Courtney Adeleye Dishes On New Haircare Brand Watch & Sea

Courtney Adeleye‘s bright red lip enters the chat before she does. I immediately notice her textured waves parted in the middle to form a curly ponytail neatly pulled to the side. She is a walking billboard for her haircare brand Watch & Sea Beauty.

I discovered Watch & Sea Beauty in my CURLFEST gift bag. The branding on the Twist & Braid Out Soufflé stood out to me. I was drawn to the jar and immediately went in for a sniff and hair test. The cream was a soft as a whipped marshmallow and it smelled equally delicious. My hair took to it like a fish to water and then it dawned on me, a ha, that’s where the name comes from. It was so hydrating it felt like I had opened a bottle of sea water.

During our conversation, Adeleye clarified the misconception that Watch & Sea is a rebrand of the Main Choice. “That brand was acquired and sold in 2019. This is a totally new. New formulas, ingredients, and direction. Before, hair growth was a really big area that I focused on. So, now it’s more transformative. So, it’s not just about hair growth, it’s about volume, and strengthening.”

Adeleye, like many other Black women had to learn what worked for her hair, including how often to wash it. For the former RN, Watch & Sea is about using natural ingredients for a well-rounded hair care experience to encourage hair growth. “We’re hearing people complain about their scalp, dryness, irritation, things of that nature. And it’s like a simple fix. The simple fix is more frequent washing.”

Protective Styles

Many women with natural hair rely on protective styles to maintain the health of their hair and they depend on products to nourish their tresses while underneath their weave, wig or braids.

“For me, a true protective style is when you wash your hair, deep condition your hair, you’re really treating your hair before you actually tuck it away. You’re using those products that won’t necessarily evaporate, especially when you’re dealing with texture hair. Washing your hair, shampooing your hair. These are all water-based products that’s going to evaporate.”

And that is a primary reason for breakage. “We’re introducing products like a hair butter that literally you apply it to your hair, braid your hair away, and you can go back, like, a month and squeeze the hair real tight.”

Watch & Sea This Twist-Out:

“I am a believer of doing a twist out on wet hair. I’m a wet hair twist out kinda girly,” said Adeleye. “When you do it on wet hair, especially with a product like [Twist & Braid Out Soufflé], it’s going to be locked in.” Adeleye warns, “It has to be, like, 150% dry” when you take it out. If it’s even 99% dry, “the humidity gonna get to it, it’s gonna fluff out, and that’s not what you want.”

She continued, “once you do that, then you’re locked and loaded. Especially when you’re using a cream-based, type of styler. I was very intentional with making it a cream-based, because I do feel as if when it comes to texture hair, we, we love our gels and our mousse, and that’s cool. But even the most hydrated ones still tend to be on a drier side versus a cream base. So when we talk about the kids going back to school, and even ourselves during the cooler months, you really wanna have the moisturizing products. Because a lot of times with textured hair, we’re already dealing with dehydrated hair. So making sure you apply that product.”

Ingredients Matter

One of the aspects of the packaging that standout are the ingredients listed right on the front label. Biotin, seaweed, sea kelp, and algae. If you were wondering if the name was a reflection of the products ingredients, you are correct.

“They are considered what we call bioavailable minerals,” explained Adeleye. Bioavailable minerals are nutrients your body easily absorbs (Aces.Edu). “And these are, like, natural calcium, magnesium type of things that can easily go into the hair — so when you use a product, and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, my hair feels softer, hydrated, and moisturized — they work more efficiently and quicker.”

According to Adeleye, she formulates products that work all-year-round. “I do try my best to make sure that they’re for all seasons.” While your timing may change, ie: when you do your twist-out (the night vs morning), the product stays the same.

Black Business Month

As we round out Black Business Month, Adeleye reflected on the importance of the month. “When it comes to being a Black-owned business you don’t have the luxury of a lot of access that a lot of other companies may have. So if it takes a month that we have to carve out the year to, to highlight these brands, highlight these businesses and founders and CEOs, I think it could do nothing but help.”

We’ve seen brands like Ami Cole shutter their business because they were unable to secure funding despite a loyal customer base. “These are challenges that stacked up against us. I will say my biggest supporter has been the African-American female at the end of the day. I think when you don’t have the option of having funding, you got the Black girl that’s there to say, “Hey, I’m here to rally you on.”

Shop Watch & Sea, here.

Courtney Adeleye’s New Haircare Brand Watch & Sea Focuses On Full Hair Transformation was originally published on hellobeautiful.com