Henna Hair, co-founded by Brent Gibson, uses the colourless variety of the henna plant, and natural oils like that of the blue lotus flower. Photo / Supplied
Henna Hair, co-founded by Brent Gibson, uses the colourless variety of the henna plant, and natural oils like that of the blue lotus flower. Photo / Supplied
Brent Gibson, co-founder of Henna Hair, talks to Tom Raynel about what goes into natural haircare treatments, and how he tries to make authentic products.
Henna Hair is an organic, colourless hairproduct range. First of all, it’s natural and draws from all the ingredients that come from the henna plant, which is thousands of years old and goes back to Cleopatra.
The henna plant has become famous for its colour, which is popular in tattoos, but there is also a variety that gives a very strong, natural ingredient, which is the one that we use in our products.
I was a hairdresser back in the 80s and I stumbled upon the formula for this colourless henna while I was at a trade show in Sydney. I was very intrigued by it because it was a natural product in a world full of chemicals.
I ended up with the formula and brought it back to New Zealand, and I launched way back then a range of hair products. They were very successful but I didn’t stay with them.
I revisited it again last year because I had nothing to do and I thought, well, no one had done henna, they’ve all done argan oil and Moroccan oil, but no one’s done the oldest known hair treatment in the world, henna.
I got hold of the industrial chemist that I used way back in the day, and he decided to come out of retirement to help me reformulate the product because there are a hell of a lot more natural ingredients available now than there were back then.
We decided to put it out into the market because we knew there was nothing like it.
Brent Gibson, co-founder of Henna Hair, is a former hairdresser turning the natural remedy of colourless henna into nourishing hair treatments.
As someone who has been in the industry for years, how is this different?
We’re using blue lotus essential oil in the henna, which is a very well-known hair remedy, and we’re using other essential oils in the product that weren’t available back in the 80s.
Chemical treatments are quite damaging. There’s an ingredient called sodium chlorate. It’s been found to be very, very bad for your hair, bad for your scalp and bad for your health. We stayed right away from all of that, we don’t need as many of these chemicals going through our bodies.
Why do you think more consumers are turning to natural products?
We’ve got all this knowledge now that we didn’t use to have. People are looking at things and seeing what is on the label now. If you go into the supermarket, you’ll see people go to the shampoo area and look at a new product and they’ll take a photo of it on their phone to look at the ingredients in it.
People are so much more aware now and they are all going back to natural products because, you know, the 50s and the 60s were when it was all real.
Henna Hair, co-founded by Brent Gibson, creates shampoos, conditioners and treatments out of colourless henna.
What has been the biggest challenge in starting the business?
It’s a big logistical exercise. It’s not a little cottage industry in the garage on Waiheke Island, it was conceived here and we’ve done 12 months of research and development. We went right through our packaging as well and we made sure that we chose sustainable packaging. All our products are recyclable.
We haven’t just created a product and pulled a name out of the sky and said, ‘Oh, we’re gonna call it this’. We’ve gone right through it. We’ve gone right through our formula, our ingredients, our packaging and we’ve come up with something really authentic.
What would be your advice to other budding entrepreneurs?
You’ve got to do your homework before you embark on anything. You know you’ve really got to do your research to know your market and be deeply aware of the competition.
But also look for products that have a genuine point of difference and be as natural and as authentic as you can. There’s a new way of thinking and it’s not competition, it’s cooperation.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business and retail.
