DIZZIAK Haircare

Shampoo and Conditioner? We don't know her!

Dizziak changed the way I care for my hair. Founded by Loretta de Feo, Dizziak is a London based brand born out of a frustration with the Beauty industry teamed with a deep-rooted understanding of what needs to change. Loretta had tried multiple products whilst working as a beauty journalist and was never completely satisfied with haircare, so she took matters into her own hands.

Dizziak launched in 2018 with a Deep Conditioner (£22) that quickly gained popularity in the industry. The range expanded most recently with the addition of Hydration Wash (£20). Both products are centered around the belief that ultra moisturising haircare should be made available for all hair types without exception.

Loretta created this brand because there was nothing that served her. She wanted inclusive, accessible, luxury and high quality haircare that looked and smelt as good as those products available for, well… everyone else. This is why Dizziak made a conscious decision to highlight inclusion and actively avoid exclusion across all aspects from formula to marketing.

Having studied the UK beauty retail scene, it’s clear to see that Black hair is treated as an afterthought. For far too long an entire segment of customers have been ignored and their unique beauty needs often disregarded as being mutually exclusive with luxury. The irony being that the average Black customer spends more on beauty products that any other customer. I’d turn this into a thinkpiece as to ‘why’ but we all know the tea sis.

More often than not, high-end haircare wasn’t speaking to Black people and on the rare occasion it was it was, it used clichés and assumptions- it was whitewashed. It happens quite a lot when a product is made for someone without any genuine consideration to the unique beauty needs of your customers, rendering the products ineffective.

Black hair is as diverse as the cultures that surround it, but the general consensus was ‘All Black hair is dry and curly, so lets create a thick conditioning product’. It doesn’t work like that. Any conversations I have had with Black people about haircare both in and out of the industry have led to the same frustrations whereby a formula is either too thick and weighs hair down or lacks substance and makes no difference. This is why representation in beauty matters and why we need people who reflect the audience involved in the process to create them.

So on to the product: You won’t want to waste a drop and here is why…

HYDRATION WASH

Hydration Wash had big to shoes to fill after the incredible success of Deep Conditioner but it actually ended up becoming my favourite product- I repurchase this frequently and use it at least twice a week.

Hydration Wash is a essentially a shampoo (more a co-wash if we’re getting technical) but to call this pH balanced, sulphate free hydrating formula a shampoo frankly just seems disrespectful.

It has made my haircare routine so much easier. It cleanses my hair without stripping whilst leaving behind a layer of hydration and a gorgeous scent (it’s smells like a boujee spa- hold the lavender), particularly brilliant when you’re on holiday and can’t be bothered with a whole routine. This’ll refresh beach hair perfectly, just make sure to give it a shake before using to mix the oils and cleansing agents together.

DEEP CONDITIONER

Deep Conditioner is the OG. The first and arguably most iconic Dizziak product (with more to follow I am sure!). It can be used as a daily conditioner, intense weekly treatment and an overnight treatment.

Personally I use it as a weekly mask for 30 minutes and rinse out in the shower. My hair has never been softer and shiner! Being that my hair isn’t all that long, I rarely finish a bottle of this because I use a small amount each time, largely because Dizziak use their ingredients at levels where they are effective and not purely to be able to claim them on packaging at a ‘marketing level’.  A little really does go a long way! I’m always testing new products but I come back to this every time.

If you have longer, colour treated hair and find dryness and vibrancy is an issue, this will revolutionise your haircare routine. It uses a blend of quinoa protein, babassu, coconut,  argan oil and incha ichi oil to simultaneously moisturise and deeply hydrate the hair whilst balancing oil production.

Dizziak is playing a key role in changing the conversation around Black hair. There is a long way to go but it’s about working towards a future where it will no longer will it be acceptable or encouraged to treat it as an afterthought, spoken about tokenistically or referred to as ‘unruly’.

Black people should never walk into a retailer and be told products that are made to work for them aren’t stocked there. Much less should they be sent to a specialist location (in the UK it’s often a more affordable retailer) but if they had any other skin tone/ hair type they would be able to receive recommendations from a sea of brands.

Dizziak don’t overcomplicate things, they make high quality products, housed in beautiful minimalist packaging (that doesn’t just look like a cookie cutter Byredo ripoff) 😉

There are some brands that I trust almost instantly- this is one of them and I can’t wait to see what is next. I’m holding out for some styling products, I know they’d be major!

Have you tried Dizziak? Let me know on Instagram!

Dizziak Haircare is available at Dizziak.com, Cult Beauty, Liberty, Selfridges, Antidote Street and Sephora Europe.