Waterless hair care brand, OWA Haircare, is relaunching as Susteau, following a successful year of growth for the company. In 2020, the brand experienced significant digital growth including a 5x increase in their email subscriber database, 107 percent boost in CVR (conversion rate) and saw over 90 percent of their revenue come from ecommerce sales (compared to just under 70 percent in 2019). With new product launches and a new US & global distribution strategy planned for 2021 – Susteau projects to cross $3M in revenue by the end of the year. Pronounced “SUST-toh”, the name-change combines “sustainability” and “eau”, the French word for water, to further advocate for the brand’s sustainable approach to using little to no water in its products.

“The name OWA Haircare limited us to hair care and we see Susteau going beyond that category to become a global lifestyle brand offering clean, conscious, concentrated alternatives to mostly-water personal care products,” said Kailey Bradt, who founded the brand in 2017 after realizing that most hair care products are made up of 80 percent or more of water. “We have some exciting retail partnership news that we’ll be announcing in the coming months, along with two new products that we’ll be launching this summer that have never been done in a waterless way before.”

As part of the revamp, Susteau will be introducing Moondust Hair Conditioner, a counterpart to its cult-favorite debut product, Moondust Hair Wash, a powder-to-liquid shampoo designed to be activated with water. The new conditioner is formulated with rice protein, shea butter, squalane and aloe vera designed to work together to offer conditioning, shine and fullness. Both products became available for pre-order on the newly relaunched website, susteau.com, today for $29.

Susteau will also debut packaging utilizing the highest percentage of ocean-bound recycled plastic with the goal of delivering the product more effectively with less waste. Additionally, shipping boxes made from post-consumer waste will now be used and secondary packaging for a majority of their ecommerce business will be eliminated.

To help consumers adjust to the rebrand, a personalized email from Kailey will be sent out to current customers with news about the name change, as well as updates such as requested brand improvements, the packaging upgrade and new conditioner. The brand will also be relying on its community to spread the word via social media.

In January 2020, the company closed a Seed round led by New Theory Ventures. Pre-seed investors include Tina Bou-Saba (Angel, CxT Investments), RIT Venture Fund and Precursor Ventures. Susteau’s total funding raised to date is $3.3 million, according to Crunchbase.

“From the days of bootstrapping, I never envisioned it would take almost five years to launch the brand the way I had initially conceptualized. Now, with the right partners, a resilient team and an enthusiastic community, Susteau can launch with all the elements I dreamt up so many years ago,” said Kailey said. “Susteau’s approach to beauty encourages consumers to rethink what personal care looks like while challenging the industry to be more transparent when it comes to sustainability. This is only the beginning.”