Helix Hair Labs is bringing innovation to the natural hair space with their newest hair tools to protect your hair while you sleep. Rebecca Allen and Carly Stapleton are co-founders who are using research, development, and testing to the forefront of the consumer conversation around hair wellness. Their two new products, the sleep sleeve and silk slip tie, help address help protect your hair damage and help maintain any style of hair regardless of texture or hair type. The products are designed to be versatile and complimentary to any hair routine for easy maintenance and protection whether you are sleeping or exercising. We sat down to chat with the burgeoning entrepreneurs to learn more about their new business entering the market.
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Why do you think there has been a renewed conversation around hair health?
I think what we observed was really that everybody was losing their hair. Specifically, through the pandemic, you know whether that was illness-related or stress related. Compounded by all of the other reasons we’re always losing our hair whether that’s life cycle related or just genetically predisposed. It’s it felt like there was much more front-facing conversation happening about hair loss because of the pandemic in part, and that that was playing out on social media as well.
What inspired the name Helix Hair Labs?
We wanted the brand to be grounded in efficacy, science, and observed reality. I think particularly in hair care, there is a lot of well-intentioned, but wishy-washy information out there. Helix alluded to the various textures of curls and the actual shape of a double helix gives shape to the hair
How is your branding process and how does it reflect who your company is?
We wanted a brand that felt fresh and organic with a futuristic vibe. We used a lot of clinical outer space inspiration like a white laboratory on the inside, a space station rather than the deep part of space. The bright clinical clean space station and bringing in organic elements to it. I wanted it to feel gender-neutral. We want our products to evolve and everybody to feel invited in. When we were conducting our initial interview series, we met with people in their 50s and 60s and we found that regardless of age, many people are experiencing the same types of hair challenges. We didn’t want to be just another Gen-Z zebra or millennial brand and focused on being as inclusive as possible.
How did taking a scientific approach to shaping your product development?
We spent a lot of time getting in the bathrooms of people with all different types of hair who were managing it in all different ways and understanding what their routines were, and what the products they were using were both web products and tools and devices. We wanted to create a comprehensive mapping of how people were cycling through their hair. Once we got into the development we had a lot of ideas about ways that we could improve points in people’s routines and provide specific tools that would either create efficiencies in their routines or efficacy in their routines. We’re rigorously making sure that these products work for everybody with a specific texture and making sure not to overlook people with 4C hair. We believe with any tools is that when you design with the customer in mind that you actually can make better products for everybody.
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What common hair challenges do your products solve?
Everything that we’re bringing to life falls into what we call the Helix code and that is that you want to grow your healthiest hair, style it with minimal damage, and then protect it. Our mantra is to grow, style, and protect with every product. What we’ve brought to life first falls into our class and protect bucket. For example, our silk slip tie is 100% Mulberry silk and it’s kind of a cross between like a scrunchy and a Hermes twilly. To customers with curly and coily hair, you can achieve whichever style you want. Similarly, our sleep sleeve is for protecting your hair at night or during exercise. Depending on your hair length, you can secure it at a different length, so it’s versatile and it’s working for a lot of different people in their preferred way to wrap and protect their hair.
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What are the best ways to use your products?
I’d say for the sleep sleeve, the best way to use this is when your hair is done and you are going to bed and you want to protect it from damage while you’re sleeping, right, like friction while you’re sleeping, and also preserve your style. There’s no wrong way to tie it if that is totally personal preference. The other way that people can wear it too is if you are doing an overnight treatment on your hair and you want to just wrap it so that you’re not making a mess.
We designed little cutouts to make space for your ears and then you can wear it with the crossover in front and the logo market back should fit comfortably over your ears.
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