Episode 29: Suki Suki Naturals - Linda Gieskes-Mwamba

Linda Gieskes-Mwamba, founded the South African brand Suki Suki Naturals to solve a personal need for natural hair products that were affordable and accessible for people with Black hair types. After making her hair care products using ingredients found in her kitchen, like avocados, ripe bananas, and yogurt, she realized that through Suki Sukie naturals, there was a way to share her traditions of raw ingredients sourced from the earth.

As a South African native, she wanted to showcase that an African brand can be scientifically based, well researched, well formulated, and has a place in the global market. She incorporated her love, tradition, and knowledge into Suki Suki Naturals to showcase a specially formulated, harm-free premium brand, revealing a perspective on beauty that most of the world hasn't yet seen. While sharing her journey with her brand, she shares information to help listeners determine their hair prosperity, offers transparency on where her ingredients are produced and grown, and educates people on how to make healthier purchase decisions.

Quote from interviewee for call-out box:

“The idea is to just showcase that an African brand doesn't have to be like an artisanal brand. It can be very scientific based; it can be very well researched and very well formulated.”

Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss:

Kalahari Melon seed oil is rich in vitamin E and can be found in the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa.
Black hair types require more attention to texture and dryness because the scalp produces natural oils for the hair, but the hair texture may make retaining those oils down each strand more difficult.
Prickly pear oil is native to countries with arid and dry soil and climate, and it has 150 times more vitamin E than argan oil, which is celebrated for its vitamin E content.

Check Out These Highlights:

How you can determine the porosity level of your hair (7:20)
Linda educates on some of the powerful properties of the raw botanical ingredients sourced from Africa (17:53)
Linda shares some of her skincare products (24:15)

Quotes:

“Today we definitely feel like things have changed and it's also a question of knowledge and education that you realize that actually my kind of hair loves this ingredient and it's not specifically expensive…”
“The idea is to really educate and then the consumer can make better choices.”
“At the time, there was so little on the South African market. The haircare industry was definitely more geared towards Caucasian hair types and we didn't have the knowledge as well.”