Bread is the Black-owned Aussie curl-care brand that’s set to disrupt hair care
IMAGE VIA BREAD
WORDS BY ROSANNA WATTS
The best thing since sliced bread.
A new brand is set to disrupt the Australian haircare industry and change the narrative around Black hair. Fed up with the mainstream hair care industry’s lack of authentic connection with Black women, Australian beauty marketing professional Maeva Heim created Bread, a collection of natural hair essentials designed specifically for curly and afro-textured hair.
Bread, a name inspired by the simplicity and versatility of the starchy staple, hopes to make natural hair care simpler and more accessible by creating “hair care basics for not so basic hair”. The four wash-day essentials include a shampoo, a hair mask, a styling gloss and a scrunchie, adorably called the Bread Puff.
The Hair-Wash is a gentle milky cleanser that Maeva describes as “skincare for your scalp”. The sulphate-free shampoo contains a mix of argan oil, aloe vera juice and lemon tea tree oil, so that it can gently rid the scalp and strands of any product buildup while protecting curls from becoming dry and wiry.
Next in the lineup is the Hair-Mask, a creamy deep-conditioner that uses Aussie beauty standout Kakadu plum, a natural source of collagen and elastin, as well as starflower oil to keep curls plump and strong.
Bread makes choosing a post-wash styling product literally effortless because there’s just one in the line: The Everyday Gloss, a hair oil that works on all hair textures and will leave even the driest of curls with a light-reflecting sheen. Plus, it comes in a luxurious perfume-like bottle made of sleek glass, with a mauve-pink top that’ll make a timeless addition to any beauty-shelf.
When it came to the packaging for the shampoo and conditioner, Maeva kept usability and sustainability front of mind and decided on generously-sized squeezable pouches as they allowed Bread to use 60 to 70 per cent less plastic packaging, while also being practical and easy to use.
The idea for Bread first came to Maeva in 2016, when she was visiting the United States and a six-hour plane ride from New York to Colorado saw her trusty hair-relaxer kit explode in her luggage. With nowhere in the Colorado Mountains to get a replacement, Maeva was forced to give up chemically relaxing her hair and get acquainted with her natural curls.
But she found the ‘multicultural hair care’ aisle overwhelming. “I felt like I was in a time machine back to 1995,” she says. “That frustration sparked the idea for a contemporary, simplified brand that meets mine and many others’ needs.”
One of Maeva’s aims for Bread was to see it on the shelves of Sephora so that women that shopped for their skincare and makeup there could also have a haircare label that they could relate to and that serviced them.
Maeva’s dream was made possible when she was accepted into the 2017 Sephora Accelerate Program, a six-month program providing mentorship, grants and other funding to small business founders.
With the successful launch of Bread under her belt (its limited-edition scrunchies sold out before she even posted about it on the Bread Instagram account) Maeva is dedicated to changing the public’s perception of Black hair and she wants all women of colour to feel empowered to wear their hair however they choose.
“Ultimately, I’d like for Black women, or any woman with textured hair, to walk into the boardroom wearing bantu knots, a large afro, or whatever style she wants, and for not a single person to bat an eye,” she says. “That’s the new normal that I want Bread to be a part of shaping.”
You can shop the new line and simplify your curly hair care routine here.
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