Did you know that studies show that most shampoos are 80% water and only 20% effective ingredients? TWF spoke with Stephanie Farsht, Co-Founder of Small Wonder about changing the industry with a salon-quality water-free shampoo.
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You’d never guess it, but all of that water in our personal care products like shampoos and conditioners isn’t necessary. “Traditional hair care products result in shipping tons of water and single-use plastics around the globe,” explains Stephanie Farsht, Co-Founder and COO of the luxury hair care brand Small Wonder. In the race against plastic pollution, shampoo bottles play a large role with an estimated 500 million ending up in landfills yearly. That, coupled with estimates that the average shampoo and conditioner have a ratio of 20% ingredients to 80% water, it would seem that the current watered-down shampoo and conditioner model is something that needs to be innovated.
Innovating the hair care industry is what Stephanie and her Small Wonder team set out to do when they began collaborating with scientists to develop hair care that not only met performance standards but was also made sustainably. Three years later the first product was born- a shampoo of potent ingredients in powder form, shipped in smaller bottles that could be refilled with powder formulas shipped in compostable paper.
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Learning about innovative and sustainable products that I can use every day is exciting. But, actually adopting them into my routine is a whole other thing. I realized that I can be a creature of habit, especially when it comes to my morning and evening routines. Yet, I’ve opted to stray from the traditional and try a personal care routine of solid products, so I opted to try powder shampoo for the sake of sustainability.
"As a woman with curly hair, I'm especially worried about products that will strip my hair of its natural oils and leave it feeling brittle. But, this powder shampoo felt nourishing and moisturizing without leaving any residue or a weird film. My scalp was clean. My hair felt like hair. And the powder was surprisingly easy to use. Oh, and a little goes a long way. I'd recommend using a dime-sized amount to begin and work that into a luxurious lather."
With a firm idea that innovation and sustainability go hand-in-hand, Stephanie shared more about the journey to formulate the perfect salon-grade powder shampoo and how she and her family have adopted other ways to be sustainable in their everyday lives.
How did you begin formulating your powder shampoo? What obstacles did you run into?
There were two primary obstacles in re-creating a professional-grade hair care experience in a waterless form. As you can imagine, one was creating the perfect formulation, which took years of research and development. Creating the powder formulations took years of research and development, prototyping, and testing with industry experts, formulators, and powder experts. Early on, we partnered with a top global salon manufacturer that had spent years innovating around dehydrating their high-quality ingredients used in salon formulations, and then we hired one of the world’s top R&D scientists to perfect a unique formula. Hundreds of shipped powder baggies and test showers later, we have our perfect formula.
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The second challenge, which we didn’t appreciate up front, was the need to create an entirely new dispensing experience. After we perfected the shampoo formula we realized we needed to solve dispensing challenges (keeping powder dry in the shower is no easy feat, and people are very used to using the old goopy pumps!). After almost a year in the making and dozens of prototypes, we’re about to launch our patent-pending Forever Bottle that perfectly dispenses in the shower, and a refill system that eliminates the need for single-use plastic.
Why are most shampoos and soaps generally gel and water-based?
I honestly think it’s a classic innovator’s dilemma situation. All of the incumbents are built entirely around the old way of doing it, and it’s hard to change. “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it!” But we think it is broken! Traditional hair care products result in shipping tons of water and single-use plastics around the globe, just to end up with diluted shampoos and conditioners filled with unnecessary fillers and preservatives. (And not to mention landfills and oceans filled with plastic).
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Shampoo is typically 80% water. At Small Wonder, by shipping customers professional-grade products without water, we’re able to keep our ingredients stable and fresh up until the moment you wash your hair. This form factor eliminates the need for added fillers and preservatives, increases the concentration and efficacy of the product, and dramatically decreases your carbon footprint by eliminating single-use plastic and shipping heavy water.
Small Wonder Shampoo
Undiluted ingredients hydrate and cleanse hair. Keep the bottle and refill within 3 months with shampoo powder shipped in a compostable paper mailer. $36
How do you sustainably source ingredients?
We scour the earth and work with fabulous researchers and manufacturing partners to select and source each of our ingredients. This is table stakes for us, and we think it should be for everyone. All our ingredients are high quality, clean, effective, and easily pass the Sephora Clean test, the Ulta Made Without test, and the Credo Clean test. And our proprietary compound, SHINE37™ dramatically reduces the amount of water used to create complex powder ingredients that activate without effort.
What are the benefits of Small Wonder?
At the end of the day, it has to be about the hair! We’re obsessed with delivering your best hair, not just powder. All of our formulations are sulfate-free, paraben-free, and color-safe. We use high-quality ingredients such as jojoba oil for locking in moisture, coconut oil for gentle cleansing, zea mays for adding shine, kaolin for nourishing the scalp, and guar for detangling. All of the high-quality, salon-grade ingredients are kept in concentrated form until you shower, eliminating the need for fillers and extra preservatives. Our professional hair styling partners and customers have said their hair has never felt better, softer, cleaner, and more hydrated!
What’s next for Small Wonder?
We are building a platform that is delivering high quality, professional formulations in the shower and bath. Our newly launched shampoo will be in our patent-pending forever bottle at the beginning of 2024, and our conditioner and refill pouches will launch right after. You should start to see us pop up in more places, and then stay tuned for product line extensions!
How do you live sustainably in your everyday life?
Sustainable living takes on so many forms and variations. For me, it has always been finding ways to upgrade while reducing waste. Our family first made the switch to using all concentrates for our cleaning products (think glass cleaner, multi-surface cleaner, etc.) – we have not purchased a bottle of water-filled cleaning products in years. This experience of dropping a concentrated tablet into our existing spray glass bottle and adding our water was one of the primary motivators in building Small Wonder. We enjoyed the alchemy and science of watching the concentrate activate into a highly effective cleaner! If we can upgrade that cleaning experience while reducing waste, we know we could provide a magical, upgraded experience in the shower and bath.
