Welcome to The Spotlight, our monthly column by journalist Precious Adesina.

Each month, Precious will introduce us to an innovate Black entrepreneur making waves in their industry. In today's edition, meet the co-founders of Ruka Hair...

Some of the best and most innovative products are born out of frustration - something CEO Tendai Moyo and COO Ugo Agbai understand.

The pair launched their company, Ruka Hair, out of a need to find hair extensions that not only replicate the texture of their natural hair but keep their locks healthy underneath. “The differentiating factor in the products that we make is that they are built from the perspective of people who actually get it,” says Ugo.

Founded in 2020, Ruka Hair makes extensions that match the different types of curly and coily hair found on Black women. And, despite Ruka Hair not even being up to two years into the game, their brand has been seen on the likes of broadcasting and radio host Julie Adenuga, sprinter Dina Asher Smith and actor Demi Singleton (currently starring in the newly released biopic, King Richard, as Serena Williams).

The response from Ruka’s community tells you all you need to know about the demand for this product. In an Instagram call-out in mid-November 2020, the brand invited their audience to become ‘co-creators’ – testing product and providing feedback. By November 27th,  200 Black women had signed up. That number only continues to grow…

Ruka Hair founders Ugo Agbai and Tendai Moyo

How did you get the idea for Ruka Hair?

Tendai: Growing up I often relaxed my hair, [chemically straightened it]. When I stopped a few years ago, it was really difficult to find extensions that looked like my natural hair. As a result, the overall experience of getting my hair done became a chore so it felt like the right time to create something new.

A lot of people producing Black hair products or selling them aren't Black themselves. Is this something you thought about when you were starting your business?

Tendai: It’s scary. It means that the care just isn’t there. There's not even much consideration into how Black women will react to the bad chemicals being put into products such as synthetic hair extensions. It was so important for us to think about how we could make sure that customers enjoy discovering and learning about our products and it being good for them. 

What’s the process behind starting a hair extensions company?

Ugo: The first thing you need to do is find a great supplier. For some people that can mean making a lot of phone calls, but for us, it was a lot of sampling. It was a process of not just finding a vendor, but a partner that could scale to the volumes that we want. Customising our extensions so that they represent the different hair types seen on Black people added an extra layer of complexity to the process.

Tendai: I think what really differentiates us as a brand is that we put our community first. We created a group of ‘co-creators’, where Black women who want to change the hair industry can get involved in the process of developing new products. Those co-creators helped us pick everything from our packaging to our logo design to what the first three textures we'd start out with would be. Everything we have launched has been guided by this community of women who know exactly what they want.

How do you source the hair?

Ugo: Most human hair in the market is sourced from India, Hong Kong and some countries in Europe. Part of the reason for that is that, biologically speaking, those strands are the most robust for further processing. So, if you want to dye it or curl it for example, having hair that originates from certain countries means that the human hair will survive long enough for you to be able to do further work on it. For us, we work with a partner that sources hair that can be put through a chemical free process to create the custom textures that we've designed.

How do you start a company during a pandemic?

Tendai: When we were launching the company, we looked at what trends were prevalent at the time. It was a really horrible period for a lot of people. Consequently, they started looking for forms of self-care they could do at home such as DIY hair routines and skincare. They were also being more experimental. So, I think we have actually benefited from the pandemic in that sense, but it also meant sampling from our houses and having meetings with all of our investors via Zoom. It forced us to understand our story better because we couldn’t rely as much on the intimacy of meeting someone in person. We had to get people excited digitally.

How do you feel about the reception of your product?

Tendai: Overwhelmed but also unsurprised. People recognise the amount of care that has gone into our products. I know how frustrating it is to buy something and be only 50% sure that it's going to work for you. I like that people feel confident enough to write to us and say, ‘here's a picture of my hair type or  here's a picture of me. What do you think is the right product for me?’ Those are the moments where I feel as if we’re building something that matters.

Ruka Hair co-founder Ugo Agbai

Ruka Hair co-founder Tendai Moyo

How did you go about categorising the hair as it doesn’t use conventional descriptions of curly hair types?

Ugo: We spent a lot of time debating as a team and with our co-creators on the existing hair type system available worldwide [for example type one being straight hair and type four being coily or kinky hair]. We had very mixed feelings about it. The commonly used system makes it easy to understand what might work for you, but the challenge of it is that it completely removes all the nuances that exist with black women’s hair. For example, we had a session where one co-creator mentioned that her hair was relaxed and asked where it fit into that system.

Forbes wrote that you’ve entirely deconstructed the shopping experience. What does this mean to you?

Tendai: If you look at the traditional shopping experience for hair extensions, it's pretty archaic. One of our investors described it as similar to how people bought Viagra a decade ago. Viagra was something to be ashamed of, but it was something that a large portion of the population needed and actually used. It was this taboo topic and the shopping experience was seen as dirty.

As a young girl, buying hair extensions was an experience I didn't really want to talk about. I felt as if people didn’t understand it and that we were cast off to the corners of the earth to find our products. Also, if it was an online experience, we were talking to someone in China who wasn’t knowledgeable on Black hair and you couldn't return the extensions if you didn't like it. I think what we've seen in recent years is that the perception of extensions has changed as more celebrities wear it, but for some reason the Black hair shopping experience hasn't evolved in the same way. For us, it was about making a dignifying shopping experience that brings a sense of pride.

We used to describe ourselves as the Fenty Beauty of hair extensions, but now, the Apple of Black hair and beauty is more fitting for our future vision of the brand. With your Apple products, you have your MacBook, which ties into your Airpods, which ties into your iPhone. We're starting with hair extensions, but we’re going to create a complementary range of hair products alongside it and then eventually tap into styling tools so that everything that you have works together. It will create a certain amount of ease that Black women haven’t had before.

You’re launching The Village on your website. What is it?

Ugo: Ditally, there's loads of stuff for skincare and makeup such as product matching and schedule building but for hair, it’s still a source of logistical pain. Whenever I buy anything I have about 50 tabs open with stuff to watch and read just to make a choice on one product. We thought that there needed to be something that could help make the process easier. We were constantly receiving messages from people about having the ability to connect with others and use their experiences as a way to improve their own routines. The Village will be a tool for our existing community to do this.

Ruka Hair is available at rukahair.com