When it comes to styling my thick and curly hair, let’s just say it’s been a battle pretty much my whole life. Like many others with textured hair before me, I went through a phase of exclusively heat-styling my hair from week to week. You can imagine the damage that ensued. Although I do still style it this way occasionally, I’ve now switched my focus to nourishing my natural hair and restoring my curl pattern.
It hasn’t been easy to find products that actually work well for my extra dry strands, but I’m always grateful when a celebrity stylist like Sabrina Rowe comes along and creates the haircare line of my dreams. Having styled the likes of Ilana Glazer, Phoebe Robinson, Dascha Polanco, and Uzo Aduba, she knows a thing or two about textured hair. Introducing NTRL By Sabs, an inclusive personal care brand that includes everything from shampoos and conditioners to hydrating body bars and face oils. Each product is extra luxe, sustainable, nontoxic, and made in small-batches. “[This helps me] really monitor the efficacy of what I am putting out there, while remaining simple, and good,” says Rowe. “With [our brand], you can enjoy luxury products that are made with love, and you can feel good about your carbon footprint.”
For a little more on Rowe’s brand, every staple to snatch from it, and a few of my additional natural haircare favorites, keep reading below.
Like most of us in 2020, Rowe found herself with a lot of downtime during lockdown. But, instead of using that time for a serious Netflix binge (guilty), she decided to take the leap and start her own inclusive personal care brand. “NTRL By Sabs was something I wanted to do for a very long time but I guess I was working up the nerve to do it,” says Rowe. “I’ve always loved the science behind beauty and I really wanted to do something that I felt had an honest purpose. There are a lot of products out there already so I wanted to do something I hadn’t found in one brand alone yet—clean, multi-use, texture-forward, genderless, and eco-friendly personal care products that are luxurious and actually work.”
This ethos, along with the fact that Rowe’s first products were designed with textured hair in mind are what initially got me excited about the brand. She wanted to make sure her very first offerings supported hair like her own. After all, having written about beauty myself for a while, I began to realize that there are so many products out there that claim to be for “all hair types,” but their formulas don’t support natural hair at all—on some occasions, they would actually leave my hair even more dry.
Curly and coily hair types just need a lot more moisture than other hair types and NTRL By Sabs products are loaded with curl-nourishing ingredients like rose oil, sunflower, moringa, and hibiscus extract. She chose these ingredients after a lot of research. “I’d been studying natural hair and skincare formulation as a hobby and it slowly became apparent that I could actually pull off starting my own brand. I really had the time in 2020 to pull everything together to launch, so I did. I thought if I couldn’t offer services anymore, I wanted to be able to provide my clients with something to keep their hair and skin healthy,” she shares.
Every NTRL By Sabs product is designed to combat excessive dryness using vegan and nontoxic ingredients. The brand has a few star products for this, but first, Rowe broke down a few key things to keep in mind when you’re selecting products for natural hair. “Curls, coils, and dryness intersect often, so I really wanted to address the most important needs first. Nourishing dryness is really key for textured hair. I think butters and natural oils are dry hair’s best friend so I use them a lot throughout the range. You’ll find shea butter, cocoa butter, avocado oil, coconut oil, castor oil, argan oil, and rosemary oil, amongst many other texture-friendly ingredients in all of the shampoos and conditioners. These vitamin-rich botanicals are known for helping to moisturize and ultimately fortify the hair.”
And not to play favorites, but Rowe happens to be especially proud of the brand’s shampoo bars. They’re great sustainable, zero-waste options for anyone’s personal care routine. “They’re super clean, botanically rich, and are my absolute favorites for my own hair and skin. Personally, I’m hooked on the Bali Breeze Shampoo Bar ($20) and the Citrus Conditioner Bar ($18) at the moment. I always switch through the seasons, but I can’t let them go yet. The CocoRiche Shampoo Bar ($20) and CocoRiche Conditioner Bar ($18) are up next for summer. I also can’t live without my Nourishing Rose Oil (I use it everywhere) or Coco Lav Lotion Bar #1. Those are my four staples.”
Up Next: Natural Hair Craves Extra Moisture—These Leave-Ins Go Above and Beyond