Meet Salem Ayesha

August 8, 2011 in Beauty, Kids

Founder
ROOT2TiP Haircare Solutions

ROOT2TiP manufactures premium, natural and innovative hair care products for men, women and children with textured hair.

Founded by Salem Ayesha, the North London based company provides a nature-led solution for people with textured hair in addition to providing enlightening workshops and consultations.

Launched in 2009, ROOT2TiP currently employs a team of four.

Why did you decide to start your company?
In 2008 I suffered with a form of alopecia due to a re-occurring scalp condition called sebhorraeic dermatitis, which I have had since childhood. Having always had thick natural hair, I was traumatised at this hair-loss so I decided to scour the internet in search of a “magic potion” to help me to re-grow my hair again.

During this time I noticed that there were hundreds of women who were also suffering with some kind of hair-thinning or alopecia. So, having read about the power of certain essential oils and after an interesting conversation with an Indian man about Ayurvedic herbs, I decided to mix up some natural ingredients in my kitchen to see whether a natural hair growth potion would help me to grow back my thick hair.

I decided to document the results, by taking pictures of my hair every couple of months and putting them into an online photo album. I used the oil almost daily and my results were astounding. I then got requests from family and friends for the oil, I called the ROOT ENERGiZER to help with their hair problems.

They too got great results, so I decided, or rather God gave me the vision and direction, to turn that one product into a business.

At that time I had a two year old daughter who was born with multiple allergies and also had eczema, so as I could never find any hair product in my local hair shop to sufficiently moisturise her dry-looking hair. I used to actually buy products and mix them with natural oils to get the desired results I wanted, but this grew tiresome.

Again friends wanted this mixture for their kids too, so again God gave me the vision and direction to create my own product from scratch. Hence my kids line KinkiCoiliKurli was born. I wanted products that would satisfy the different textures afro and mixed race hair has.

The first product I made for her hair was the KinkiCoiliKurli Honey-rain juice, a leave-in conditioner using this product together with a low-manipulation styling routine helped me to grow her Afro hair to waist-length by the age of 4 years old.

What was your career path prior to starting your first business?
I have a law degree, so after graduating university I had my mind set upon becoming a lawyer and setting up my own practice. However having secured a job in a litigation firm right after graduation, I fell out of love with law and began to pursue my dream of having my own business.

I set up a catering company with my partner and mother called SMUiCE, however after a couple of years of hard-work we decided to lay the business to rest. During that time my obsession for having healthy hair and creating healthy natural hair products had just started to ignite. God had given me my ministry.

Did you always know that you would start your own business?
Yes, I always wanted to have my own business, it was all I really knew, having grown up in a household whereby my mother, who raised 5 children single-handedly, was my greatest role model.

She started her own catering business at the age of 24 and went on to have restaurants, win awards from Shell Livewire and secure finance. My mum raised us to believe we could do anything, and she always included my brother and I in her work.

I recall helping to sell food at functions she would be catering for at the tender age of 8 or 9. I like to be in charge of my own destiny, I can be a little bossy, but as the eldest child of 5 siblings, that comes with the territory!

Tell us more about your product range – what are your bestsellers?
I am really excited about all of my current and future products. The products I make excite me because I am so passionate about black women, girls and just people with textured hair growing and maintaining the hair they desire.

My product range has been formulated to help us achieve the hair we desire, they are natural, smell great and are truly created with love!

My favourite products are the scalp oils, the Scalp Hydration Serum and the ROOT ENERGiZER. I love the two scalp oils as they really do work. People who use them do see an increase in the thickness of their hair, they do notice their scalp stops itching and they appreciate the fact that they are 100% natural. They can be used on all hair types, whether you are natural or relaxed, wear a wig, weave or not!

I love my kids range KinkiCoiliKurli too, as I realise that our girls are more concerned with buying their first lace-front weave, getting their first relaxer or first weave done, than they are about their real hair.

This fact really disturbs my spirit. Why are we the only race of people who are able to ignorantly damage our children’s hair and hair-lines even before they reach puberty? Why do we see fit to apply harsh chemical relaxers to children as young as 3? Simply because we can’t “do” their hair?

I want all little girls to truly say and believe “I love my hair” just like my daughter does. It’s for this reason my Twist n’ Grow range of products is the solution I have for mothers wanting to develop a real love of their real hair in their children. I have tried and tested two products for years in my daughter’s hair and the results are great.

The KinkiCoiliKurli Honey-rain juice is the leave-in conditioner and the Citrus-sun Twurls whip is the sealing moisture whip/cream that will enable children to grow longer hair than they are used to.

I am setting up work-shops to offer some “I Love My Hair – Hair-ducation” to mothers who want to learn how to care for their children’s hair from basics. I think it’s time we went back to the old school and learned some new techniques. I want to help to give the generation of young girls growing up the chance to wear their real hair with pride, but more so learn how to care for their real hair, so if they want to wear a weave or extensions it’s because of fashion not because they feel their real hair can’t be just as long!

How did you get involved with the Prince’s Trust?
I approached the Prince’s Trust because I knew they offered loans to people under 30 with great business ideas. I was 9 months pregnant with my second child when I did my panel presentation and I was so nervous. So were they, they thought I would go into labour in front of them!

However it went really well, because I really had researched my market and understood my product s very well, I knew were I wanted to be and I just needed their financial support to give me the chance to start my dream.

Tell me more about the workshops you run, what do they cover and how do you register to attend?
I currently run workshops for foster-carers who look after Black and Mixed ethnicity children on how to care for their hair and skin. I take the attendees through the very basics of what it takes to look after textured hair. More often than not, they have had never had any interaction with this very unique hair before and it can be daunting to say the least, or a “nightmare!” as one foster-mother once put it.

I am currently setting up a new series of workshops especially for mothers and daughters. The “I Love My Hair” workshop has been specifically created to teach mums how to get the best from and grow their children’s hair using our great product line KinkiCoiliKurli and other products found in the local supermarket. I cover topics like washing the hair with conditioner, not shampoo as its too drying.

The first workshop will take place at the end of August; the venue is still to be confirmed. Anyone interested in attending can register via email to root2tiphair@yahoo.co.uk.

What are you working on at the moment?
I am currently working on a conditioner and shampoo for my kids hair care line KinkiCoiliKurli. I am also testing out my new candy-berry curling crème, especially for children with naturally curly hair like my son has.

I use my kids as guinea pigs! They both have very different hair types so they are perfect testers! My son has mixed race type curly hair and my daughter has thicker afro textured hair.

Can you describe your typical working day?
I usually take my daughter to school, go to the gym, take my son to nursery, then get to my home office, check my emails, prepare orders from my website, call suppliers to order stock, try to update my blogs and lastly perfect the formulation to the products I am working on.

What have been the highlights of running your own business?
The greatest highlight for me would have to be getting the feedback from customers about how much they love the products I have created. Because it’s something I have formulated myself it can be nerve-racking at times, because although I think they are good, it’s different when products are launched into the public domain and people either love or hate them!!

What is the hardest part of running your own business?
The loneliness and lack of time I have to spend with my children. I tend to work most days in my office or kitchen on my own, so there can be very little social interaction with adults.

However I know this is not forever and this thought keeps me focused. You really have to be tunnel-visioned, when you are trying to become successful as there are many sacrifices to be made along the way.

What has been your biggest triumph so far?
The greatest triumph for ROOT2TiP thus far has been getting our products into the UK’s largest ethnic hair care retailer, PAK’s Cosmetics.

After a year of trying to get someone to sit up and notice us in 2010 all it took was some divine intervention in the form of my Mother, who was urged by God on a particular day to go into PAK’s Cosmetics. A conversation she had with the manger in that branch about my products led to us getting a meeting with one of the directors of PAK’s and he even said at our meeting “you guys must be blessed” so many people want to meet with me. We simply replied we are!

What, or who, inspires and motivates you?
My inspiration, motivation and drive comes from God. He has blessed me with such a creative spirit and has opened so many doors for me it’s unreal. My business partner Stafford and I want to create an empire that will outlast us and God has really facilitated the evolution of this.

In addition I am motivated to create something my children will be proud of. I want them to become leaders of men, not followers, I want them to think out of the box in the same way my mother has taught and tells me to.

Lastly I want them to go against the grain and realise that if you have a dream and truly put your heart and soul into something, sacrifice and stay fixed on your goal, put God first and fears second you will achieve something special and great!

What advice would you give to someone who is considering starting a hair care business?
The best piece of advice I would offer to someone considering entering the hair care market is, research, research, research!

I am a researchaholic! I have spent thousands of hours researching ingredients, how they actually worked? Why they worked? The science of black hair. How it grows? And so on.

I have spent days reading scientific reports on the effects certain natural ingredients have on our hair or how heat affects afro hair for example. I think this research, which has taken place over a period of nearly 5 years, has qualified me to talk with knowledge on my passion for understanding how we can grow long and healthy hair as black people.

I have grown my hair to my waist before with my knowledge so the proof is in the pudding so to speak!

Even more significantly I established in my mind the type of company we wanted to be. There are many emerging natural hair companies in the UK however I believe what clearly distinguishes ROOT2TiP, from the rest is our strong branding and our overall appeal.

We are not about roots and culture, we are not about bashing people with relaxed hair or those who wear weaves, we are strictly about appealing to the masses who want to have healthier hair. We want to create products people actually have a need for and that’s what we have done thus far.

I have always had natural hair, so the whole natural hair thing does not enamour me in the same way it would a woman who has just started a natural hair journey. Some women think you have to have natural hair to use natural products and that’s not the case. ROOT2TiP Hair-care solutions offer a nature-led solution to any hair type for anybody.

Fast forward five years, where do you think your business will be in 2016?
I am planning to undertake a Trichology degree in the next 12 months, so I will hope to have established by then a chain of ROOT2TiP Trichology clinics. They will specialise in providing women and men with hair and scalp problems nature-led scientific based solutions, incorporating our product line.

I truly think we are on the tip of a hair-loss pandemic within our community and ROOT2TiP want to do something about it.

I also envision we will be the UK’s most successful natural hair-care product brand and will be a global success. I want every woman across the world to have on their dressing table at the very least the Scalp Hydration Serum or the ROOT ENERGiZER!

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For more information visit www.root2tip.com. You can find ROOT2TiP on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. The company runs a blog to help care for kids hair – www.kinkicoilikurly.blogspot.com – and one for everyday hair tips and advice- www.root2tip.blogspot.com

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Salem Ayesha was interviewed by Octavia Goredema, founder of the Twenty Ten Club.

The Twenty Ten Club is an award-winning networking organisation designed to connect, inspire and support Black female entrepreneurs. You can also find Twenty Ten Club on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.