Natural Haircare Brand Airfro Teams Up With Nickelodeon Show “That Girl Lay Lay”

British natural haircare brand Airfro has created a product range inspired by Nickelodeon’s comedy series “That Girl Lay Lay.”

The range came about as a result of a partnership with Paramount, which has teamed up with three brands—the other two are streetwear brand Dragons & Daisies and accessories brand I Am Enough Productions—that the entertainment company says supports its commitment to inclusivity and reflects the diversity of its audiences.

Unveiled at Cocoa Kids Career Festival in London in late October, Airfro’s “That Girl Lay Lay” Organic Freestylin’ Haircare Collection includes Freestyle Foam, Free Stylin’ Gelly and leave-in conditioner Soft n’ Freestyle. Prices run from 18.99 to 22.59 pounds or around $22 to $27 at the current exchange rate. Airfro co-founder Nneka Fleming projects the collection could generate annual revenues of 50,000 to 100,000 pounds or nearly $60,000 to $120,000.

Paramount approached Fleming about a partnership with the goal of familiarizing consumers in the United Kingdom with Lay Lay. Like most Britons, Fleming was unfamiliar the character when Paramount approached her, and she didn’t immediately jump at the chance to do a partnership. Ultimately, she recognized Lay Lay could serve as a great vehicle to amplify Airfro’s message of having fun with hair. Part of that message involves easy-to-use products the brand specializes in.

“My 5-year-old son loves her, but I didn’t know anything about her,” says Fleming. “After understanding that she was about inclusivity and being able to express yourself, I thought that’s really interesting in terms of haircare. As a young girl, we washed our hair once every month, and then didn’t touch it again until we were picking out the next style for the next braiding. There was no element of fun or play.”

Fleming founded Airfro in 2021 with Catherine Radojcin. The pair have five sons between them and started Airfro because they couldn’t find the right products for their very active children. “They were always playing sports, and they were always getting mud and leaves in their hair, so they were washing their hair more than normal afro-haired people did when I was growing up,” says Fleming. “We started about creating fast-acting natural products that detangled really quickly.”

In addition to Radojcin and Fleming’s kids, a catalyst for Airfro was research that revealed 40% of African American women avoid exercise because of their hair. “It has such a big impact on the community who have higher rates of obesity and higher rates of diabetes,” says Fleming. “Haircare is another barrier to healthy living.”

Airfro launched with a single product, Curl Refresh, comprised of aloe vera, grapefruit extract, lavender and other natural ingredients. “The idea is that you use it after sports, but between washes,” says Fleming. “It refreshes the hair so it looks and feels like you just washed it, and it removes all of the itching, but you don’t have to go through the whole shower routine.” Protein Hit Wash & Go was the next product followed by a clarifying shampoo, hair oils and bestseller Flex, a hydration serum containing hyaluronic acid and aloe vera.

Fleming describes Airfro as a Black first, but inclusive brand. Both her and Radojcin’s children are mixed race, and she stresses Airfro’s products are intended for all hair types. “I’m from a multicultural family, my kids and my husband we’re all different, but we all now use the same haircare products, which is I think the future,” she says. “We’re so blended nowadays. To have one product for one person here and another there, I just don’t think that’s the truth of how a lot of us live.”

Prior to Airfro, Fleming founded skincare brand Novel Skincare in 2016. Airfro allows her to venture further into the beauty universe. She says, “There’s a whole story about being mixed raced and not being able to look after your hair or not using the same products as your mom or your dad. There’s so many stories in terms of beauty that need to be explored.”

A lot of Airfro’s customers are white mothers buying products for their mixed race kids. Fleming hopes the brand’s Lay Lay collaboration widens its net with Black girls, though she says there are challenges in widening that net due to a history of Black mothers dictating how their children wear their hair.

“Parents are like, ‘I don’t want my kids to touch their own hair because it’s going to take too long to fix it,'” expounds Fleming. “I can imagine there’s a fight in every household with a girl who wants to do her own hair and her mother’s just like, ‘No, I’ve already paid for the braider to come and do it.’ I just want to see a future where you don’t have to wear a wig because you don’t know what to do with your hair. Your hair is beautiful, let’s figure out how we can play with it together.”

Airfro’s “That Girl Lay Lay” products are expected to be available on Sephora’s website in the United Kingdom, Airfro’s site and Amazon, where the brand is slated to set up a presence soon. Airfro is also available at the British department stores Harrods and Liberty. Even though it’s expanding, Fleming says Airfro as focused on catering to its loyal customers.

“Our strategy is just be small, stay small, talk small,” she explains. “We’re not big talkers, and we’re not an in-your-face kind of brand. We’re very much one that you discover yourself or someone introduces you to. That’s been good for us, especially in this economy. We haven’t overstretched ourselves.”