Seeking to empower and celebrate the diverse beauty of all individuals, adwoa beauty (that’s pronounced ahh-ju-wah, by the way) is here to bring texture tresses to the forefront of the hair care industry. Paying homage to its African roots and catering for coily, curly and wavy lengths, the brand goes beyond its call of duty by using its platform to educate all walks of life on how to care for various hair types through its tutorials, workshops and demos.
Celebrating the brand’s continuous commitment to textured hair, we caught up with founder, Julian Addo, to talk all things adwoa beauty…
THE STORY BEHIND ADWOA BEAUTY
Born in Monrovia, Liberia and raised in the US, Julian Addo’s foray into hair care started amidst her early teens. “I started styling hair when I was just 14 by working in a salon and attending a vocational high school to study cosmetology” explains Julian. “Growing up in the 90s in NYC, hair was a pretty big deal and fly styles were all around me” she adds. Determined to open her own space and after honing her skills in her mother’s basement, the creative managed save up and launched her first salon in Brooklyn Park.
After attending a natural hair event in 2012, Julian quickly realised that “consumers were exposed to the unrealistic expression of natural beauty of multicultural people in the media – and that this propaganda had betrayed people”. That’s where adwoa beauty came into play. Fuelled by a desire to set the story straight, the brand is “rooted in education and showcase various textures, races and ethnicities. Folks always think that textured hair means Black people. But people all over this world have textured hair and therefore need solutions for them that work. That’s why we utilize our adwoa beauty editor squad, to represent a diverse group of men and women for content creation.” reveals Julian.
WHAT DOES ADWOA BEAUTY STAND FOR
Deeply intertwined with Julian’s unique life story and rooted in her African heritage, adwoa refers to one who is determined and filled with the desire to endure. “adwoa is my cultural name which my dad gave to me. He was from Ghana, and there adwoa means ‘female born on a Monday’. People from the Akan tribe have a day naming system in which babies are named, so adwoa is pretty common in Western Africa culture, specifically within Ghana, Togo and Ivory Coast. I wanted the brand to represent my people, who would otherwise go unnoticed, especially in the beauty world.” expresses Julian.
HOW IS ADWOA BEAUTY CELEBRATING TEXTURED HAIR
Made for everyone and anyone, adwoa beauty caters to people with curly, coily or wavy hair textures (from 2A to 4C). Designed to offer a salon-approved experience from home, adwoa beauty’s core brand pillars are to make clean formulas, planet-positive packaging and be rooted in African diaspora through collections designed to meet the needs of textured manes. “Our Baomint collection addresses excessive dryness along with providing stimulants for hair growth (by using ingredients such as rosemary, peppermint, pumpkin seed oils, nettle extract and biotin to name a few). We then introduced our Blue Tansy edit as the first strand system to infuse blue tansy flower oil to address the versatility need that textured hair people have with permanent colouring, heat styling or if they are just experiencing excessive breakage and damage.” explains Julian. But that’s not all… “Later this year we will bring our Melonberry collection to Cult that addresses those with fine hair – a segment of the textured hair care market that is always overlooked. Here the formulas are efficacious without being heavy, greasy or just plain ol ‘watered down.” she shares.