8 minute read
TRANSFORMING AFRO-TEXTURE HAIRCARE IN AUSTRALIA
Lani Molefe had the pleasure of designing organic SUKU to represent and celebrate the texture community. She created the brand to provide the Afrotexture community access to professional hair care through products and trained stylists.
Upon moving to Australia, Lani was disheartened to find that, despite the abundance of salons, very few could adequately colour, cut, or style afro-textured hair. Lani wasn’t looking for specialised skills like braiding; she was looking for a simple basin wash, treatment, and finishing that showed that she had visited a salon.
This inspired Lani to start a hair blog educating women about caring for their hair. In 2019, she teamed up with Chrissy Zemura of Zemura Salon, now their Global Creative Director, to launch the first in-salon Afro-texture Treatment, the SUKU Oil Treatment.
Formulated with a blend of organic oils, this treatment was designed to deeply nourish and hydrate Afro-textured hair, promoting health and manageability. This collaboration laid the foundation for an education-focused service, allowing salons to welcome Afro-texture clientele into their beautiful spaces.
We recently caught up with Lani to chat about Organic Suku.
Can you share the inspiration behind the founding of Organic Suku and how your personal journey influenced it?
I started Organic SUKU as a celebration of texture. Growing up in Zimbabwe in the 90s, before the dawn of one beauty standard, women and men were and still are, constantly changing their hairstyles. As a newly independent country, this may also have been an expression of our sense of freedom. Still, nevertheless, in the space of a few months, you’d see people rocking very different hairstyles: from a short natural do to relaxing it, then braiding it and adding a weave install after two months. It was and continues to be the way of the Afro-textured community. And so, we celebrate the whole person’s hair choices at organic SUKU.
My journey, from experiencing diversity in texture [supported by salon professionals] to lacking it in Australia, influenced the creation of organic SUKU and the launch of organic SUKU Pro.
Can you explain how ancient African hair care techniques influence the products and treatments offered by Organic Suku?
Zimbabwean traditions, including hair care, are orally taught. Often, the young sit with their sisters, mothers, and aunties, being taught specific care and styling techniques. What I’ve been able to do at organic SUKU is to take those beautiful moments of teaching and adjust them into a professional context to allow stylists to learn a methodical and structured approach to caring for and styling Afro-textured hair.
The SUKU Treatment, our signature treatment, is the first step in joining our SUKU salon pathway. You’ll learn texture fundamentals and gain product knowledge. With our team’s commitment to your growth, you’ll start welcoming tighter textures into your salon space, offering a treatment that delights clients with tight textures with a brand they trust.
Can you describe the key ingredients and the benefits of using Organic Suku products for textured hair?
We recently launched our Salon Professional Collection, which extends into cleansing and treatments by porosity. It targets common texture concerns such as dry and itchy scalp, dry hair leading to breakage, hair loss due to styling, tangled and matted hair, and managing damaged ends. This collection resets Afro and Multi-textured hair through detangling, cleansing, hydration and deep moisture-infused nourishment.
Our hero products are Shea Butter and Shea Oil, known for their hydrating and nourishing properties. These ingredients and others in our formulations ensure that each strand is brought back to an optimal moisture zone.
Our ‘care’ and ‘treat’ collections alleviate dry and itchy scalp while providing much-needed moisture to curb dryness that leads to hair breakage and tangled and matted hair. Our ‘style’ collection provides definition, sleekness, soft bounce, and high sheen finishes without compromising the gentle care textured hair needs to maintain its health.
The benefits of using Organic SUKU products include deep hydration and nourishment from the scalp to the ends, thanks to actives with a low molecular weight that penetrate deeply into the hair shaft. This allows us to work effectively with textured hair of all types.
How do you integrate trichology into your hair care products and treatments, and why is it important for textured hair?
Trichology informs our understanding of the hair and scalp and is central to our approach to educating and product formulation. Our formulations are gentle yet effective, promoting the health of both the scalp and hair.
Hair loss is a prevalent issue across all hair types, but it is particularly common in the textured hair community due to certain styling techniques. By integrating trichology into our methods, we educate stylists on best practices to enhance hair health and prevent hair loss.
What makes Organic Suku’s approach to Afro-textured hair care unique compared to other brands in the market?
We focus on viewing the texture client as a whole person with varying needs and finish desires—just like any other person. We believe that Afro-textured clients belong in your chair, no matter what your niche happens to be.
If you primarily style natural, lived-in looks, include the Afro-textured client—they need your expertise. If you specialise in balayage with a high gloss wave finish, include the Afro-textured client—they have the length to enjoy that look. If you run a blowout bar, believe me, include the Afrotextured client—they want that finish too.
The truth is that Australia is changing. More people with textured hair are now calling Australia home and expect professionals to care for their texture. Additionally, younger generations expect inclusivity as part of a service provider’s commitment to creating welcoming spaces.
With 67% of the world’s population having textured hair, understanding and catering to this demographic is not just a trend, it’s essential to future-proof your business. Our comprehensive education, product suite, and ongoing support equip stylists to treat Afro-textured hair with the same expertise as any other hair type. This approach allows textured clients to walk into more spaces and experiment with different looks, and it’s a market opportunity that you can’t afford to miss.
Salons that embrace this inclusive approach can expand their clientele. Textured hair clients invest 2-3 times more than their straighter-haired counterparts due to the nature and frequency of treatments that this texture affords them. www.organicsukupro.com @organicsuku
Organic SUKU is committed to redefining niches based on technique, not hair texture, ensuring that all clients receive the highest care and expertise from you.
Can you tell us about your education platforms?
We have created a hybrid form of education that incorporates digital and physical workshops because it is important to experience texture as we educate. These classes can be stand-alone or part of a pathway to becoming a fully inclusive salon or a confident best-in-class film, fashion, and editorial stylist.
Our classes are focused on students realising that their current skill set can be adjusted to textured hair, and they walk away with the ability to transfer what they have learned immediately. Of course, practice is needed to hone any new skill, so we support our students in getting in the right amount of practice through frequency and access to models or mannequin heads that mimic actual Afro-textured hair.
Our trained professionals continue to demonstrate that becoming texture-inclusive elevates salon culture through higher team engagement, becoming an employer of choice, skill enhancement, and creative opportunities outside the salon, all while growing a new client base.
Organic SUKU was at this years Melbourne Fashion Week, can you tell us more about this?
Participating in Melbourne Fashion Festival early this year was a significant milestone for Organic SUKU. Seeing our hair team, led by our decadestrong texture stylist Banan, bring our vision to life on the runway was a moment we will always be thankful for. As an emerging Afro-textured professional hair brand, it was an honour to have the trust of Tina Waru, organiser of The Global Indigenous Runway, to bring her vision to life.
We are thrilled to announce that our partnership will continue in 2025 and look forward to supporting Tina’s vision of celebrating cultural heritage and creativity in fashion.
How do you envision the future of hair care education for textured hair, and what plans do you have with Organic Suku?
I envision a world where the hair you grow is never a barrier to receiving professional care.
To realise this vision, we are committed to building the first generation of Master Texture Stylists in Australia through holistic texture education. Our goal is to equip individuals to become best-in-class professionals, offering pathways to mastery in salon spaces, fashion, editorial, and film, guided by our leadership team, leaders in texture and passionate about education.
Our recent appointment of Global Education Director Michelle Garande, a UK-based texture educator and multi-texture stylist who with her salon background progressed into the film/tv, fashion space, underscores our strategic direction and commitment. Michelle’s expertise will be instrumental in creating Australia’s first generation of Texture Master Stylists.
For professionals, it starts with getting on our waitlist to join this pioneering group of Texture Master Stylists in Australia.
www.organicsukupro.com @organicsuku
