Shop October 4, 2023

Lauren Perez launches Anablue hair care: 'We're here to honor our roots'

Photo by Andi Elloway
Photo by Andi Elloway

You could say taking care of your hair is Lauren Perez's love language.

Perez, a former creative director for brands like Alo and Good American, is launching her own line of hair care, Anablue, to share her beauty secrets with the world.

"I've worked so hard to build all these other brands [and] I can finally now build my own brand," Perez told "Good Morning America." "I want to scream at the whole world [that] these are my secrets. This is what I've been using."

Photo by Andi Elloway
Photo by Andi Elloway

Perez was born in Paris and grew up in Los Angeles in a Moroccan household (both of her parents are Moroccan). She said she remembers receiving shipments of oils from Morocco, specifically argan oil and prickly pear oil, growing up and began crafting hair treatments from the oils after she realized their benefits.

Perez said she developed her own recipes, sharing the concoctions with her friends who wanted equally beautiful and shiny hair.

"I would make it for them," she said. "Not only was it just like giving my friends a piece of my culture and my home, it was really something that was close to my heart because my hair is what represented my identity, my confidence, my culture."

Carrying your hair a certain way is truly how you represent your identity.

Perez acknowledged that she didn't always feel so connected to her hair. But through her parents' influence, she said she learned to appreciate it.

"Carrying your hair a certain way is truly how you represent your identity," she said. "It represents your background. For me, it's my Moroccan heritage. When I look at my hair every day -- my dark hair, and my dark eyes, and my eyebrows -- for me, that's a true representation of my lineage."

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Eventually, Perez said she realized she had to start sharing her beauty secrets with others. "I want everyone's hair to feel healthy and hydrated and shiny and beautiful," she said.

Anablue

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Cue Anablue, Perez's chic, vanity-worthy set of hair products for your hair and scalp. The brand is launching first with three essentials: a treatment oil, scalp cleanser and a hair serum, as well as a scalp massager. They can be used separately or all together in a three-step routine. The company encourages people to protect and maintain the health of their hair, rather than constantly working to repair it.

Photo by Andi Elloway
Photo by Andi Elloway

Perez recommended allowing the treatment oil to soak in your hair for at least 30 minutes. The treatment's key ingredients are 100% pure argan oil to soothe, nourish and repair, according to Anablue. It also contains prickly seed pear oil to strengthen hair and give it its shine. It has a natural, rose-like scent.

TREATMENT OIL

Price: $42 · From Anablue

The scalp cleanser, Perez said, should be used in place of your shampoo once or twice a week to exfoliate the scalp. It contains 100% pure argan oil and Himalayan pink salt for exfoliation.

SCALP CLEANSER

Price: $25 · From Anablue

SCALP MASSAGER

Price: $18 · From Anablue

Finally, the "airy, lightweight" serum works as a third step to hydrate the hair and give it its "oomph." It includes the same 100% pure argan oil as the other essentials, plus isododecane to moisturize the hair and protect it from heat damage. There is no silicone in any of the three products and all of the oils are naturally sourced from Morocco, according to Perez.

HAIR SERUM

Price: $28 · From Anablue

I want them to feel good about themselves and their hair.

"Let's take care of our hair the same way we take care of our face and our body and everything else," Perez said.

Anablue is an easy, low-maintenance way to establish that routine.

Who is Anablue for?

The short answer? Everybody.

"I come from a family of very different hair textures all around -- from super-thick [to] coiled, curly, fine and thin -- and I wanted to be able to treat everybody's hair," Perez said, adding that Anablue's products went through "intense testing" to ensure they "cater to everybody."

Photo by Andi Elloway
Photo by Andi Elloway

"I just want people to be able to use Anablue and walk away from it, being like, 'Wow! My hair feels good,'" Perez added. "I want them to feel good about themselves and their hair so that they can wear their hair [with] confidence."

Being a woman in business

Perez said her advice for fellow businesswomen is to "know your worth."

"I think it's super important to decide what you want and how you're gonna go about it, and not let anyone kind of skew your vision of what your goals are," she said. "If you go into a room with all the confidence, whether you have it or not, people feed off of your energy."

A message for her children

Perez, who has one son and a daughter on the way, said she hopes her children learn to embrace their hair.

"I hope he loves it. I hope he appreciates it, and I hope he takes care of it," she said of her son. "I want him to know that he has those Moroccan roots in him."

"The fact that I'm having a daughter soon makes me super excited because I'm like ... I get to share all these secrets with you and I get to rub oils in your hair and massage it, and just like braid it, and do all these things that, like, my grandmother used to do with me," she added.

At the end of the day, Perez said she wants her children to "admire their features and love who they are and where they came from, and carry themselves in that way."

"We're here to honor our roots," she said.

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Anablue is available to shop today.

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