In Haircare: Rethinking Haircare for Textured Hair

People with tightly coiled, kinky or Afro-textured hair will recognise the issue: shelves are packed with products, yet very few genuinely suit their needs. That frustration gave rise to a French brand rethinking haircare for textured hair, with a clear message: healthy hair starts long before you step into the shower.

How a personal need became a business idea

Around 20 per cent of people in France have Afro-textured or highly textured hair. For decades, beauty standards favoured straight, supposedly ‘well-behaved’ styles. Care for kinky, curly or very dense hair remained a niche category. Anyone embracing their curls had to improvise, using DIY advice, oil blends or products actually intended for entirely different hair types.

Rebecca Cathline and her business partner Didier Derozin identified precisely this gap. Raised between Guadeloupe and Côte d’Ivoire, Rebecca realised early on how difficult it was to find suitable hairdressers and products for her own hair. She already had an entrepreneurial mindset before the term ‘founder’ became widely fashionable.

In 2015, the pair did not begin by launching a brand, but a service: an app called ‘Ma Coiffeuse Afro’. Through the platform, customers can book hairdressers with specialist knowledge of kinky, curly and highly textured hair, including home appointments if preferred.

A personal problem became a digital service that takes a frequently overlooked audience seriously.

The response soon made one thing clear: demand was far greater than the industry had long been willing to acknowledge. At the same time, a new idea began to take shape for Rebecca: why simply arrange hair appointments when so many people also need a reliable routine at home?

Launched during lockdown: haircare as a self-care ritual

2020 was a year of major change, including for the beauty industry. Salons closed, people spent more time in their bathrooms, experimented with routines and paid closer attention to ingredients. It was during this period that Rebecca and Didier launched their brand, In Haircare.

Their concept was to create natural, effective products designed to reduce breakage and encourage growth, tailored especially to textured hair types but not solely for them. Anyone who has experienced prolonged stress, hormonal changes or pregnancy may know how distressing hair loss can be. In Haircare aims to address this concern.

Rather than rushing a trend-led product to market, the duo partnered with a cosmetics laboratory in France. Following extensive testing and reformulation, it developed supplements and haircare products that:

• use 100 per cent natural ingredients
• are vegan and cruelty-free
• prioritise as ‘clean’ a formulation as possible, without unnecessary additives
• are designed around the needs of stressed scalps and fragile lengths

Rebecca repeatedly stresses the importance of supplements alongside topical care. The brand is not focused only on attractive lengths, but on a holistic approach that runs from the roots and scalp through to the ends.

Here, haircare is not viewed simply as a styling matter, but as an issue of health, self-image and everyday ritual.

More than cosmetics: confidence in capsules and bottles

Many In Haircare customers share similar experiences: postpartum hair loss, thinning caused by stress or illness, or brittle ends after years of straightening and chemical treatments. Rebecca describes the brand’s perhaps most important outcome as helping people regain some of their confidence.

Seeing less hair in the brush and more fullness at the roots changes the way people leave the house. This is the feeling the founder wants to establish. She regards the products as tools rather than miracle cures, and as a signal that textured hair is not a ‘problem’ to conceal, but a hair texture that deserves knowledge and patience.

Success in beauty retailers and salons

The market responded quickly. In Haircare has found a place not just online, but in physical retail too. Its products are now available, among other outlets, through:

• Nocibé
• Mademoiselle Bio
• Blissim
• numerous pharmacies
• selected hair salons

Awards have accumulated in parallel. Rebecca received a prestigious prize for connected beauty concepts and has appeared in rankings recognising pioneering digital female entrepreneurs. For a brand born from what might appear to be a ‘small’ niche problem, this marks a significant move towards the mainstream.

What makes In Haircare different

In Haircare’s success is not based on ingredients or attractive packaging alone. Three elements stand out:

This community mindset is especially evident in its communication. Feedback informs new ideas and adjustments. For the founders, the point is clear: anyone taking textured hair seriously must listen instead of merely broadcasting marketing messages.

Growth with a clear mission

Rebecca and Didier do not want simply to maintain their current success. Their aim is for In Haircare to be accessible throughout France and beyond. They believe their products can help many people grow and strengthen their hair, and that hair diversity needs to reach more shelves.

At the same time, the brand does not intend to lose sight of its foundations: easy-to-understand formulations, transparent communication and products that address genuine concerns rather than merely adopting fashionable buzzwords.

What textured hair really needs

Those exploring curly, Afro-textured or mixed-texture hair soon encounter specialist terms such as ‘texture’, ‘porosity’, ‘low poo’ and ‘curly routine’. At their core are straightforward principles that work independently of any brand:

• Cleanse gently rather than using harsh shampoos, to protect the hair’s natural barrier
• Add moisture regularly with leave-in products or natural oils
• Protect hair from friction, for example with silk pillowcases or protective styles
• Be patient during a transition: textured hair responds more slowly, but noticeably

Brands such as In Haircare offer suitable products, but they cannot replace an understanding of your own hair texture. Knowing whether your hair is fine or very dense, highly porous or low porosity, helps you make better decisions in the bathroom.

Put another way, even the best capsule offers little benefit if the scalp and lengths are constantly drying out. Conversely, weak hair cannot be strengthened in the long term with the ideal mask if stress, diet and hormones are entirely out of balance.

Opportunities and limits of the curly haircare boom

The expanding market for curly and Afro-textured hair brings opportunities as well as risks. More and more brands are entering the category, but not all of them deliver on their promises. Consumers should therefore consider:

• How transparently does a company communicate about its ingredients and sourcing?
• Are there specific usage examples and before-and-after experiences, or only glossy slogans?
• Does the product genuinely suit your own hair type, or is it aimed at a broad market instead?

In Haircare places strong emphasis on trust, laboratory partnerships and closeness to its community. This makes the brand an interesting example of how a frequently overlooked need can become a credible business, and of how much can change when people’s hair finally receives the attention it needs.