Carol Urena is the manager of her mom's Dominican hair salon, Punta Cana Salon in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. Urena's mother and tias migrated to the states from Dominican Republic in the early '80s and went on to open a number of salons in NYC. Altogether, the family currently have five Dominican salons, all in Brooklyn. Currently, all of the salons are still up and running even after COVID, but during the earlier months of the pandemic, Punta Cana Salon took a huge hit when they had to have the salon closed for months. For years, Urena, her mom, and the other stylists who work at their salon, like many old-school Dominican salons, would create hair remedies in the back of the salon to provide for clients. They'd do things like brew coffee or boil rosemary for hair-loss treatments. But they never thought of bottling and selling these remedies to clients until the pandemic.
"Our inspiration for our Rose & Violets Coco Coffee was the loss of our own hair. I was experiencing some major hair loss for a couple of weeks at the time," Urena told us. "I then learned that it was due to contracting the COVID-19 virus. Apparently, it can cause extreme hair loss for some people. My sister was simultaneously experiencing the same thing, but her situation was due to postpartum. We were both very frustrated by it, so we put our heads together and did some research on some natural resources that can help with preventing hair loss and ultimately promoting hair growth."
The Urena sisters decided to zero in on coffee as the main ingredient and infused it with natural oils, like jojoba oil and rosemary oil, known for nourishing hair and promoting growth. "At the time, we were staying at an Airbnb in Florida, so we went out and bought all the ingredients at the local health-foods store and made it in a pot on the stove. The whole house smelled of coffee, which was amazing, and the color was just perfect. A beautiful rich amber color," she said. "We put it in our hair immediately after that and kept applying it for the following weeks, and the results were amazing. After a while, we thought since we have a hair salon, this could be a product we sell to our clients. We purchased bottles, bottle caps, and labels and bottled them up to clients to enjoy, and so far we have sold out twice!"
The Roses & Violets Coco Coffee Hairloss & Hairgrowth Oil ($32) can be used as a weekly scalp treatment. Because it's made with coconut oil, Urena warns that it can solidify and recommends placing the bottle in warm water until the coconut oil liquifies.
