New Hair Line Bread Beauty Supply Is About Embracing Natural Curls, Frizz And All

Maeva Heim grew up in Australia in her mom’s hair salon. That certainly taught her a lot about hair, but embracing her natural texture was truly a journey—literally. She was on a trip to Colorado when her relaxer exploded in her suitcase, forcing her to embrace her hair. Wanting to make it easier for others to do the same and care for their natural texture, she created BREAD Beauty Supply, which focuses on 3a to 4c curls. After working in brand management for L’Oreal and Procter & Gamble and seeing gaps in the beauty world for women of color, she knew she could do something to change that and spark a conversation. Last year she was one of the first Australian brands chosen to participate in the Sephora Accelerate program, which is dedicated to building a community of female founders. The new clean, vegan line is launching in-store at Sephora today in over 100 stores nationwide. Heim, the founder and CEO, tells us all about creating BREAD and her hair journey.

What did you learn about hair growing up in your mom’s salon? My mother has always been my number one fan and there is no one I trust more with my hair than my mom! Despite me wanting relaxed hair or weaves throughout childhood, she continually and gently encouraged me to wear my natural hair out. I was vehemently against it as a teen, but looking back now am so appreciative that she was always down to let me do whatever I wanted with my hair, whether it was tiny long micro-braids down to my waist that would take four days to complete or a bleach blonde full head weave. She just let me do whatever I wanted with it. One of the most important lessons I took away from this is that hair has a duality about it. It’s a form of self-expression, and in that sense, it’s important. However, it’s also not character defining. Changing my hair all the time didn’t change who I was. So, in that respect, it’s also not important at all. The meaning of your hair is completely up to you as an individual, and that’s how I’ve learned to love it in all its forms. I think her attitude toward my hair growing actually helped me to define the ethos of BREAD in the present day.  

When your relaxer exploded in your suitcase on your trip to Colorado, why did you decide to stop relaxing your hair? I honestly can’t put my finger on a singular reason. I think it was a combination of things that led me to that point and the definitive decision to quit relaxer then and there. The first reason was that I had spent a few months transitioning my skincare products over to brands that were more clean. I realized in that moment that my scalp was skin too, and it didn’t make sense that I cared so much about what I was putting on my face, arms and legs, but not on my head. Scalp is skin too, and is actually one of the most absorbent parts of the body. The second was that I was in nature and felt more strongly than ever before that I should be taking my health seriously and looking after my body—all parts of my body, including my scalp. I also didn’t have a choice. We were in the middle of nowhere and I couldn't get access to buy another one. Going back to my natural texture was something I had thought about subconsciously for a while. It had been niggling away in the back of my mind. I think all the circumstances ended up aligning perfectly for me to finally take the plunge.  

How did you manage that transition? I honestly don’t know that the transition is ever over. I think we move to different stages as the years go by, but the journey of transitioning may be lifelong. The initial phases of the transition were extremely difficult—the sheer magnitude of this process was completely overwhelming. I felt like I was back at university and had a thesis to write. This was not something I had time for, so naturally, it was very frustrating. I would say it took a good year for me to settle on wash day routine and product set that I loved and that’s what I built BREAD around. But just like skin, hair and the environment it’s in are constantly changing, so there will always be something new to learn about my hair.  

What gap did you see in the natural hair market? I noticed that there was a broadly consistent look and feel for brands across the textured hair category, and that there was an established idea around what it meant to have “good” curls. This often meant a super glossy and defined “no curl out of place” photoshopped look that just isn’t realistic for day to day life, and is often not achievable for all curl types—especially women like myself with 4C, super coiled hair. I believe that for the consumer that we’re speaking to, that’s no longer their idea of what aspirational is. I wanted to create a brand that was community focused, with clean formulas, all encased in a visual universe that felt more relevant to today's centennial consumer. I want this brand to represent her or them in the way that they already present themselves, online and elsewhere, and the way they want to be seen. I also felt like the space was incredibly confusing. When I first transitioned, I had no idea where to start. I just wanted to know how to wash my hair. I wanted a suite of essentials to establish the core parts of my new haircare routine and I wanted to make the process as quick as possible. We’re creating BREAD for the person who has curly and textured hair and doesn’t want to spend half a day washing her hair. Our aim is to make wash day and other parts of her routine as quick as possible so she can spend less time on her hair and more time on other things in life.  

How did you come up with the name of BREAD? I actually had a completely different name for the brand to begin with. It was pretty trendy at the time and so was swiftly trademarked. I was devastated, but it forced me to think about exactly what it was I was creating—what our brand stood for and what problem we were solving. To that end, I like to describe BREAD as providing the staples of her haircare wardrobe and I wanted a brand name that could succinctly reflect that it was about the essentials, the must haves— like bread! 

Why did you decide to launch with these four products? I wanted to keep our product assortment super simple and take the approach of tackling each part of the haircare routine separately, starting with wash day. We’ve distilled wash day down to three simple products within our wash kit that are easy to understand and have simple and safe ingredients that make her hair life easier. It's her essential haircare wardrobe for curl care. The bonus BREAD puff (aka scrunchie) that is in the full size and mini kit is designed to help keep hair dent free and prevent breakage in between wash days. The Hair Wash Gentle Milky Hair Cleanser is a milky, almost marshmallow-like liquid that transforms into a gentle lather for clean but soft strands. It takes care of build-up and debris, without causing knottiness, crispy dryness or stripping your hair of natural oils. And it smells like Fruit Loop milk! Hair Mask Creamy Deep Conditioner is made in Australia and is a light to the touch cream that will leave curls hydrated and buttery smooth without weighing them down. Easy. Simple. Smells good. Like Bread. Hair Oil Everyday Gloss is a silicone-free multi-purpose oil that we describe as being like a lip gloss, but for your hair. It’s really your go-to oil for use throughout the day or week and can also be used as a pre-wash treatment.  

Tell me about the fragrances—why the focus on milk? In some respects, haircare can be thought of like skincare. Some hair is more sensitive than others. Knowing that I wanted to create formulas that were super gentle—because textured hair can be extremely fragile—I looked to skincare to inspire our products. The hair wash is therefore a lot like some of the milkier, gentle formulas we see in skincare cleansers. Because of the milkiness of the formula, we opted for a fragrance that would be reminiscent of one my favorite milk flavors: cereal milk. I also knew that I wanted all of our fragrances to smell edible, nut not sickly sweet, and always with a nod to food. Our hair mask has a vanilla birthday cake scent and our hair oil smells like a light strawberry sundae.  

Why did you include Australian ingredients? Coming from Australia, I really wanted to highlight and celebrate the incredible native ingredients that grow here that have been used a lot in skincare, but not as much in hair, even though many of our native ingredients have properties that are incredible for textured hair. The current range features Australian Kakadu Plum, which has a higher concentration of vitamin C than any other known fruit (about 50 times more than an orange), which is great for scalp health. Kakadu Plum seed oil is also incredibly moisturizing, but beautifully lightweight, making it the perfect ingredient to feature in our hair oil and mask. I think the brands’ “lazy-girl hair” positioning has also been heavily influenced by me growing up in Australia. There’s a strong beach culture here, and I never felt like I was part of that “salty, beachy, effortless” hair that was considered the epitome of beauty. My drive to change the narrative around what’s considered beautiful hair has definitely been driven by that experience growing up, and not necessarily feeling like I fit that very narrow beauty ideal.   

How is the packaging eco-friendly? They’re made from thin layers of plastic, which reduces our plastic usage by about 60 to 70% compared to a standard plastic bottle. Because of the layering required to protect the product from and prevent it from spoiling, they’re not recyclable, but they do contribute less to landfill and require less production energy versus traditional rigid bottles, so there’s certainly a tradeoff. The landscape is changing constantly in terms of what’s actually moving the needle, so we're continuing to assess at what stage of the product life cycle our sustainability efforts will make the most impact. In an ideal world, we would have all of the above, so that’s something that we're working toward for the near future. Our glass bottle can be reused in so many different ways, and we’re looking into introducing refills.  

Why did you put a picture of a woman on the packaging? The decision to use a photo on our primary packaging came very early on. I knew that I wanted BREAD to exist in Sephora, and in retail space more generally. I wanted the woman who was going into Sephora and shopping for skincare or makeup to also be a BREAD customer. I wanted her to see herself reflected and know that there was a haircare offering in Sephora designed for her. Having worked in brand management in the past, I knew that sometimes retail environments can be hard to control and I thought if for any reason there was no other brand collateral around, and it was just the product on shelf, how would we signal to this customer very quickly that this product is for her? That’s why I made the decision to put faces on the front of the product. So that while she’s browsing skin and makeup, she may catch a glimpse of BREAD out of the corner of her eye and make her way over to the haircare section, even if she hadn’t planned to. In the textured hair space, having a face visual on products is actually quite common and old school. I wanted the face visual to not only signal to this customer that this product was for her, but also for it to be a nod to a design style that’s extremely nostalgic, but elevate and modernize it for today’s consumer.  

How is the shampoo different from a typical co-wash? The most noticeable difference is that it contains a surfactant, which is a cleansing ingredient. It’s a mild one, but still gives you that freshly cleansed feeling that you don’t often get with co-wash. When I first transitioned to my natural texture, co-washing was something I experimented with, but could never fully embrace. I still wanted to feel like I was getting an effective but gentle cleanse, without stripping my hair and creating crispy, crunchy dryness. So, I like to say that the hair wash is like a hybrid between a co-wash and a shampoo. It’s incredibly gentle, but you still get a nice mild creamy lather.  

What makes the conditioner unique? We really focused on creating a super clean formula that actually delivers. The hair mask is an amazing go-to moisture mask. It's vegan, Australian made and infused with Australian Kakadu Plum, our hero ingredient, which is an incredible native Australian super fruit. It’s a super lightweight extract that lubricates and conditions hair without being heavy and weighing the hair down. The hair mask also contains borage oil, carrot seed oil and sunflower seed oil—all incredible natural oils that will help give softness and suppleness to the hair. The hair-mask is also silicone free, which is important for textured hair so as to not simply coat the hair, but allow the hair to breath and for all of the good stuff to get in.  

How do you like to use the hair oil? I like to describe the hair-oil as a lip gloss, but for your hair. It really is my everyday go-to product that I use over and over again. It’s completely multi-purpose and can be used in so many different ways. First and foremost, it’s designed to be step three of the wash routine and applied to wet hair after you’ve washed and masked. It can also be applied to dry hair in between wash days. My favorite way to use it is as a pre-wash treatment. It’s infused with kakadu plum and safflower oil, and can be applied for at least two hours before washing for best results.  

How will BREAD help women embrace their natural hair and learn to care for it? I think one of the largest barriers to overcome with textured hair is the connotation that it's difficult to manage. We want to dispel that myth by encouraging more women with textured hair to embrace “lazy girl” styling and casual, done-undone looks, first starting with care products to address the health of the hair first and foremost. I think typically in the haircare space, women with curly or textured hair haven’t really been included in conversations around “effortless” hair. There's this rhetoric that textured or curly hair is hard, time consuming to look after and requires lots of product and manipulation. But I want our audience to feel like she can embrace lazy girl hair too—and that goes for all curl types and textures. What that looks like and what that means will look different across the curl type range, but I want all textures to be able to embrace this care-free ideal if they want to.  

Why did you take an anti anti-frizz stance as well as being cautious of using other terms that degrade natural hair? One thing that I noticed is that language used in the hair industry tends to unnecessarily demonize characteristics that are often very common or natural features of textured hair. “Frizz” in particular is one that irks me. There is nothing inherently wrong with the word “frizz” or in fact, with the existence of frizz. However, in the category, frizz is always framed as something bad—something undesirable, to get rid of. That’s just a beauty ideal that we as humans made up. Hair can still be healthy and frizzy at the same time. To be anti anti-frizz is to say that we don’t subscribe to the idea that frizz is aesthetically unpleasing. In fact, for me, it’s quite the opposite. I love frizz. I love big, poofy, unbrushed looking hair and I want more people to love it too. I’m making it our brands’ ambition to make frizz aspirational. If frizz is desirable, it means less work for women with textured hair. It means we can lean in to the idea of “lazy girl” hair and we don’t have to over manipulate our hair or spend hours on end trying to craft the perfect glossy curls in order for our hair to be considered “good curls.” My hair is 4C and coarsely textured. Maintaining the type of curl that is most often considered the curly ideal is just not realistic for me or for women who have hair like me. Let’s make all types of curls and texture not just acceptable, but desirable. I think as a brand we have that responsibility.