“Absolutely Zero Water Used”: Celebrity Hairstylist Launches Eco-Friendly Powder Haircare Brand Arove

Michael Dueñas, a hairstylist with celebrity, fashion and advertising clients like Jamie Lee Curtis, Rachel Brosnahan, Machine Gun Kelly, Aeropostale, L’Oréal and Guess, has long been fed up with the lack of results-driven eco-friendly haircare products.

To bring to life what he believes is missing in the haircare category, Dueñas spent three years with chemist Straun Phillips perfecting powder haircare and conditioner that he’s now introducing with Arove, a new brand calling itself the first encapsulated, water-free haircare brand. From manufacturing to the formula in the bottles, Dueñas touts that there’s “absolutely zero water” used in any stage of its development.

“The hardest barrier was creating something completely new,” he says. “Establishing water-free products with encapsulated ingredients that stay potent and more effective than leading high-end haircare was no easy feat.”

Arove, which gets its brand name from a play on the word “arrive,” describes a 2.3-oz. bottle of its concentrated powder Aerious Shampoo and Conditioner as the equivalent of a 32-oz. bottle of traditional liquid shampoo or conditioner. The products’ fully recycled plastic bottles are five inches tall and weigh 34 grams, suitable for the Transportation Security Administration restrictions for airplane carry-ons, versus 237 grams for traditional formats, according to Dueñas. The shampoo and conditioner are designed to yield 65 to 80 washes per bottle.

Dueñas says, “If we were to ship 1,000 bottles of Arove, it would result in an estimated 60% reduction in carbon emissions from transport.”

Arove’s Aerious Shampoo and Conditioner feature encapsulated ingredient technology it dubs LumiLok. The brand explains it forms nanoparticle complexes that optimize the stability and efficacy of active ingredients. Broccoli seed oil, watermelon seed oil, moringa oil, rose hip oil and other ingredients are enclosed into shells to shield them from environmental degradation, while simultaneously increasing product absorption into the hair to amplify shine.

Arove’s third product, Illuminous Hair Oil, is available for pre-order on the brand’s website. It’s slated to launch in a few months. The oil is priced at $30.99, and the shampoo and conditioner are priced at $32.99. Dueñas, who previously worked at now-defunct curly hair salon DevaChan, was insistent the formulas be effective for the scalp and all hair types and textures, from the finest, straightest hair to the thickest, curliest hair.

“The hardest barrier was creating something completely new.”

“Healthy hair starts at the scalp,” says Dueñas. “You can do everything you want to your actual strands, but it doesn’t make a difference if you don’t address the underlying source and that’s your scalp.”

The shampoo and conditioner have a natural silicone alternative that Arove characterizes as degrading in the environment. In making the conditioner, the brand was focused on nourishment for the hair and a good experience for the consumer.

“Originally, we added a large amount of oil to the product, but that caused it to clump,” says Dueñas. “So many iterations were made, but would clump up days later. The process to encapsulate the beneficial ingredients and oil into a dry powder was by far the most challenging and time-consuming.”

Dueñas included oil in Arove’s debut product range because he almost always applies an oil on his clients’ hair, but has been dismayed that the options on the market often contain water. He says, “Water on curly hair is going to disturb curls, so it was essential that the hair oil would be made without water, too.”

Manufacturing the products for self-funded Arove was challenging. “Trying to figure out how to mass-produce and what equipment could be used was a huge obstacle,” says Dueñas. “Since this was a brand-new type of material and process, we needed specialized equipment that was not traditionally used.”

Arove built out the custom machinery at its Los Angeles production facility and implemented a manufacturing protocol for it. “Everything had to be made in a certain process and followed in exact order or the end result was not a usable material,” says Dueñas. “Even changing an ingredient by .05% would throw off the entire formula and have an undesirable effect on the hair or make the manufacturing process ineffective.”

At the outset, Arove is being sold on its site. The goal, however, is largescale retail distribution and becoming a go-to brand for salons. Next up, the brand will be releasing a concentrated deep treatment in the Illuminous collection and targeted products for specific hair concerns and types in the Aerious collection.