After struggling to find non-irritating braiding hair for a protective style in preparation for a vacation, Osahon Ojeaga ordered from a higher-quality brand online. Or so she thought.
“My scalp was on fire,” she told ESSENCE, admitting she’d turned to the internet to purchase the hair after failing to find a beauty supply store in her Silicon Valley neighborhood that catered to ethnic hair types. “It was a really terrible experience, not only because of the hair itself, but the customer service was poor as well.”
That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“It was just like, you know what? We don’t deserve this. I can do better than this,” she said. “I’m just going to go make my own hair extensions. And so I did.”
Ojeaga said she started making regular synthetic hair extensions using traditional materials, and still was experiencing the same issues from an irritation standpoint, but also “from a sustainability standpoint.”
“Repeating the same thing, doing the same thing, that’s causing the issues is not going to solve the problem, whether it’s a Black person who’s sourcing and making synthetic care, if it’s somebody overseas who isn’t familiar with the consumer. And that was the moment I realized the material is going to have to change completely—from the molecular level up.
“What else looks like hair?” Plants.
Ojeaga said she started researching foliage and its fibrous makeup to reimagine the synthetic hair materials.
“Plants make fibers,” she said. “You look at the outside of a brown coconut, it’s very fibrous. You look inside of a tree or a tree trunk, same thing. From there I decided to use nature as my inspiration.”
In early 2023 she launched Nourie, the flagship product from her company Aja Labs, a materials engineering startup creating plastic-free synthetic fibers for the consumer beauty space. She along with Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder, Dr. Mary Moore, a materials and polymer engineer are aiming to create pathways for Black women to stake some ownership over the $13 billion global hair extension market.
Now, less than a year later, Ojeaga has scaled the company and is one step closer to reaching even more customers who have long yearned for better.
In November 2022, Aja Labs raised $2.5MM in a seed round of funding led by Impact America Fund, Better Ventures, and SOSV’s IndieBio.
“Black women still represent less than 1% of all employer businesses in America,” Kesha Cash of Impact America Fund told ESSENCE. She added: “Yet, Black business ownership is a proven path to wealth and job creation that concurrently stimulates the U.S. economy. According to the Path to 15|55 initiative, Black business owners were 12x wealthier than their peers. And if just 15% of Black-owned businesses are able to hire one more employee, the American economy could grow by $55 billion.”
Nourie is exclusively available online now, but Ojeaga has huge plans for the brand.
“Those who have pre-ordered are so excited about the brand and we’re thrilled to serve them. This is only the beginning.”