Embracing your hair’s nature is a form of self care everyone deserves. It can liberate us from a cycle of damaging products that disrupt our hair’s natural growth cycle and give our hair a low-maintenance glow we dream of.
Your Hair is an innovative hair care solution that focuses on self-love, self-acceptance and collaboration between the stylist and client to give each client their dream hair in a sustainable way.
Hair health activist and colour alchemist, Renee Potgieter, spent two decades studying the flawed relationship between clients and their hairstylists and realised few professionals were using their influence to work with their clients to amplify and enhance their hair’s natural beauty.
Renee Potgieter, also known as Naturally Renee is the founder of Your Hair. is on a mission to change the way beauty is perceived. As a society, we have developed a dependency on toxic products and processes which damage and disrupt
the natural balance of our hair. Reneé is determined to stop this madness by reminding us of one remarkably simple truth: we are already beautiful!
In her work, Reneé strives to teach us that if we accept and celebrate our natural hair we can cut, colour and style it, without sacrificing our hair health.
Her journey began in 1993 when she trained for 3 years under the renowned Carien Fensham in Johannesburg. After working and backpacking for 2 years everywhere from Turkey’s beaches, to cruise liners in Alaska, to hostels in London and salons in Europe, Reneé returned home to settle in Cape Town.
In 2000, after noticing that the industry was fundamentally flawed in how it approached hair for real women, she became an independent stylist. Since then she has trained and collaborated with many talented individuals, some of whom have opened salons of their own, and she continues to spread the message of a no-nonsense natural approach.
With Covid having made many physical salons a thing of the past, young stylists now face an increasingly competitive industry from a more independent place than ever before. Renee hopes that the additional difficulty of breaking into the industry will motivate young stylists to seek resilient mentors. Ultimately, she would like to see these young professionals become generations of hair care experts that drive change by extending the principles of sustainability beyond their product bags and into the ethos and daily workings of their businesses.
Education is key to Reneé’s operation which is why she equips her clients with the fundamental knowledge they need to break their dependency on chemicals. Her tenacity, integrity and intuition are sharper than her scissors, inspiring admiration, and gratitude from clients. The biggest challenge Reneé faces daily is the cognitive dissonance between what her clients believe about chemical processes and the truth about how damaging toxins are to their hair and health. Although clients know that their hair has been damaged by chemicals, many have become overly attached to their unsustainable hair regimes. Reneé knows that by using her unique combination of skill and knowledge she can prove the natural way is always the better way.
When she is not challenging societal norms and spreading the message of self-love Reneé dreams of learning how to surf with her magnificent daughter, spending time and sharing great food and gorgeous wine with close friends, and growing herself through constant online education and can copious amounts of books.