Meagan Pate launches Straand after embarrassing battle with dandruff
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Meagan Pate, pictured, co-founded Straand after becoming frustrated with a lack of dandruff options
Meagan Pate spent her teenage years trying every dandruff home remedy she could find, often canceling plans because of her flaky scalp.
And while she grew out of feelings of shame about the condition, she never forgot it and spent years searching for the right treatment.
When she realized it didn’t exist, she decided to make it herself. Straand was born two years later.
Speaking to FEMAIL, the 32-year-old co-founder from Melbourne explained that her products target the scalp and focus on creating a “balanced environment.”
“We really leaned into the idea of skin cycling when we developed our shampoo and treated it like we would use skin care,” she said.
“When the microbiome bacteria is out of balance, it manifests as dry or greasy hair, so we also need to treat it like gut health, which is about that balance.”
She added that many hair treatments in the past have stripped the hair and been harsh on the skin, with some even working to remove the color from the mold.
“When it comes to skincare, we know to build barriers instead of destroying it with harsh chemicals, which is how we’ve thought about hair,” she said.
Meagan avoided social situations when her scalp was at its worst, and doesn’t want other people to go through the same thing
Meagan was once embarrassed by her flaky scalp and tried every home remedy she could find to solve the problem – before developing a science-based shampoo
Meagan said she felt like the only person in the world who struggled with her flaky scalp as a young woman.
But since launching her brand, her friends have come out of the woods and confessed their own insecurities about their scalps.
“There are women I talk to about everything. We talk about skincare for hours, but are silent about our scalps,” she said.
And the huge market response indicates that people across Australia are looking for a product to solve their own problems.
“We launched with Adore beauty and within a few days they had ordered again, this time doubling.
“We were shocked because we hadn’t expected them to come back to us for a month.
“It went way beyond what we thought they’d order and according to sales, we’ll be in line for another big order soon,” she said.
The Straand products have now been on the market for three months and the company is already running over six figures
Straand appears to be an overnight success, but the team put in years of work before bringing the bright orange packaged products to market.
“We’re three months in now, but sometimes it’s easy to forget because we’ve been working on it for so long,” she said.
Meagan said the team decided to launch the shampoo first before quickly firing off the conditioner and scalp treatment and a range of accessories.
“It’s been very popular, in the first three months we’ve had over six-figure sales,” she said.
“We’re also preparing to launch in the US because we’ve had a lot of interest there, so it’s very exciting.”
The most difficult part of the brand’s success has been finding the ingredients to make the products that meet the demand.
Pictured here with her family, Meagan says success has come much faster than she expected, prompting people in her own friendship circles to share their own struggles with scalp care
“We’re very proud of the formulas, when we ran the conditioner the chemist was so proud she said it was the best thing she’d ever made,” said Meagan.
Meagan says her team has taken a strictly science-based approach to their formulas and will continue to do so as they expand their range.
Straand’s scalp serum has been called a “miracle treatment” online, and some reviews claim it’s the only thing that has helped with their ailments.
Meagan’s family is over the moon with her success, especially her grandmother.
“She said ‘of all the beauty about you to think all the attention is on your flaky scalp,'” she laughed.
Meagan’s co-founders include Sarah Hamilton, who is a co-founder of skincare company Sand & Sky, Jeremy Hunt, a finance and e-commerce heavyweight, Tim Brown, who has run high-profile companies, and Nick Morris, who has been in the industry for 25 years. personal care sector.