MEET THE SELLER - DOT & LOLA
From a very young age Gavin from Dot & Lola suffered severe eczema and allergies and found out in his teens that it was largely due to chemicals in products and food causing the irritation. Gavin who is a professional hair stylist set out to create his own products that would not only be kind to him but also to his family, the consumer, and the planet.
We interviewed Gavin to find out more about his inspiration and passion for kind sustainable hair and skin care, here's what we learned.
“We're based in the Midlands in Leicestershire, its surroundings are in nature. We love living here and obviously, our girls really love living here. I've got a salon a couple of villages down the road, where the products have all stemmed from”.
Dot & Lola comes from their family values. It's family orientated and thinks about the future of the planet for generations to come.
“We started our journey making the products in the salon. We have a stable at the end which I converted into a workshop. I would have the ingredients delivered to the salon and experiment, mixing and concocting different recipes”.
Now the products are now created by a UK company using Gavin's same recipes so that Dot & Lola can grow to meet the demand for their products.
“My passion is to make people happy”.
Gavin has been a hairdresser for 25 years. He believes that Dot & Lola's products not only feel really great to use but the fact that they're helping the planet, is as important. He knows that awareness of the benefits of kind, natural hair and skin care that is not contributing to harming the planet will continue to grow and people will want to be part of that, as a community.
“They don’t feel guilt, they feel happiness.”
Their best-selling product has always been Balanced Shampoo. Gavin named it Balance because fundamentally he feels that everything in moderation, and in balance is important for the world.
“Everything in nature, literally everything in nature, we can use and harness and it provides everything we need, we don't have to make chemical ingredients”.
We asked Gavin what is his one 'pearl of wisdom' regarding sustainability.
“So I guess it would be persistence. Remember when we had to start recycling and the government said you've got to start putting rubbish in separate bins? I remember thinking, really, we've got to do that?! But that's become a new habit and it's become very normal. So sustainability will become normal. Why would you produce more and more plastic when you can produce recyclable aluminum indefinitely? I think it's persistence - let's keep going in the right direction”.
New companies are largely conscious of the planet and of creating a culture of sustainability and adaptability to change. There is a whole generation of consumers who really care. Laying these values, practices, and processes down in the foundations of a company's ethos will create business resilience for the future. This will become the new norm, the new paradigm for the way that businesses operate.
“I'm only going to be working with similar like-minded companies with the same values and similar ethos. Beyond Bamboo have that vision and helps bring companies together. It's a no-brainer because working together with Beyond Bamboo, we can become the majority, not the minority”.
Here's one customer's product testimonial:
"It took me a while to order this product as I was a bit skeptical of using a natural product, I have now been using the shampoo and conditioner for 3 weeks and my hair feels and looks amazing, I have had so many compliments about the shine in my hair."