5 minute read
FEMALE FOUNDERS: POWER STRANDS
POWER STRANDS: HOW TWO FEMALE FOUNDERS ARE DISRUPTING THE HAIR AISLE
From supermarket shelves to TikTok feeds, two Australian female founders are making waves in the haircare aisle—each driven by a personal story, a sharp business mind, and a mission to make premium products accessible to all.
By Josie Gagliano and Michelle Ruzzene
NATALIE CASSAR: FROM FAMILY FIX TO NATIONAL FAVOURITE
Natalie Cassar is the Co-Founder and Owner of BluSky Brands, the Australian consumer goods company behind Headgear, Jack the Barber, Barber & Co—and most recently, the women’s haircare range Thanks To Nature. Since launching in Woolworths in 2020, Thanks To Nature has rapidly expanded into hair styling, personal wash, hand-wash and hair removal categories, with distribution across Australia, New Zealand and beyond.
“After years of working in FMCG, when you set out to create your own brand you think to yourself, ‘Wow, imagine what it would feel like to see your own brand on the shelf of a supermarket.’ And now here we are!”
Cassar, who previously held senior roles at Unilever, Henkel and TCC Global, says the idea for Thanks To Nature was born from personal experience.
“I have really thick, dry, coarse curly hair that only ever responded well to very expensive hair care products. When my hair was long, I was spending a fortune and kept thinking—there has to be another way.”
Although the brand was originally created with herself in mind, the journey quickly became a family affair. “At the time, our kids were quite young, so they didn’t fully grasp what we were building… Our daughter, who’s now 18, has started working in the business and is genuinely enjoying it. That’s something we didn’t foresee, but it’s been a lovely and unexpected part of the journey.”
While many start-ups begin online, Thanks To Nature took a different path: “We actually launched the brand in Woolworths right from the beginning. We already had a proven track record with our men’s care brand, Jack The Barber, so when we identified a clear gap in the market, we pounced.”
The brand’s name, she explains, reflects both its clean ingredient ethos and sense of gratitude: “It acknowledges the power and efficacy of natural ingredients, while also giving a nod to the simplicity and beauty found in the natural world.”
As a passionate advocate for accessible beauty, Cassar says: “We wanted to make high-quality, salon-standard products accessible to everyone… Being part of that shift has been incredibly rewarding.”
RACHAEL WILDE: GEN Z VISION MEETS SCALP SCIENCE
Meanwhile, on pharmacy shelves and TikTok feeds, fellow founder Rachael Wilde—Co-Founder and CMO of York St Brands, and Head of Marketing at tbh Skincare—has launched Bouf, a bold new haircare brand developed using patented FGF5-inhibiting technology to help stop hair loss in its tracks.
“We were introduced to the patented technology behind Bouf and were really impressed by the clinical results. After trialling the products myself and falling in love with the results, it was clear this tech was too special to sit under one of our existing brands,” Wilde told Retail Beauty
Over 33% of women over 30 experience some form of hair thinning, and Wilde saw a clear opportunity: “We saw an opportunity not just to serve this customer, but to speak to them in a really unique and distinct way. At York St Brands, our strength lies in building community-led brands and we’re bringing everything we’ve learned from tbh and Boost Lab into this new category with Bouf.”
To bring Bouf to life, Wilde enlisted TikTok Creator of the Year Indy Clinton, a mum of three with 2.7 million followers and a candid approach to postpartum hair loss.
“Indy was a natural choice when we started thinking about who the face of the launch campaign could be. I’ve followed her for years and always loved her chaotic, fun energy,” said Wilde. “It was an absolute non-negotiable for her to trial the products and see a strong result before signing on as a partner.”
Clinton, who had experienced hair loss following each of her pregnancies, said the transformation was life-changing: “Before it was thin, had heaps of breakage, and now it’s thick and luscious. But to me the biggest difference is my confidence and how I feel. My before and afters are crazy—I just cannot believe this is my hair now, it’s wild.”
She added: “I would never put my name to anything that didn’t work. Trust me, I get approached all the time to do beauty brand deals and I’ve turned away so many big jobs like this, because the products just don’t work.”
The name Bouf (pronounced “boof”) is a cheeky nod to bouffant-style volume and the dramatic transformation the range delivers. The lineup features five SKUs— hair-growth tonic, shampoo, conditioner, leave-in mask and supplements—priced from $29.95 to $39.95 and available now at Priceline, Atomica, and Bouf.com.
MAKERS. MARKETERS. MOVERS.
From Natalie’s family-first mission to Rachael’s science-backed strategy, both founders exemplify the new face of Australian beauty entrepreneurship: purpose-led, customer-first, and unapologetically bold.
