It’s Time To Start Taking Your Haircare Routine As Seriously As Skincare

If you’ve spent any time at all on HairTok, then you’ve likely heard of Briogeo. A haircare brand that’s designed to work for all hair types and textures, Briogeo was founded by Nancy Twine, a former VP at Goldman Sachs, who created the brand after realising she was unsatisfied with her career and yearned for one she could feel passionate about.

This realisation came after Twine sadly lost her mum in 2010. She was inspired by childhood memories of experimenting together with ingredients from the health food store to create simple but effective beauty products (Twine’s mum was a chemist), which drove her to create a natural haircare brand that worked for everyone. 

“I was also starting to see this shift with more consumers starting to pay attention to what they were putting on their hair, skin, and body,” Twine tells Refinery29 Australia. “We pride ourselves on ingredient transparency, really being able to connect with all hair types… and [having] a 360 approach to haircare; we were actually the first brand in prestige haircare to create a scalp assortment because we really believe that healthy hair starts with a healthy scalp.”

When Twine launched the brand into Sephora in 2014, she became the youngest Black woman to ever do so, and a decade after its inception, Twine has built the brand into a nine-figure business, according to Forbes. Just one reason for the brand’s success can be attributed to Twine’s mission to create a brand that works for all hair types. “My desire to create a product line for all hair textures and types stemmed from experiences that I had when I was younger, and going to the beauty store and seeing a wide assortment of haircare products for non-textured hair types,” Twine says, adding that haircare for textured hair was usually visually unappealing and hidden away on the bottom shelf.  

“I feel like that sort of segregation of the haircare aisle made me feel like my hair type wasn't important, and when I created Briogeo, I really wanted to create one brand that all people could see themselves within, and instead of segregating people, I wanted to bring people together, no matter their hair texture, type, ethnicity, or background.”

The popularity of the brand is a testament to this mission. The brand’s 'Don’t Despair, Repair' range has gone viral on TikTok countless times, thanks to the Deep Conditioning Mask, $67, in particular, of which 40,000 units are sold every single month. “It's one of the first four products that I launched over a decade ago; it’s still our number one best-selling product,” says Twine. “I'm just a big believer that you should have a hair mask in your hair arsenal because it is the foundation for helping to keep your hair strong, protected, shiny, and healthy.”

Twine explains that the mask was formulated to have a unique and balanced amount and size of protein and moisture, to help create structural integrity in each strand and maintain elasticity. But in 2024, haircare is about more than just a simple shampoo, conditioner, and the occasional hair mask; we’re no longer relegating hair treatments to the moments where we feel like our hair needs to be brought back from the brink, but rather, building hair repair into every step of our routine. 

One of the most obvious ways many of us have been doing that in recent months is by using a hair treatment mask as our go-to slick back bun product. Though she certainly wasn’t the first to do it, Sophia Richie Grainge can be thanked for ushering in the trend that sees no sign of slowing down in 2024. (It is worth noting that hair stylists have cautioned against using this trick on wet hair, as it may cause breakage.) When asked whether the deep conditioning mask is best used in place of a conditioner when needed, or as part of a styling routine, Twine’s answer is simple: both. 

To be clear, the Don’t Despair, Repair Deep Conditioning Mask, is a rinse-out product, but Twine does admit that they’re seeing many people using the product to create a slick bun before going to run errands for a few hours, then coming home to wash it out. “People who decide not to do that will typically leave the product on in the shower while they wash their body to let it sink in and penetrate a little bit longer,” she says. “You do want to make sure that you leave it on a little bit longer than you would a standard conditioner so that you can get all of the benefits of penetration.”

After trialling the product in the weeks after speaking with Twine, I have successfully used the product as a styling product and also a mask in the shower, and love it both ways. In fact, my hair was notably softer than it is after using my typical bonding treatments (unsurprising, since the big focus here is on moisture). I can also confirm that it has a reasonably lightweight and buttery texture that works great for a slick bun, so that’s likely how I’ll use it going forward.

“This sort of sleek back, simple, ballerina style [bun] continues to be popular,” confirms Twine, adding that “ people are getting a lot more creative about using that style as an opportunity also to treat their hair.” She explains that Briogeo is also seeing many people using the Scalp Revival Rosemary Pre-Wash Oil, $55 to create a sophisticated sleek bun with a hidden treatment for both the hair and scalp. Twine adds that this type of hybrid product nods to one of the other big haircare trends of 2024, which some are calling the “skinification of hair”.

This trend (and product) speaks to the rise of scalp care in a category that’s generally focused on the strands of hair and not where those strands are sprouting from. As Twine explains, many people are starting to view their scalp care routine in a similar way to their skincare routine. “[People are becoming] a lot more ingredient-focused,” she says, explaining that this trend is an advantage for Briogeo as a brand that leverages high-potency natural ingredients to support healthy hair. 

With the speed at which trends come and go in the beauty industry, the rise of true haircare in a low-fuss and accessible way in 2024 feels like a breath of fresh air. So consider this your permission to take a few extra minutes this week to slather on a hair mask or hair oil (and then not wash it off until after you’ve run your errands).