Batia & Aleeza’s signature product is their gel.
It was a muggy day in Hawaii 10 years ago and Batia Elkayam was frustrated with her kinky, frizzy hair.
‘My sister said ‘You look like someone electrocuted you.’ ‘ Elkayam recalls. ‘We said ‘Let’s go home and do something about it.”So when they returned to California, they enlisted the help of a lab to develop a line of haircare products that could turn frizzy, kinky hair into glossy curls. The result is the Batia & Aleeza line—Bio-Herbal Mineral Sculpting Gel, Bio-Natural Shampoo and Bio-Protein Conditioner.
Elkayam says she’s never been content to have just another haircare line. ‘We want to be the No. 1 product line,’ Elkayam says of her products, which have become a cult favorite among curlyheads around the world.
Elkayam and her sister, Aleeza Callner, knew a lot about hair when they created their product line. The sisters were raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, in a family of six children. From the time they were young, the two curlyheads had a passion for hair and together they became hair designers. Their beautiful flowing curls broadcast their specialty — curly, frizzy and wavy hair — although they work with all hair types.
The sisters opened a hair salon in Tel Aviv, attracting actors and models from around the area.They moved to New York and later Los Angeles, opening their own West Hollywood salon in 1980, with celebrity clients such as Stephen Spielberg and Jerry Seinfeld. In 2000, they opened their Beverly Hills Salon, and they’ve have been featured in In Style magazine as well as CNN.com. They have developed a reputation for their customer service and Elkayam has been known to buy every customer in her shop a bouquet of flowers. Unfortunately, last year the salon was engulfed by fire and they plan to open a new salon soon at the same location at 415 N. Camden Dr. Until then, they are working out of another nearby salon. Elkayam is a believer in simplicity when it comes to hair. She says Batia & Aleeza’s three products are all that are needed for beautiful hair. She calls her gel ‘the magic gel’ because of its ability to create shiny, defined curls, even on the second and third day.
“You don’t need too many products for your hair to look beautiful,” she says. “When people leave our salon, they say ‘I don’t believe it’s my hair. It looks amazing.”
