This New Clean Hair Brand Wants To Amplify Latinx Representation

One of the most homogeneous categories of beauty products out there is hair care. Thankfully, there's been a major uptick (this year especially), in undoing vague, blanket formulas and focusing more on targeted essentials for specific hair types. The most recent example of this is new hair care brand Ceremonia, founded by Babba C. Rivera, which was made to take hair care to a deeper level while also amplifying representation for the Latinx community.

Born in Sweden, Rivera wasn't accustomed to seeing people she could relate to, especially when it came to beauty advertising. “I never really saw myself represented in any of the products that I consumed, let alone in media or sort of anything really," she explains to TZR over Zoom. "When I moved to the U.S., I was so happy to see there were more women like myself who are multicultural, [...] and I realized that the [country] actually has so many [Latinx individuals].”

That said, while the Latinx community makes up nearly 20% of the United States population, Rivera says the representation from brands still isn't there. “Despite the fact that we are such a massive group, I just saw a huge need for a brand that really celebrates the richness of the Latin culture," she explains. "That is way overdue and much-needed." Enter Ceremonia.

The clean brand's inaugural product — which can be preordered now from the site — is the Heritage Scalp Remedy Oil, aka Aceite de Moska ($25), which strengthens hair, encourages growth, promotes scalp health, and magnifies shine. Free of the 1,600 ingredients that are banned from cosmetics in Europe, this one, and every other formula under the Ceremonia umbrella, will have its own "cocktail of ingredients," many of which hail from Latin America. For Aceite de Moska, said cocktail consists of familiar elements like aloe vera and castor oil as well as lesser known ones like babassu, pataua, maracuja oils, and cupuacu butter.

Although each of Ceremonia's creations is deeply rooted in Latinx heritage, Rivera says that they are designed for all hair types. The brand also aims to disrupt the belief that products should improve upon your hair and turn it into something new, instead replacing it with the notion that hair care should actually help you to love the locks you currently have — as they are. Rivera finds it's easiest to think of it as "skincare for your hair."

"It's basically the way you see beautiful results in your skin if you take good care of it, so you don’t have the same need for makeup anymore," says Rivera. "That is what I want people to accomplish with their hair." This hits home for the founder, who went through plenty of trial and error with her own, until she got tired of the fight. “I just feel like, for the longest time, I was trying to make my hair something it wasn’t," says Rivera. "I would straighten it, I did highlighters, I was coloring it, I was bleaching it, and it just came to a point where my hair was so damaged. And it was just not the best version of itself, and yet it would never be anything else other than what it was meant to be."

This provided motivation for creating the products that are coming out of Ceremonia, which cater to the overall wellness of your hair and aim to prevent you from shelling out money on buzzy new products that may not actually do you any good. "I no longer spend hours styling it; I just spend time taking care of it, and by doing so I just unlock good hair days every day." Get on board this clean hair care movement by checking out Ceremonia's first-ever product, which is available for pre-order and launching soon.

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