# Flora & Curl ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 2017 | | Origin | United Kingdom | | Headquarters | Birmingham | | Status | Active | | Manufacturing | United Kingdom | | Distribution | Multi-channel | | Website | https://floracurl.co.uk/ | Flora & Curl is a British haircare brand that makes plant-based products for curly, coily and wavy hair. It was founded by Rose Ovensehi, who launched the company online in 2017 after several years of writing about natural hair care on a blog and a YouTube channel [8]. The company lists an address in Birmingham, England, and remains independent and wholly owned by its founder. The brand grew out of the natural hair movement of the 2010s, in which women with textured hair stopped chemically straightening it and shared their routines online. From a handful of products mixed in a family kitchen, Flora & Curl has developed into a range sold through its own web store and through high-street chains in the United Kingdom, with the United States as its largest customer market. A 2024 rebrand moved the range into aluminium bottles and reorganised it into collections named after the needs they address. ## Origin & founders Rose Ovensehi describes the brand's beginnings as a personal one. For years she had used relaxer cream, a chemical straightener, to hide her natural texture, and she has said this left her with damaged, thinning hair and sore scabs on her scalp. At the age of 16 she decided to stop and let her natural hair grow. As she researched what to use instead, she began experimenting with oils and other ingredients from her kitchen cupboard. In her own account, she started "whipping and mixing raw oils and botanical ingredients" in her mother's kitchen, and those home formulas became the basis of the first products [2]. Before there was a brand, there was an audience. From 2013, Ovensehi shared what she was learning about ingredients and products through a blog called 4C Hair Inspiration, which quickly gained around 3,000 subscribers, and a YouTube channel called NaturalRose that had drawn close to 1.6 million views by early 2018. She has credited the online natural hair community with giving her support during that transition. The first half of the name comes from "flora", Latin for plant life, reflecting the brand's reliance on botanical ingredients. When the brand launched, Ovensehi was in her early twenties and working full-time in urban planning, using her salary to help support a business she had funded herself with an initial investment of 6,000 pounds. ## History & milestones Flora & Curl went on sale through its own website in 2017 with just three products and around 500 people signed up for early access [11]. According to a 2018 profile in the trade publication Beauty Independent, the first three products, released in April 2017, were African Citrus Superfruit Hair Oil, Flower Garden Hair Butter and Jasmine Oasis Hydrating Hair Mist, the last of which became the early bestseller. Ovensehi asked customers in a social media poll what they wanted next, and the answer led to Curl Refresh Clay Wash in August. In December the range grew again with African Citrus Superfruit Shampoo and Rose & Honey Milk Leave-In Detangler. Demand arrived from further afield than the founder had expected. By early 2018, half of the website's sales came from the United States, and the company had customers in places such as Singapore, India, Germany, France and the Netherlands. In November 2017 it handed order fulfilment to an outside provider to keep up with deliveries, and it had a manufacturer lined up that could scale production if larger retailers came on board. In January 2018 the brand entered Content Beauty & Wellbeing in London, and it was then stocked in a dozen stores beyond its own site. At that point Ovensehi named Whole Foods, Ulta Beauty, Target, Selfridges and Space NK as retailers she hoped to reach. The business was financed step by step through borrowing rather than outside investors. A loan of 25,000 pounds from Virgin StartUp, a nonprofit offshoot of Virgin, allowed the company to move production to a third-party manufacturer. A bank loan of 50,000 pounds followed, and both were later repaid in full. In 2023 Ovensehi secured a flexible loan of 500,000 pounds, which can be drawn on and repaid at any time, to fund a rebrand and meet larger order volumes. That rebrand was reported in April 2024 and cost close to 170,000 US dollars once product development and marketing were included [9]. It replaced plastic bottles with brightly coloured aluminium ones decorated with flower and plant graphics, and it upgraded the formulas of seven of the 17 products then in the range. The products were regrouped into four collections, Hydrate Me, Soothe Me, Style Me and Protect Me, each named for a hair need. Ovensehi said at the time that she wanted shoppers to understand what the brand stood for as soon as they saw it on a shelf. The rebrand also served a commercial goal. About 60% of orders were by then coming from the United States, and Ovensehi said the brand was selling out on its US site. As of April 2024, she was seeking retail partners in the country, naming mass-market chains such as Target, CVS and Walgreens, and was considering manufacturing there. South America was also on the company's distribution plans at that time. Ovensehi forecast that sales would rise by 50% in 2024. ## Ownership Flora & Curl has no parent company. As of April 2024, Ovensehi owned the business outright and it employed 16 people [9]. No acquisitions, mergers or outside equity investments in the company have been reported; its growth has been funded through the founder's own money and the loans described above. ## Philosophy & positioning Simplicity is the idea the brand returns to most often. Its stated mission is to "simplify your curl routine", and its tagline is "effortless curl care for all". In the founder's story on the company website, Ovensehi says that looking after curly hair does not have to be complicated or slow, and that "less ultimately means more" [2]. She has linked this approach to the brand's success, arguing that many people do not want to spend much time on their natural hair and that a company's job is to make the routine straightforward. That thinking shapes the range itself. In 2024 Ovensehi said the company was careful not to expand its assortment too far, preferring a set of basic products that deliver results with natural ingredients. Even in 2018 she framed the brand around specific outcomes rather than ingredients for their own sake, saying every ingredient chosen "has a reason". The company organised its early range around hair goals such as moisture, growth, detangling, shine, defined curls and a balanced scalp, and Ovensehi singled out scalp health as the most important, on the view that a healthy scalp produces healthy hair. Education is a second strand. The brand runs a blog called The Curl Hub with practical articles on topics such as caring for braids on wash day and handling the transition from relaxed to natural hair, and Beauty Independent reported that the blog has been a strong source of visitors to its site. The company's website also offers a curl-type guide and a quiz that suggests products. Ovensehi has said she wants the brand to stand for good ingredients and good information, and to challenge stereotypes about what textured hair needs. The company describes its values as simpler and more enjoyable routines combined with less plastic and recyclable packaging, summed up on its site as "caring for your curls, caring for the planet". Its marketing has leaned on paid social media and search advertising, along with influencers; to launch the rebrand it worked with several paid creators on content built around their wash-day and styling routines. ## Products & innovation The range covers the main steps of a curly-hair routine: cleansers, conditioners, leave-in moisturisers and mists, masks and treatments, oils and styling products. Rose water and hibiscus are the two botanical ingredients the brand puts most visibly forward, and both appear in the graphics on its packaging. In 2024 its bestseller was Sweet Hibiscus Curl Volumizing Foam from the Style Me collection. Other products the company highlights include Rose Water Detangling Lotion, Citrus Superfruit Radiance Oil and Coconut Mint Scalp Refresh Pre-Shampoo Oil. The early formulas drew on a long list of plant oils and extracts, among them mongongo, manketti, baobab, watermelon, avocado, argan, coconut and papaya oils, as well as aloe vera, damask rose, hibiscus and green tea extracts and shea butter. Today the company says its products contain no sulfates, silicones, parabens, mineral oil, petrolatum, artificial colours or "unnecessary fillers" [6]. In 2018 Ovensehi also listed synthetic fragrances, phthalates, petrochemicals and isopropyl alcohol among the ingredients the brand avoided. The range is not vegan as a whole. The company groups some products into a vegan-friendly collection, but others contain honey. No third-party certifications, such as organic or cruelty-free labels, are documented for the brand. The brand's website now also lists a fifth goal-based collection, Strengthen Me, aimed at strength and resilience, alongside the original four. It also sells kits that bundle products into wash-day and styling routines, offers a subscription service and has a line marketed for children. ## Sustainability Packaging was the centre of the 2024 rebrand. The company says it has replaced plastic bottles with aluminium ones across its entire haircare range, describing aluminium as infinitely recyclable. Pumps are the main exception, and the figures for how plastic-free the packaging is differ by source. The brand's own sustainability page puts it at up to 70% plastic-free by weight, or about 69% on average [4]; Beauty Independent's 2024 report on the rebrand gave a figure of 90% [9]. The brand's number is the more detailed of the two, as it explains how pumps and closures are counted. The company also says it ships orders in recyclable boxes and publishes a guide to recycling its packaging. Through its giving-back programme, it funds tree planting to support reforestation [5]. ## Recognition The brand's earliest documented award came in 2018, when it was named Editor's Choice in The Curl Leaders, a feature run by the curly-hair website naturallycurly.com [10]. The company now describes itself as the winner of more than 50 awards and groups those products in a dedicated collection on its website [7]. A 2023 profile in Sustainable Packaging News gave a lower count of over 20 awards as of 2022 [11]. The gap most likely reflects the timing of the two statements rather than a contradiction, and neither figure comes with a published list. Beyond awards, the brand has been profiled twice by Beauty Independent, at launch in 2018 and again during the 2024 rebrand, and Ovensehi was interviewed for the "Women in business" series of the magazine Black Beauty & Hair in 2020. ## Current status Flora & Curl is active. Its web store was operating in 2026, with a separate storefront for European customers, and the brand is stocked by the UK health and beauty chains Boots and Superdrug. Its reach outside the UK is described in different ways. The company's own site says the brand has gone "from kitchen table to 70 countries" [1], while Beauty Independent reported in 2024 that it ships to more than 80 countries [9]. The United States remains the largest customer market. The most recent independent press coverage of the brand dates from April 2024. Whether the US retail partnerships discussed at that time have since been secured has not been publicly reported. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 2013 | Founder Rose Ovensehi (pre-brand) starts the blog 4C Hair Inspiration and the YouTube channel NaturalRose about hair ingredients and products. | https://orbit.beautyindependent.com/article/flora-and-curl-textured-hair | | 2017 | Brand launches online at floracurl.co.uk with three products and 500 early-access sign-ups. | https://spnews.com/meet-flora-curl/ | | 2017 | Fulfilment outsourced in November (per a February 2018 article). | https://orbit.beautyindependent.com/article/flora-and-curl-textured-hair | | 2018 | Enters London's Content Beauty & Wellbeing (January, per a February 2018 article). | https://orbit.beautyindependent.com/article/flora-and-curl-textured-hair | | 2021 | Launches in Superdrug stores; tree-planting funding with WeForest starts the same year. | https://spnews.com/meet-flora-curl/ | | 2023 | Launches a selection of products online and in-store at Boots (the article dated November 2023 says 'this year'). | https://spnews.com/meet-flora-curl/ | | 2024 | Rebrand (reported April 2024, cost nearly $170,000): aluminium bottles, range split into four collections (Hydrate Me, Soothe Me, Style Me, Protect Me), seven of 17 formulas upgraded; brand eyes US retail distribution. | https://orbit.beautyindependent.com/article/superdrug-boots-british-haircare-brand-flora-curl-rebrands-us-distribution | ## Awards {#belagg-awards} | Year | Awards | Category | Source | |---|---|---|---| | 2018 | Editor's Choice, The Curl Leaders (naturallycurly.com) | brand | https://www.blackbeautyandhair.com/women-in-business-rose-ovenshi-flora-curl/ | | 2020 | Forbes 30 Under 30 (founder Rose Ovensehi) | founder recognition | https://spnews.com/meet-flora-curl/ | | — | UK Enterprise Awards: Best Natural Hair Care Products Brand (year not stated) | brand | https://spnews.com/meet-flora-curl/ | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Sweet Hibiscus Curl Volumizing Foam** — Its bestseller is Sweet Hibiscus Curl Volumizing Foam from the Style Me collection. — https://orbit.beautyindependent.com/article/superdrug-boots-british-haircare-brand-flora-curl-rebrands-us-distribution - **Rose Water Detangling Lotion** — Rose Water Detangling Lotion — https://floracurl.co.uk/ - **Citrus Superfruit Radiance Oil** — Citrus Superfruit Radiance Oil — https://floracurl.co.uk/ - **Coconut Mint Scalp Refresh Pre-Shampoo Oil** — Coconut Mint Scalp Refresh Pre-Shampoo Oil — https://floracurl.co.uk/ - **Jasmine Oasis Hydrating Hair Mist (2018 bestseller; current availability not verified)** — African Citrus Superfruit Hair Oil, Flower Garden Hair Butter and Jasmine Oasis Hydrating Hair Mist, the bestseller so far — https://orbit.beautyindependent.com/article/flora-and-curl-textured-hair ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} rose water · hibiscus Source: https://orbit.beautyindependent.com/article/superdrug-boots-british-haircare-brand-flora-curl-rebrands-us-distribution ## Mentioned in {#belagg-press} - **Beauty Independent** (2018) — Launch profile by Rachel Brown: founder background, first products, ingredient exclusions, US share of web sales, self-funding. — https://orbit.beautyindependent.com/article/flora-and-curl-textured-hair - **Beauty Independent** (2024) — Taylor Bryant on the rebrand, Boots/Superdrug stocking, US distribution plans, loans and founder ownership. — https://orbit.beautyindependent.com/article/superdrug-boots-british-haircare-brand-flora-curl-rebrands-us-distribution - **Black Beauty & Hair** (2020) — 'Women in business' interview with founder Rose Ovensehi on the brand name, ingredients and her natural-hair transition. — https://www.blackbeautyandhair.com/women-in-business-rose-ovenshi-flora-curl/ - **Sustainable Packaging News** (2023) — Brand profile focused on aluminium packaging, UK manufacturing, retail launches and awards (promotional tone, likely brand-supplied copy). — https://spnews.com/meet-flora-curl/ ## Availability in the Nordics Where the brand is sold according to Glowjakt's price data, per market. | Market | products | in stock | stores | Price range | |---|---|---|---|---| | Sweden | 15 | 15 | 1 | 158.95 SEK – 265.25 SEK | | Norway | 15 | 15 | 1 | 151.95 NOK – 253.75 NOK | | Denmark | 15 | 15 | 1 | 106 DKK – 177 DKK | | Finland | 15 | 15 | 1 | 14.25 € – 23.75 € | ## Sources 1. (T1) https://floracurl.co.uk/ 2. (T1) https://floracurl.co.uk/pages/founders-story 4. (T2) https://floracurl.co.uk/pages/sustainability 5. (T2) https://floracurl.co.uk/pages/giving-back 6. (T2) https://floracurl.co.uk/pages/ingredients 7. (T2) https://floracurl.co.uk/collections/award-winners 8. (T3) https://orbit.beautyindependent.com/article/flora-and-curl-textured-hair 9. (T3) https://orbit.beautyindependent.com/article/superdrug-boots-british-haircare-brand-flora-curl-rebrands-us-distribution 10. (T4) https://www.blackbeautyandhair.com/women-in-business-rose-ovenshi-flora-curl/ 11. (T4) https://spnews.com/meet-flora-curl/ --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-13 Please cite with a link to the article URL.