the amazing things that she's always putting on there. So was that always your intention to have a business like that?

Yes, because my paternal grandmother was a cocoa farmer and I sort of know the kind of difficulties she went through having a farm. And I remember even late in her 90s, she used to farm or she would go to the farm and check what was going. So one of the ethics was obviously to try and support farmers because I know that most of the time these people don't really have a voice. They'd have to go through like the middleman and then another, whatever, the supply chain would be quite long before they can sell their products. So I decided that as a Ghanaian, why not? Why don't I try and go directly to these farmers? It has its challenges, yes, but at least it can be quite rewarding.

So how did you go about it? I mean, did you already have contacts that you could use?

No, not really because I was sort of pushed into this kind of business after I had my daughter. And then I realized that there was nothing else I could do, as in like nine to five offers work. And so it was like, what can I offer whilst looking after hair? Because my skin was really dry with the weather and all that. And I think I was spared on by a brand in UK because that was the first brand that I was sort of buying their products and I thought, hang on a minute, we've got all these ingredients back in Ghana, why don't I use these ingredients to help me? And that's when I started sort of looking further and further into how I could sort of shorten the supply chain so that whoever I'm buying from can get reward from it. As well.

So let's talk a little bit about some of the challenges. I mean, what have been your main challenges in. I mean we've got plenty of time so please do share because.

One is timescale every time. I sort of order from Ghana, bless their hearts, I know they try but there's a headache because maybe you want the items within a certain time of time frame but you just have to allow for double that time because they're not sort of time driven kind of thing. So that is one of the challenges. Another one too is obviously finances because every business needs cash flow. But if you're dealing with someone in Ghana, you'd have to obviously pay ahead or you can come to an agreement that, okay, when the item is ready, if they trust you anyway, then they will get the money at the end or whatever. And the exchange rates too cannot be. It's not always favorable. So you end up spending more and also bringing it over to uk which is very, very expensive. Yes, because I like things quite fresh. So unfortunately I bring it by air freight. I know people will slap my wrist for that. But it's because we want it fresh. We don't want the items sitting at the port in the heat and waiting for maybe three weeks or a month or something for that. So yeah, so that's the challenges that sometimes we face as well as language barrier because in Ghana we have different languages, not just dialects, languages. So if you don't understand the language of maybe your supplier, then it can be quite difficult trying to understand each other.

I mean it's so interesting that you said you kind of fell into this business in a way and you single handedly built a successful ingredient store.

We still learning an amazing hair care.

Brand and you set up an ethical business. You know, I mean, do you ever stop and think to yourself how did I do this?

All I know I do. To be honest with you, Gemma, I do. I sort of pat myself on the back sometimes. And sometimes too I think to myself, what could we do? Or what should we have done? Because I guess sometimes I think 2019, I'm going to be better in my mindset. Because sometimes you think that you've come this far. What do you have to show you don't realize maybe the impact on others. You just think that, okay, I don't have this, I don't have that. But you don't realize that yes, you do have this and you do have that. So yes, I sort of sit back and think how have I done this with everything that goes on around Me.

Life and its challenges.

Yes. I guess I think sometimes I see startup brands wanting to have money before they start up. And I'm thinking I started with hardly anything. And every time I sort of think to myself, gosh, back in at Terry's house, where I used to sit in the clock room and process orders with my babies by my side and all that. So, yes, it can be done. And you look back now and you think, wow.

Yeah. I mean, you're just incredibly resourceful, which I think, like you say, I think more entrepreneurs need to think about being resourceful and using what you have. Just to touch back on hair care. Again, I'm going to ask two questions actually, and we can cover those in a minute. I know that a lot of people who take our hair care course or who are interested in taking our hair care course often say, guys, it's so difficult to get some of the ingredients to formulate with. Have you faced challenges when you started out?

Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, because at the time, to be honest, it's fantastic to see a lot of ingredients being offered in uk. At the time, Gemma, you had to go directly to, like, South America or wherever to source the ingredients. You couldn't buy those ingredients in uk. I mean, we still source directly from Brazil and other places because we decided we want to offer unrefined ingredients. And yes, at the time it was quite difficult and we've had to drop some of the ingredients that we used to use because the product sort of is inaccessible at the moment. So these are some of the difficulties that we face. Yes, but I think if your students are formulating, they should think of the end products rather than the fancy ingredients that maybe they've seen within another brand or something and decide that this is what I want to go for and then look for that ingredient instead.

Okay, interesting. The other question I wanted to ask was skincare versus hair care, because I feel that skin care is obviously so popular. You know, everyone wants to learn to formulate skin care and sometimes hair care takes a little bit of a backseat too, rather.

I thought it was the other way around.

I mean, it's interesting to get your opinion on this.

Yeah, I think because I'm a skincare person, because I hardly have any hair anyway, and so I am a skincare person, think to myself, you can always shave your hair, but your skin, you can't always get it back to the elasticity or whatever, so you have to look after it. And I noticed that a lot of people will spend more money on like a shampoo bar than a soap for their body.

Ah, interesting.

Yeah. Maybe it's within my business, I don't know, but I see that happening a lot. That people will buy, I don't know, five items for their hair, but they'll probably just buy one item for their skin.

Interesting. So people are obviously having an equally difficult time with their hair as they are with their skin. I mean, it's certainly true for myself. I've always struggled with dry, frizzy hair and really, really bad scalp, so I always go and seek out hair care products. I probably spend more on hair than I do on skin, but I know that people get slightly put off I sometimes formulating hair care because it seems so much more difficult than the skin care formulation.

Well, I guess you could probably say that when you look at products, you could probably say that they're almost the same as skincare, just that obviously skin is quite fragile compared to the hair, so it's a matter of maybe tweaking some kind of ingredients or percentages to get to the hair care. But I think formulating, the two seem to be quite close to each other.

Yeah. And that's why we always recommend that people take the diploma in skincare formulation if they haven't formulated before and then look at the diploma in hair care formulation because there is a synergy between them. And it's lovely to hear someone like you, with your experience agree with that. Because I know that sometimes people, and rightly so, get a bit confused when we say, well, if you haven't formulated before, you should do skin care before you do hair care. And they're like, yeah, but I'm only interested in hair care.

Yeah, but then, I mean, when you look at skincare, I guess we have, is it three skin types, dry, oily and combination. When you look at hair, you've got the afro, the 4C, the 4A, all different, different textures. So it's true what you're saying, that it's best to learn how to formulate skincare and then move on to hair care, because hair care has different textures than obviously skincare.

Yeah. There's much more to consider with hair and the hair that you're catering for. Interesting. So what does the future hold for Shea Butter Cottage?

Oh, Gemma, to be honest, sometimes I get so tired, I just think I just want to travel and maybe teach or something. At the moment, I'm trying to concentrate on our charity side of the business.

Let's talk a little bit about that, actually, because you've done amazing work in.

Primarily in Ghana Yeah, I think I'm too biased.

Well, like you said, you're a proud Ghanaian. There's nothing wrong with that.

One of the projects that we're trying to sort out at the moment is obviously on autism, because autism in Ghana, I think things are changing now. But when I was growing up it was shunned with disability. If you were disabled, you were like nobody in the society. And I think even now some people still shun people with disability. And I mean, our charity is not big, so we just go for maybe individuals to try and help. So we've got one boy, for example, that we're trying to help and we've managed to get him one on one kind of tuition to try and support him with his education. And apart from that too, we try and support kids with education because although some schools are free to attend, the parents still have to maybe pay for books or other bits. So it can be quite difficult because I think that every child has to have access to education. I saw what my parents did for us. They were more like the six of us, by the way, get all of them educated. They weren't bothered about maybe building the best mansion or driving the best car or something. So, yes, that's what we're trying to do at the moment, as well as trying to set up a co op in Northern Ghana, a share co op for some members. There's 54 at the moment. Now what happens with co ops is that you don't own the co op, obviously, but it's like we financing the building, coming together and all that. So that's what we're doing at the moment. And the future for Sherbot Cottage, we've got one item that I want to bring out, so I need to get that assessed and all that and then we see what the future holds, to be honest. But I think my passion at the moment, because I'm growing old, is to do, is to be in line with the charitable work. So one step at a time.

Yeah, well, big plans though.

I know. It's like, I don't know how you know when you think that, okay, I'm going to walk from A to B, but I don't know how I'm going to do it. That's what I'm facing at the moment. But we'll get there.

Yeah. And you always seem to manage it really well.

Yeah, we'll see how things go.

Thanks so much, Akuya, for joining us. I really appreciate it. And yeah, it's been great having you on the podcast and I'll include all of your details in the podcast Show Notes. So everyone, you will know where to find Akua and Shea Butter Cottage.

Yeah.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you Gemma. And obviously if you have any more questions, just let me know.

Yes, thank you.

All right, have a good day. Bye Bye bye.

Hello.

Thanks so much for listening. I really hoped that you enjoyed our chat with Akuya and what she had to say. She's been in the industry for a really long time, so it was interesting for me certainly to hear her opinion on all things formulating hair care and running an ethically driven business. If you would like to find out that more about Formula Botanica, head over to formulabotanica.com and try out our free sample class. You can also join in on the global green beauty conversation by heading over to our free Facebook group, the Skincare Entrepreneur Mastermind.

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Us on social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Formula Botanicare Once again, thanks so much for listening and always get in touch with us if you have any comments or queries about the this product.