They manifested this!
Hannah Diop and Issa Rae are the founders behind Sienna Naturals, a natural hair care brand that has been creating clean products since 2012, Marie Claire reports. Crafted with textured hair care in mind, Diop said her childhood experience inspired the brand. Growing up in a family that valued clean products and wellness-based living, Diop often struggled to find items that met her strict standards for ingredients and worked well with her curl pattern. As an adult, it’s an issue she jumped at solving.
“Most of the world has textured hair so it’s time that we start designing for texture. And what you find is that you create something new and better when you do,” said Diop.
Now, the brand Diop founded with her sister-in-law Rae is officially available online at Sephora, something the duo literally manifested.
“I was scrolling through my phone the other day and found a text message between myself and Issa from a screenshot I had taken in 2018, and in it, I was like, ‘We’re going to take this all the way to Sephora.’ and she was like, ‘Let’s go,’” Diop explained.
For the two, being sold at Sephora online, the largest beauty retailer in the U.S., is a dream come true and a true brand builder for the vegan hair care company. Sienna Naturals previously worked with Sephora’s Accelerate brand incubator program, so this was a full-circle moment. Diop said Sephora’s intentionality behind supporting and investing in BIPOC-owned and founded beauty brands only enhances the company’s reputation.
“Sephora [also] has this track record for championing women founder brands at an early stage and growing them into these global, iconic brands. They really operate differently, in that regard, from a lot of other retailers, and that’s their secret sauce,” said Diop.
Now, fans of the brand can access their products online at Sephora.com nationwide. Rae says that with this expansion, they hope to educate more shoppers about the importance of caring for their natural hair.
“I think that we, especially in marketing, kind of gloss over that fact that it is hard to take care of our hair sometimes. For me, my actual journey was absolutely reflective of that…after having experimented so much and damaging my hair. [Testing with my own products allowed me to] get back to the literal root of my hair,” said Rae.
“We want to be at the start of people’s journeys with taking care of and being conscious of what they’re putting in their hair. We want to be part of the positive aspects of their journeys while acknowledging that, yeah, it’s hard,” she added.
You can shop the full Sienna Naturals product line now at Sephora.com.
Cover photo: ‘Sienna Naturals’ Hair Care Brand Is Now Available at Sephora/Founders Hannah Diop & Issa Rae/Photo Credit: Sienna Naturals