Clean Up

Clean Up is a Danish hair care brand founded in Aarhus in 2020 by Christian Arhøj [2]. It specialises in fragrance-free, allergy-friendly products positioned as salon quality, and is built around a single idea: that hair care can perform well without perfume. The company sums up that stance in its tagline, "No perfume, no fragrance, no noise." Clean Up operates under the Danish company Oneblackcar ApS and sells chiefly within Denmark, through its own website and a network of retailers [5].

The brand remains active. Its most recent visible activity is a 2024 trade-press interview with the founder in the Danish hairdressing publication hair.dk [7].

The concept for Clean Up came to Arhøj during a sleepless, jet-lagged night in Los Angeles in 2018, and the brand launched two years later [2]. Arhøj is not a hairdresser; according to the trade publication hair.dk, he saw a gap in the Danish market because the exclusive hair products his company already distributed all contained perfume [7]. Drawing on his own experience with severe allergies, he set out to make effective hair care for people who are pregnant, allergic, or who simply prefer fragrance-free products.

The name itself signals the positioning. The company explains that the line is called Clean Up because it wanted a product "cleaned of allergy-causing substances," with a consistent thread running through ingredients, results, pricing, appearance and overall presentation.

Clean Up is owned and operated by Oneblackcar ApS, based at Karupvej 6 in Aarhus [5]. The company describes a background of more than a decade distributing high-end Scandinavian hair care before launching its own brand. Products are manufactured by Dermapharm [2].

The brand's central claim is that performance matters more than scent. In an interview with Scandinavian MIND, Arhøj framed the goal as letting people know "that it is possible to find simple, clean haircare of a quality that is worthy of a salon." Transparency is presented as a core value, extending — in the company's telling — beyond ingredients to pricing, choice of retailers and communication.

The intended audience began with salon clients who had allergies or ingredient sensitivities, including pregnant and nursing customers, and has since broadened to buyers who choose the products for their results regardless of fragrance preference. The line sits in a prestige price range above drugstore brands, consistent with its salon-quality positioning.

Clean Up sells a compact range of around nine items spanning shampoo, conditioner, styling and a hairbrush. Products are numbered rather than given descriptive names: the line includes a cleansing Shampoo 1, a moisturising Shampoo 2, a lightweight Conditioner 3, a Volume Spray, a Serum, a Volume Cream and a Soft Wax. The company says formulations were tested up to 30 times before release, and that nothing would launch unless the team rated it 10 out of 10 [7].

The brand's defining feature is certification by Asthma Allergy Nordic, whose "Den Blå Krans" (Blue Wreath) mark covers the products [4]. Most are described as sulfate-free, the exception being Shampoo 1, which contains a sodium laureth sulfate the company describes as gentle and approved by Asthma Allergy Nordic. The range is largely vegan as well, apart from the wax, which contains beeswax, and Shampoo 2, which contains hydrolysed keratin [4]. The Volume Spray has drawn the most editorial attention; ELLE Denmark featured it as a fragrance-free, allergy-certified styling product and noted that "a little goes a long way" [9].

Clean Up won the "Årets Care & Protect Pris" (Care & Protect Award of the Year) at the Danish Beauty Awards in 2022, where the panel cited its allergen-friendly ingredients and strong performance [3]. The brand also received Danish editorial coverage through 2022 in titles including ELLE, COSTUME, BØRSEN Pleasure and EUROMAN, much of it focused on the Volume Spray and the brand's fragrance-free system [9].

The brand is active and single-country in scope, operating from Aarhus with a live website carrying its full product line. Its most recent documented activity is the August 2024 interview with founder Christian Arhøj in hair.dk [7].