Ruka Hair is making history as the first braiding hair brand to launch at Sephora in two decades. Black-owned beauty brand Ruka Hair is making history as the first braiding hair brand to launch at Sephora in 20 years. Founded in 2020 by Tendai Moyo and Ugo Agbai, the London-based company will launch online at Sephora on Aug.
4 before expanding to 10 stores in New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta on Aug. 14, reports Yahoo Finance. The retailer will carry Ruka’s patent-pending Synths² collagen-based braiding hair extensions, along with a selection of styling products and hair perfumes.
Unlike traditional synthetic braiding hair, the company’s biotech fiber is designed to be chemical-free, biodegradable, and hypoallergenic while performing like natural hair without plastics or carcinogens. “For the first time in 20 years, we’re relaunching a whole new category in Sephora. We’ll be the ONLY hair extensions brand in Sephora, bringing bio-engineered fibers everywhere from Harlem to Times Square,”Moyo wrote on LinkedIn.
“The first-ever braiding hair in Sephora. This is the biggest moment in our history because accessibility has always been fundamental to the store,”she continued. The Sephora partnership comes after BLACK ENTERPRISE reported in May that Ruka Hair unveiled a $4.
5 million funding round, bringing the company’s total funding to approximately $10 million. Freedom Trail Capital and Henkel Ventures co-led the round, with participation from Major Issue Invest and Backed VC, as well as angel investors. “The funding will help us continue scaling Synths 2, our collagen protein fiber-braiding hair, and the wider fiber platform behind it,”Moyo informed BE.
“The right investors have understood that Ruka is not just a beauty brand. It is a science, community, and culture-led business tackling a huge global market,”she continued. Moyo, who was born in Zimbabwe, rolled out Ruka Hair after recognizing the lack of innovative, high-quality products created specifically for Black women with textured hair.
The company has built its reputation by combining biotechnology with beauty to address longstanding concerns around the sourcing of human hair and the chemicals commonly found in synthetic alternatives. “We are trying to change the quality, safety, and experience of hair extensions for a community that has historically been underserved,”she informed BE. For Sephora, the addition of Ruka Hair reflects a broader shift toward expanding offerings for consumers with textured hair.
For Ruka, it represents another step toward its mission of making innovative hair solutions more accessible to Black women around the world.