Africa-Press – Eswatini. There has been a gap in the hair products market for product variety when it came to natural hair.
This provided a challenge to natural hair enthusiasts and since hair is a very special part of a women’s beauty, black women struggled for products specifically designed for their type of hair.
As the message of black women embracing their beauty was brought to the limelight, it opened an opportunity for young people to use natural ingredients to come up with products specifically designed for the betterment of hair texture and volume.
Through their journey of trying to close that gap, Kim Nxumalo-Henwood and Seria Masilela decided to come up with Luna Lifestyle Hair and Body as co-founders.
Inspired by their love for natural hair to start up their business, the duo produces effective organic solutions for afro, coily and curly hair, both natural and relaxed, as well as non-toxic science-based skincare effective for people of colour.
“As women of colour we found ourselves asking the question ‘why doesn’t our hair seem to grow as fast or as healthy as our Caucasian counterparts?’ they said.
The duo also explained that they found a wealth of information as they tried to make their research. “We found out that a lot of the information we knew about our hair and skin was incorrect,” they said.
They stated that they also found that there was a lack of quality hair care and beauty products, especially designed to cater to the needs of people of colour locally and internationally.
accessible
“So, having discovered all of this, we decided to start Luna Lifestyle to make that information as well as quality and sustainable products accessible and affordable for women of colour locally,” they said.
They added that they offered a wide range of products that cover for a variety of hair textures and skin, which defined their target market.
“All our ingredients are natural or naturally derived and formulated to heal, nourish and protect one’s hair and/ or skin,” they said.
With so many young black people getting into the beauty and cosmetics industry, they said they were inspired by the likes of Sinovuyo Mondliwa of Love kinks and Pearl Thusi’s Afrobotanics.
“This could be physically, spiritually, emotionally or intellectually,” they added. They also added that as Luna Lifestyle they were contributing to such women by providing the knowledge and products to bring out that natural beauty, health and glow that they all have the potential to have.
Business has its ups and down, so when asked about the challenges they face, they confided that the biggest challenges that they had faced in their business so far was the conventional way of doing things in Eswatini, which they said was ‘limiting’.
pains
They also revealed that another challenge they had faced as entrepreneurs was that they had to go through the growing pains of having to learn how to scale their business to meet the growing demand.
They further advised aspiring entrepreneurs to find something that they love and are passionate about and go for it. “Don’t be afraid to be bold and daring, don’t be afraid of failure and have fun while you’re at it,” they said.
They also stressed the importance of collaborations among women in business. “For us collaboration has been a key driver in our growth and it is something that we would recommend to business owners, especially women,” they said.
They added that as from the prospective of a product based business, they heavily leverage collaboration in their marketing, particularly influencer-marketing and working together with other female owned brands in related industries.
They said they also loved working with female vendors or suppliers, which was something that gave them a lot of joy.
This year’s theme for Women’s day ‘Breaking the Bias’ was one that they said meant to challenge the limiting norms that society puts on them or that they put on themselves.
misconceptions
“To us, the theme is about challenging beauty misconceptions in the black community, as well as what the modern business looks like in Eswatini,” they said.
They added that they also wanted to challenge ‘big beauty’ as a small indie brand by putting women of colour in the driver’s seat of the black beauty industry which is traditionally caucasian male dominated.
They further encouraged women of the country who are in business in Eswatini to continue doing what you are doing, continue taking up space, continue filling those positions, continue showing up as your true self and never make yourself small for anyone.
A life motto which inspires them every day to keep going on is one which says ‘start before you’re ready because you’ll never be ready!’
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