Daphné Eastmond is making her entrepreneurial debut with Frizz + Co, a luxurious hair-repairing mask that gives a deep and rich conditioning treatment that will have your curls singing all week long. She worked with chemists to develop the product from the ground up where she researched and meticulously looked for ingredients that were biodegradable and lightly scented. Her goal was to keep her consumers top of mind and create a product that could be integrated into someone’s lifestyle and support a healthy self-care experience.
As a woman and Black-owned business, Eastmond takes pride in sourcing and developing her first product to help people fall back in love with their curls and gain a sense of renewal after chemical or heat damage. We sat down to chat with her about her entrepreneurial growth, lessons learned, and how she created her first product.
When you reminisce on your hair journey growing up, what comes to mind and why?
My hair journey has been honestly a love/hate relationship. For as long as I can remember., especially in my adolescent years when the only thing I wanted to do was to fit in. I would do anything to try and defy the laws of physics to get my hair straight when obviously that was the opposite of what my hair naturally was. I tried everything, chemical relaxers, braids, wigs, weaves, and the objective was to fit in and I was just never really happy trying to.
I feel like starting Frizz + Co was kind of a love letter to my girls where I reached a point where I was like, OK, this is the hair that I have there’s nothing I can do to change it. How can I learn to love it? Through this business, I’ve met so many incredible women that had or still have a struggle that was similar to mine. I feel I felt really understood in this community and I’ve been so excited to be working on this on a daily basis.
What were some lessons you learned in your entrepreneurial journey?
I feel like I’m at a stage where I still have so much to learn, but I think the most powerful thing was the power of community and knowing how to surround yourself with like-minded people or people that are as motivated as you that want to grind, that want to build their own business. I felt like it could be a little bit isolating, you know, being an entrepreneur and trying to build your own business. This has become a priority for me and I can totally admit that sometimes I have no idea what I’m doing.
What are the staples of wash day that every textured naturalista should know?
In my experience, this has been a ritual that I’ve dreaded at times so much so that I would rather do anything else than wash my hair. What I tried to do with Frizz + Co is try to incorporate this wash day ritual into the self-care kind of space where you are in control. What does self-care mean to you? Is it a playlist? Is it lighting candles? Is it having a glass of wine? You know, just set the tone that makes it feel nice. That’s kind of one thing that I would say could be my staple.
How did you conduct research to determine what your hero product would be?
I conducted a survey with a small group when I was in Montreal where I discovered many people had damaged curls from heat and chemicals. That’s when I decided that a repairing hair mask could be a good place to start. It was a lot of trial and error because everyone has a different hair type and texture. It’s so hard to cater to everyone. When I was testing the product out, I asked specific girls that all had different hair textures to the point where one even had chemically relaxed hair to see the overall results.
Getting everyone’s feedback from you is really important in how I can shape this product into the best product I could and I have to admit, the chemist that I was working with was really knowledgeable in the space. She knew instantly what ingredients were gonna work and, when we were brainstorming, we had a choice of going into the more traditional ingredients like coconut oil or can we go in a different path with maybe less known ingredients that may need a bit more education. But I felt like that was a bit more interesting than having another like coconut-based product.
Why did you choose to make your debut Frizz + Co product a hair mask?
When I transitioned into natural hair, I just remember the importance of doing a hair mask on a weekly basis. I felt like, I don’t have the money to do a full range of products, but can I create one staple product that I feel will make the most difference in someone’s hair? What is the one product you have to use on your bathroom shelf and in my opinion, that was a hair mask. I decided to focus my efforts on trying to build my reputation around this really great hair mask. Once I can develop a range of secondary products around that mask that just enhance the brand.
What are the best practices for using a hair mask?
The routine is always starting with clean hair. I apply the product on towel-dried hair. If I have a bit more time it’s I’ll wrap it in a cute plastic bag to seal in the heat in and then put a microfiber towel on it. Leave it in for as long as possible whether that’s 30 minutes- 1 hour just to let it soak and keep a consistent weekly routine.
What are the benefits of using a product with natural ingredients?
When I started working on this product, it was really important for me to use all-natural ingredients because I felt like first, it was a staple for a quality product. Second, as a consumer, I know that I’m personally looking at the labels of the products and wondering what’s in there? There’s a huge lack of transparency where some brands can promote ingredients being clean and organic but we don’t know if they are harmful to us. I wanted a product that was super effective that didn’t compromise your health or even your curl health. The natural ingredients will naturally do their things, whereas synthetic synthetic ingredients can provide short-term results and will make your hair look nice, but ultimately down the line, you know they can be drying
What can we look forward to from Frizz + Co in 2023?
Building on brand awareness and developing more products. I really like the idea of having a technical product with a range of products around it to sort of enhance the product.
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