The Man Behind The Iconic Hair Care Brand

Over two decades ago, Jabu Stone decided to turn his back on the growing trend of Western-style fashions and cultural norms influencing and forcing African people into following and losing their identities. He was concerned with the extent to which African people, both male and female, denied themselves the beauty of their natural hair texture by flattening it with damaging relaxers, perms and similar produce.

Born in Ginsberg, South Africa down the road from Steve Biko, often cited as being one of the fathers of ‘Black consciousness’ in Southern Africa, some believe that this was the start of the spark that resulted in Jabu Stone’s drive for offering solutions to the ethnic consumer that truly were developed for them.Jabu’s parents moved him to Daveyton, a township in Johannesburg, at a young age. His father a factory worker and mother a teacher at a local primary school where able to provide the basics, however this was not enough to quench Jabu’s thirst for entrepreneurship.Jabu Stone’s first business started at a very early age. An elderly man who was an acquaintance of the family gave him a used camera as a present.

He was 14 years old at the time. Whilst practicing taking photos he saw a commotion at a nearby wedding. A couple getting married, who were unhappy with their photographer, noticed Jabu’s camera. They offered to pay him a fee to take and develop their photographs. This sparked a drive for business and this soon turned into a thriving small business with Jabu employing other young men and equipping them with cameras. It was at that point that Jabu’s mother imparted the following to her son “Before people will buy your product, they need to buy into you.” Jabu realized the potential in appearance and decided to learn more about business.

After studies completed in engineering and business Jabu started looking for a way to leave his mark on the world. Whilst visiting his sister’s salon he noticed many of the woman burning their scalps and skin in order to achieve a westernized look. This hurt Jabu and he vowed to himself that his people should not have to suffer in order to look good.

He then decided to look into natural ethnic hairstyles. His research into dreadlocks revealed that the style was not a Rastafarian by-product. Rather it was a style as old as the people of Africa. He realized that our hair wanted to do this naturally. Jabu continued to look at the variations of the style all over Africa from the Masai in Kenya to ancient Egyptians. His key finding was that westernized society had created a community that could no longer accept this style.

Jabu believed that if he could find a more attractive way of creating the style he could create a door in the wall of an unaccepting population, and has been successful since then. The Jabu Stone brand now comprises an authentic range of hair care products that celebrate nature’s finest ingredients and combine these to provide ideal nourishment and care for natural hair. The Jabu Stone Natural Hair Care product range consists of a range of products that includes shampoo’s, beeswax, moulding cream, gel, multi-purpose spray, braiding spray, a hair nourisher and a Twist-Out clay for that all natural look.

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Prepared by Offlimit Communications PROn behalf of: Jabu Stone

For more information contact:Selloane MoleliEmail: selloane@offlimi.co.zaNumber: 011 325 5855 / 078 746 5210