'I created a DIY miracle mask for frizzy and dry hair from my kitchen table - now it is a global hit'
10.04.2022 - 14:07
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Sophie Leah’s confidence was knocked as a young woman in her early twenties when she broke out in acne. She went on medication - Roaccutane - to clear it, but was then left with dried out and brittle hair as a side effect.
It was so damaged that when she brushed her hair it snapped at the root, and her hairdresser had questioned what she had been doing to it. She became a recluse, not wanting to go out with her friends, until she started making her own hair mask.
The 30-year-old, from Bury, saw a gap in the market and began selling the miracle product for dry and frizzy hair from her kitchen table with her boyfriend Gazz Thompson, also 30. Now five years later, after hundreds of customer transformations from around the world, they’re about to make the leap to operate their business - Hola Coco - full time and hire staff.
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As a teen, Sophie had struggled with acne, and went on a course of Roaccutane, with no side effects. But when she resorted to it again at the age of 23 in January 2017, it was a different story.
“The medication blocks your oil glands,” Sophie explained. “I had dry lips, which is common, but also really dry hair. It was snapping off at the root, my hairdresser said ‘what have you done?’
“I know it sounds vain but it was awful. I just didn’t want to go out, I didn’t want to see my friends, I was comparing myself a lot, I was wearing my hair up a lot because it was so thin and brittle, and had to cut it shorter.
“I felt helpless.” Sophie tried products lying around her mum’s house and different products from the supermarket, but nothing helped.
She carried out research online and came across ingredients coconut