Dr Oseitutu and I met through a mutual friend, Dr. Anthony Rossi, a dermatologist from NYC. Dr. Rossi is a fellowship trained Mohs Surgery and Cosmetic board certified dermatologist practicing at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He visited Prof Dlova’s Dermatology Department at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN as part of a Dermatology Surgery volunteering visiting and training program that she established with Brigham Women’s Hospital, Harvard, and Columbia University. During one of our dinner outings, I was chatting to Dr. Rossi about my interest in hair transplant and restorative procedures for hair loss for African Hair. He immediately connected me with his colleague Dr. Achiamah Osei-Tutu, a hair transplant surgeon and hair restoration expert in New York City.

On one of my annual NYC academic meeting visits, I made sure to meet Dr Oseitutu and she kindly accommodated me in her busy clinic and taught me a lot about her hair practice and hair transplantation. Whilst sharing our experiences about hair and its nuances we started chatting about the lack of dermatologist created hair products for the African market. I shared my dream of using the knowledge that I had garnered during my PhD on Ethnic skin and Hair to try and develop superior and elegant hair products for us and our patients. It turned out that she also had similar aspirations, and the rest is history. We compiled research data on hair products, cosmetic chemistry, and the effects of combining botanicals and synthetic actives for hair follicle and hair shaft health. We engaged via skype meetings once every 3 weeks to update each other about the progress we had made. We attended international hair congresses for deeper study on hair and hair loss.

We then started working with our formulating chemist and tried a number of formulations before deciding on our current Nwelle range. The products were also piloted on 20 of our local dermatologists and we were intentional in getting experts in the field to try the whole range. The result was a 100% thumbs up from the survey that we conducted to assess the texture, fragrance, consistency, and softening and detangling effect of the Nwelle range. We added a special hair freshener, which is suitable for both genders. The products are so gentle they are suitable for the whole family.