Haircare Brand We Are Paradoxx Is Making Reducing Plastic Waste Worthy Of Social Media

Yolanda Cooper packed her luggage with so much stuff for a vacation to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands that it exceeded Aer Lingus’s 50-pound weight limit. She would have given a coy wink and smile to an airline employee in an attempt to sneak the heavy suitcase through, but Aer Lingus had installed self-service machines at Dublin Airport for bag check that didn’t respond to flirtation.

Annoyed, Cooper resorted to removing items she could jam into her carry-on backpack. She pulled out her curling iron, wand and flat iron, and that did the trick. The trip switcheroo caused Cooper to wonder why she’d been lugging around three cumbersome hair appliances. Wasn’t there a single appliance that took care of the different functions she needed to style her hair?

“I thought for sure it must exist somewhere in the world. I set about looking for it, and I couldn’t find it. That’s what led to the Supernova, which is launching next month,” says Cooper. “I started looking into haircare as a whole for research purposes, and I found a real overuse of unnecessary plastic and began to research alternative materials to use.”

We Are Paradoxx founder Yolanda Cooper

As she perfected Supernova, Cooper introduced the Belfast-based haircare brand We Are Paradoxx in March, almost a year and a half after her travel-inspired aha moment, with six products in primarily aluminum packaging that’s 90% free of plastic containing vegan, cruelty-free and up to 97% natural formulas. Priced from $22 to $37, the products are bestseller Hangover Hair Elixir, Game Changer Hair Mask, Climax Volume Tonic, Fierce Sea Salt Spray, Super Natural Shampoo and Secret Weapon 3-in-1 Conditioner.

“We are environmentally-responsible and socially-conscious, and we make really good products that are as good for your hair as they are the environment,” says Cooper. Elaborating about We Are Paradoxx’s aluminum containers, she adds, “It was one of those decisions I made very early on in the development process, and it was before the world was talking about plastic the way it is today. I made that decision not thinking it was going to be the biggest thing about us, but, all of a sudden, it’s what is connecting with the consumers in stores.”

“We are environmentally-responsible and socially-conscious, and we make really good products that are as good for your hair as they are the environment.”

To spread its message of sustainability, We Are Paradoxx is taking a broad approach to retail distribution. Off the bat, it entered five retailers: Harvey Nichols, Asos, Feelunique, Next and Very. Now, it’s in or soon to be in a total of 37, including online at Ulta, Revolve, Saks Fifth Avenue and Amazon, and at 132 doors with Boots. Formerly global marketing manager at Vita Liberata, Cooper has had experience transporting a business to the United States and learned lessons from that experience. She’s established a warehouse for We Are Paradoxx in New Jersey and compliance with EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) systems to communicate digitally with American retailers.

“Whether they are premium or mass, I love that all retailers are concerned about the environmental impact the beauty industry has in the world. It’s broken down barriers. We are across the retail spectrum, which I think is fantastic,” she says. Further discussing barrier-busting distribution, Cooper says, “It’s the way the world is going. In the U.K., we had Fenty by Rihanna in Harvey Nichols, and it just recently launched in Boots. It’s a sign of the times that the lines between retailers are blurring because consumers are shopping in different ways.”

Priced from $22 to $37, We Are Paradoxx’s six haircare products are bestseller Hangover Hair Elixir, Game Changer Hair Mask, Climax Volume Tonic, Fierce Sea Salt Spray, Super Natural Shampoo and Secret Weapon 3-in-1 Conditioner.

For its initial calendar year, We Are Paradoxx expects to reach $2 million in sales. The brand has raised $1.75 million in two rounds—a $250,000 pre-seed round to hit the market and a $1.5 million round to scale—from undisclosed investors. A substantial chunk of funding was dedicated to creating Supernova. Capital has also been slated to support international expansion. Cooper mentions the Middle East as a target region for growth. We Are Paradoxx will enlarge its assortment, too. Cooper is working on 21 product ideas, and she hinted her brand could extend into CBD and clean hair color.

The $200 Supernova will play a critical role in We Are Paradoxx’s near-term future. Cooper pronounces the retail reaction to it has been highly positive. “We have taken the Supernova as seriously as Dyson. We have a team of 10 engineers on it, and every type of engineer under the sun,” she says. “It’s powered by a rechargeable battery. There’s no chord, no plug, you literally charge it up like your phone and go. It heats up in one minute and lasts for hours.” We Are Paradoxx will cross-promote Supernova and its haircare products.

“There was a real opportunity to bring together cool and clean. The paradox is about bringing together the two sides of the spectrum that don’t normally go together.”

Cooper describes her brand’s aesthetics as “sophisticated, but with an edge.” Its bottles are fit for social media, and each item has a design element that’s unique to it that highlights the hero ingredient inside its formula. We Are Paradoxx’s formulas feature ingredients native to Ireland such as moss, whiskey, hops, clover, seaweed and Celtic salt. Refillable packaging options are on We Are Paradoxx’s to-do list. The brand is a member of 1% For The Planet and donates 1% of its total annual sales to ecological causes.

“When I was developing We Are Paradoxx, what I saw on the market was that, on the one side, there were cool brands that everybody wanted to use that were killing it on Instagram. On the other side of the spectrum were clean brands. Their formulas are great, but they weren’t really killing it on Instagram,” says Cooper. “There was a real opportunity to bring together cool and clean. The paradox is about bringing together the two sides of the spectrum that don’t normally go together.”

We Are Paradoxx's new hair tool Supernova
Due out next month, We Are Paradoxx’s $200 cordless hair tool Supernova combines the functions of a wand, curling iron and flat iron in one appliance.

We Are Paradoxx is gaining traction as the clean haircare category overall is rising, but it’s not alone. Kyn, NatureLab Tokyo, Ursa Major and Allyoos are among the brands contending with it for discerning shoppers. “Haircare has been the forgotten category in consumers’ minds for a while,” says Cooper. “I remember looking at my bathroom shelf and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, my skincare is great and clean, and my body care is natural and organic, but I’m using haircare that’s the opposite of everything else I’m doing.’ I thought, ‘Why is that?’ I think it’s because there was no brand that spoke to me.”