Meet The Doux, The Hip-Hop Infused Hair Care Line Bringing Pleasure to Wash Day

It is one factor to create a very good hair product, and it is one other to create one which tells a narrative, one that attracts you in and holds a particular place in your routine. The Doux is a kind of manufacturers. Based by Maya Smith, The Doux is a buzzy pure hair care line impressed by 90s hip-hop tradition. Smith, a licensed cosmetologist, created the road to fuse her love for hip hop and salon-worthy hair care at house.

Doux’s lineup options a variety of merchandise from stylers to cleansers packaged in colourful, kitschy packaging with product names with world play that any hip-hop fanatic or lyricist would respect. Working example: The model’s bestselling Bonita Afro Balm, or its shampoo, and Large Poppa Defining Gel.

Bringing salon-quality care to folks at house was a key mission for Smith, who owns her bespoke Doux salon in Georgia. With a brick-and-mortar store and merchandise that carry out, The Doux has a repute for excellence, and it is simply solely getting began. Forward, we caught up with Smith to debate how she constructed her hip-hop-centric model and why it deserves a spot in your wash-day lineup.

How would you describe your pure hair journey rising up?

I grew up within the 80s, and 90’s when sadly, “pure” wasn’t a factor until your curl sample was naturally free or wavy. I rocked a weekly press and curl, and I did not calm down my hair till I left house at 18-years-old, and began sporting my pure curls a number of years later.

What impressed the model title “The Doux”?

Doux, pronounced “dew,” is French for easy, delicate, gentle, or “cool.” We’re all of that.

How does your background as a licensed cosmetologist affect the formulation technique of the merchandise?

Probably the most important level of distinction for The Doux is that I’ve spent years testing every product for salon efficiency. The merchandise we have created are a direct results of consumer suggestions and over twenty years of labor behind the chair. Our shoppers do not play about long-lasting outcomes, so we made merchandise that ship. We opened our salon earlier than the concept of a product vary emerged. I take into account myself a stylist first, and my merchandise have at all times been an extension of who I’m as a stylist and an artist.

Hip-Hop famously conjures up your merchandise. Why did you select this style to coincide together with your model?

Hip-hop is one in every of my most vital artistic influences, so it tends to come back out in all of my work. The 90s period of hip hop music I grew up with was enjoyable, vibrant, and acutely aware. I felt that was lacking from the hair care expertise, and I wished to deliver that to the desk.

As an enormous hip-hop fanatic, what artists are you streaming essentially the most?

This 12 months is all about B-girls and girls in hip hop. Latifah, MC Lyte, Yo-Yo, Salt’n’Peppa, Missy, Lauryn Hill, Bahamadia—to call a number of— are all in rotation. We even have 4 volumes of DouxSchool Mixtapes that function my favourite music on Spotify. Test it out!

The Doux has a number of new launches that embody equipment and a deep conditioning masks. What are a few of your knowledgeable suggestions for the wash-day deep conditioning course of?

Cleanse completely first. A typical mistake when conditioning is to give attention to deep conditioning with out ensuring the hair is freed from product buildup. I discover that shampooing at the very least twice helps the hair soak up extra water and conditioner.

Nonetheless, I believe it is vital to not over-condition, which many people do. Leaving a deep conditioner on too lengthy can create a waxy layer that makes the hair really feel brittle. It could assist should you let your deep conditioner sit a couple of minutes earlier than you detangle, and this permits the cuticle to calm down and helps scale back friction if you’re unraveling knots from the hair.

What has been your best entrepreneurial second?

There are lots of, however I will always remember strolling into Goal with my household the week of our launch and seeing our exhausting work on cabinets.

 Why is schooling a cornerstone of the Doux?

I consider that the easiest way to serve folks with textured hair is to empower them by serving to them to know the reality concerning the science of hair care. When you understand higher, you Doux higher.