Passion lands Moreng into hair food manufacturing
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday August 14, 2020 12:43
With products that cater for both natural and relaxed heads, Moreng explained that her passion for hair inspired her to create something that will help others achieve a healthy hair journey.
She noted that she passionately manufactures hair products adding that when she went natural a few years ago, she developed a passion for hair and opened a YouTube and Instagram accounts named AfricNatural because she was mainly focused on natural hair.
“As I was preparing to open this hair care brand last year I decided to just stick to the name. ‘Afric’ stands for an African woman’s brand while ‘Natural’ stands for the natural ingredients used to make these products. For these past years, I have been giving hair advice and tricks and seeing that certain practices worked for me, I thought why not share them with everyone and help people enjoy their hair,” she revealed.
Moreng also told Arts & Culture that she knew the struggle of growing coarse hair very well. She said the type that is classified as 4C hair is the most coarse and kinkiest.
“I honestly do not struggle to manage my hair, I style it when I want, and have it out when I want because I have learnt that moisture is key to our type of African hair,” she confidently said.
Moreng further said the day she learnt that moisturising natural African hair daily was the key, was the day she said goodbye to painful combing.
She added that was why her products were infused with ingredients that give hair moisture and help retain that moisture. She explained that moisture helps one manage their hair painlessly.
Furthermore, Moreng said AfricNatural was made for all types of hair even the most kinkiest 4c hair type. She stated that her hair care line started off as a DIY (do it yourself) type of thing, where she would make her own products and use them.
After a lot of trials and errors, there were days she would painfully throw away a product because it had not come up the way she had planned.
However, all that helped her to eventually come up with natural and safe products. She pointed out that 70% was self-taught while she learnt the rest from the Internet.
“I researched a lot from other people internationally and honestly I got some good tricks there. But mostly my many experiments worked as my learning class. I am yet to approach dermatologists to test them, but I am very confident that they will approve them,” she said.
“The ingredients I use in my products have internationally been dermatologically proven. I definitely believe they are good for people with allergies as I try to use ingredients that are natural. Even the chemicals used are from naturally derived from sources.”
Moreng was confident that her hair care products were 100% safe for any type of weather even for Botswana’s high temperatures. So far, she stated that she had four products in her hair care line.
These include moisture restore shampoo, no frizz conditioner, seal in buttercream and rice oil. She explained that it took her about five months to perfect them for sale.
Just like any entrepreneur, Moreng faced a lot of challenges. She said 90% of the ingredients she used were not available locally so she had to look for them online.
However, thankfully some ingredients were available locally. Moreng added that she also incurred very expensive shipping and tax costs. The other challenge she faced was the COVID-19 pandemic, as she launched around the time of Botswana’s first lockdown.
Despite all these, she disclosed that the public had been supportive and optimistic about her products. She explained that some have used them and had given positive feedback.
“My products are free from paraben, sulphate and mineral oil. These are ingredients which are found in most products yet have been proven to be bad for our hair,” Moreng said.
“Do your hair a favour and get yourself AN products. By supporting AfricNatural you are not only supporting a brand, but also supporting a dream. My products can be bought from through my Facebook page Dumisile Moreng.”