Alexia P. Hammonds Is The First Black Woman To Have A Hair Fragrance Manufactured In Grasse, France

Alexia P. Hammonds has created history.

Her hair fragrance, Consume.Sweat.Undress, released in October 2020 and set up her as the initially Black girl to have a hair fragrance manufactured in Grasse,

“I love that. Like, no make any difference what comes about or how I transition in my fragrance business, I like realizing that I’ll be able to explain to my youngsters, mommy was the first Black female to do a little something,” Hammond explained to ESSENCE.

What makes her solution one of a kind is that in addition to freshening the hair, it nourishes as effectively, which is key when producing products with a range of hair sorts in thoughts. “I have two luxury haircare benefits in my hair fragrance,” she claimed. “So I have keratin and…I have the optimum percentage of fragrance oil and the the very least volume of ethanol liquor, which is the harmless liquor to getting in a hair merchandise for your hair so it will not dry it out.”

The conditioning instructor turned magnificence businesswoman is nearly 10 many years in and is bringing her love for and determination to fragrance to an expansive audience. She results in for the modern-day, active girl and is earning self-care all the much more obtainable for the booked and active.

We caught up with the entrepreneur about Consume.Sweat.Undress, what this venture has taught her and extra in an exclusive dialogue.

ESSENCE: Speak to me a small little bit about your lifelong enthusiasm for fragrances.

Alexia P. Hammond (APH): So my mom, my grandmother and my aunt, they all had a substantial affinity for fragrance and they taught me and my female cousins all about how to dress in fragrances….I sense like a woman requires a whole wardrobe of fragrances.

My mother bought me fragrance generating publications and I commenced to make my have minor fragrances at household. My initial job ever, I was 16 at this location identified as Garden Botanica in Atlanta. The entire job is…mixing fragrances into bath and physique products for customers. And so I usually realized that I preferred to have a perfume line. I understood I preferred it to be established in Grasse, France, because as I understood and as I examined my books, Grasse, France is the historic birthplace of perfume.

[W]ith there not remaining a large amount of Black faces in the fragrance house,…I required to make positive that I could have that cachet guiding my manufacturer and my assortment to say, ‘Okay, she has a fragrance made in Grasse, France.’ And at the time I did not realize that I would be the first Black woman to do so.

ESSENCE: For these who are unaware, what are some of the dos and don’ts of hair fragrances? Can you mix it with warmth?

© Supplied by Essence

APH: I live in Texas, so you will not want to preserve your hair fragrance bottle in your automobile, you know. Just continue to keep it in a cold put, just like you would any other treatment merchandise or any skincare, products that you spend your revenue in that you want to have longevity and execute perfectly.

ESSENCE: You were a exercise teacher prior to this aspect of enterprise started off. So how did you go from being included in the a lot more rigorous factors of physical exercise, to then transitioning to, ‘Okay, I can deal with the human body, just in a different way.’

APH: So I taught classical Pilates internationally for years, like, I would say 15+ many years now. And I started Consume.Sweat.Undress in 2012. [E]ssentially, it was a calendar of my educating schedule. And then I weblog about meals for Take in. I blogged about my exercises, entertaining points and attire.

I made use of to do fashion/beauty segments for Fox for Good Day in this article in Dallas. I really brought my enjoy of fragrance, lingerie, foodstuff and doing the job out all in a single.

A ton of occasions ladies, in particular Black women of all ages, we are unable to wash our hair each time we work out. And then females who are not Black, they do not constantly have time to wash your hair appropriate right after, and this, it not only it doesn’t mask the stink, it takes absent the stink totally even though including lovely luxurious fragrance to the hair.

[A]t the time, I was donning a whole lot of extensions and braids simply because I was touring internationally. Sometimes, you know, I never think ladies know you have on extensions or wigs, from time to time your hair stinks and that was one more thing. I am like, ‘I need a product that addresses that,’ even while I’m not donning wigs and extensions these days, there were yrs where by that was just my go-to because I was touring, training…I was however seeking to glance presentable and I could not get my hair completed.

© Supplied by Essence

© Provided by Essence

ESSENCE: What is the shelf daily life of the item?

APH: So the shelf everyday living is 3 a long time. Having said that, if you happen to be employing it day by day, it can be not going to previous 3 yrs. [O]urs past a whole lot more time than other hair perfumes and normal perfumes due to the fact [we] place it in an aluminum bottle. And that shields it from the UV rays and then from some of the scent leaking out by means of the glass, which I do not consider people comprehend takes place. So I was really intentional by getting this and since we’re Try to eat.Sweat.Undress, we’re lifestyle and conditioning for the woman on the go, this is so quick to toss in your bag. You never have to get worried about it breaking.

ESSENCE: That’s truly a genuinely very good level due to the fact if you happen to be making an attempt to make a go promptly, you have to get worried about, Oh, it fell out of my purse.

My past query is, what is the most vital lesson you have figured out? The to start with 5 decades for organization proprietors are the most educational, but there’s anything about calendar year a person that you just really feel like you get this crash class in organization.

APH: I would say one particular of the biggest issues I uncovered is to seriously pay out awareness to the quantities. As a organization operator, you require to make guaranteed you truly set thought behind a cashflow spreadsheet, put all the quantities on there. [Y]ou know, your projected sales and in the beginning, it can be sort of difficult…but you have to have to have projected sales. And what money will look like as opposed to what is actually likely out month-to-thirty day period. That way you can see, Ok, this is what I am projected to deliver in for this 1 item. It’ll also aid you see what merchandise need to emphasis, [and what to] set extra awareness on.

Store Eat.Sweat.Undress listed here.