How A Plastic-Free Hair Brand Won Hearts And Shelves with Kate Assaraf (part 1)

What if sustainable hair care didn’t feel like a compromise? We sit down with entrepreneur Kate Assaraf, founder of Dip Hair Care, to explore how a plastic-free brand can deliver salon-worthy results without sacrificing joy, simplicity, or your standards. Kate’s story starts at the pain point so many of us know: early eco-friendly bars that promised the planet and gave us crunchy, straw-like hair. Instead of settling, she drew on two decades in beauty and collaborated with a veteran chemist to craft bars designed to perform first—and just happen to be plastic-free.

We unpack the full arc from idea to retail: dozens of iterations tested across hair textures from type 1 to type 4, a clear thesis that science is an ally and plastic is the real enemy, and a ground campaign that took before-and-afters straight to refilleries and zero-waste shops. Kate shares the outreach scripts, the rejections, and the moments when a single customer call—like a dad celebrating ouchless detangling—reignited her resolve. We also dig into cost and longevity, breaking down why a single conditioner bar can outlast bottles and save serious money while simplifying your routine.

Brand and community bring it all together. Dip’s playful, nostalgic packaging nods to Trapper Keepers and Sweet Valley High, proving sustainability can be bright, witty, and welcoming. Customers help name characters, spread the word town by town, and redefine what “eco” can look like when performance leads the way. If you’ve been on the fence about plastic-free hair care—or you’re a founder navigating the emotional rollercoaster—this conversation offers practical tactics, honest encouragement, and a roadmap for building products people love to use and love to share.

The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience is now available for download as an audible.  Check it out!

Transcript

Show Welcome And Host Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:06

All of us reach a point in time where we are depleted and need to somehow find a way to reignite the fire within. But how do we spark that flame? Welcome to Reignite Resilience, where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. We'll discuss the art of reigniting our passion and strategies to stoke our enthusiasm. And now here are your hosts, Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Welcome back to another episode of Reignite Resilience. I am your co-host Natalie Davis and I'm so excited to be back with all of you. And joining me, of course, is your co-host Pam Cass. Hello, Pam. How are you?

Post-Event Recap And Reflections

SPEAKER_04 0:52

I am fantastic. I am slipping in at the last second. So I don't know about you, Natalie. I think these last three weeks, I feel like I've been drinking from a fire hose. Oh my gosh. Yes. For listeners, we had our all-day in-person first reignite resilience event, which was incredible, incredible sponsors, just incredible people showed up. And so, but it's not stopped. I was like, okay, we're done. Now we can rest. No, no, no, no.

Live Event Highlights And Community

SPEAKER_01 1:22

I don't think I'm there yet. I think that is an opportunity for me in the month of March, is what I've I'm hanging my hat on. So we'll see. In March, we'll we'll go through it. But we'll definitely have to share with our listeners a recap of our event because a bucket list or a dream that we had for the podcast was to have a live event where we brought our listeners together. And we had the opportunity to do so last week. Brought together some of our fabulous listeners and new listeners, individuals that have now put us in their rotation that didn't have us in their rotation before, but really having a space and a time to connect and talk about embodiment work and overcoming adversities and goal setting and planning for the upcoming year. So a lot of engagement, a lot of conversation, a lot of fun. It was such an amazing time. We also had some fabulous sponsors that made that day possible. So we will make sure that we highlight our fabulous sponsors that made the day possible. And then a big shout out to those people that were able to join us. We held that event in Loveland, Colorado. So I feel that it was a perfect setting for us to host our first live event in the land of love. Why not?

SPEAKER_04 2:35

And then, of course, a fun little fact is, you know, Natalie and I live 10 minutes apart, don't get to see each other very often. And so this was like the first time we had seen each other in the new year, I think. Correct. And we both show up wearing the exact same skirt from the exact same company and the exact same colored top and boots. And it was ridiculous. And we had no idea. That just tells you how in alignment we are with each other. It's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Exactly. You couldn't make it up. And everyone said, you know what? Just say that you did because it seems like it's on brand and why not? And it was totally on brand. It was so strange. Hilarious. The colors of our logo. It's a it's anyways, the random things that happen when you work together, right?

SPEAKER_04 3:18

So the link went to everybody that asked because they wanted to buy the skirt. So hilarious. There we are.

Sponsor Thanks And Serendipitous Outfit Moment

SPEAKER_01 3:25

I think there are pictures out there of it. So yeah, you can we have an amazing guest that is joining us today, a fabulous entrepreneur. I love picking the brains of entrepreneurs. So Pam, why don't you tell our listeners who's joining us today?

Introducing Guest Entrepreneur Kate Asiraff

SPEAKER_04 3:43

Absolutely. I'm so excited. Today we have Kate Asiraff. She is the founder of Dip Hair Care, a plastic-free beauty brand that's redefined sustainable hair care without compromising performance. With 20 years in the beauty industry, Kate launched Dip from her kitchen table in October of 2021 after discovering that existing eco-friendly alternatives failed to deliver. I love it. Welcome, Kate. So great to have you here. And so love to hear just a little bit about your story at the kitchen table. You're just like, oh, I'm just gonna create a brand.

The Problem With Early Eco Hair Bars

SPEAKER_03 4:21

Yeah, well, to be honest, most of my work is still done at my kitchen table, I think, as most entrepreneurs these days. But I have been in beauty for a long time. And I was, I've always felt in my heart to be sustainable earth loving. And I was so excited when there was this explosion of, you know, sustainable-minded brands and plastic-free brands that came around. And I was the first person in line to buy all of them. I was just like, okay, great, I'm gonna make this change. And time and time again, I was so angry. I felt like, you know, they were making a product that was so plastic free that they forgot about what goes on like with performance. And as much as I love the earth, I have to admit I'm a little bit of a vain person and I wasn't willing to have like straw hair or crunchy hair in in order to save the planet. So, you know, outward facing to my friends, I was very eco-friendly. But then like when you're alone and in the shower, I was going back to the bottle. Like, you know, I chose to I couldn't give it up. And I and you know what? I was I was like, I know that this is a problem I can solve. I've been in the beauty industry for a long time, I've worn every single hat I think I could wear in the beauty industry. And I was like, I know I can solve this problem and make something like really, really amazing. And so that is how Dip was born. It was built out of frustration and it was built out of literally, you know, this love for the customer who wants to do better for the planet, you know, because I think that emotion of paying more and getting something that makes you feel like hosed, it's not sustainable at all. Like people abandon, you know, eco-friendly deodorants left and right. People abandon, they're starting to abandon sustainability in general. And my job as an entrepreneur was to make someone love this stuff so much that the plastic free part wasn't even the reason they bought it.

SPEAKER_04 6:11

So you solved a problem that you identified, and that's how most amazing products start.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

Yeah. Well, you know, it's it's weird as because you know, we're all consumers, right? And so when you think about what it means to buy something, buying anything with your hard-earned money is emotional. And I think it's out of respect for the customer that I wanted to give them something that would make them excited and make them feel good because it's it's it's really not enough to just be plastic free. Like that's it's been proven. We've we're now watching a lot of brands shutter and close because they forgot about the customer. They were so attached to the marketing that they forgot about the experience.

Naming The Brand: From “Inconvenience Soap” To Dip

SPEAKER_04 6:50

Wow, I love that. Is there a story behind the name?

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Dip. Yeah. So I generally since I was probably 10 or 11, I've always had long hair. And I have always brought conditioner with me to the beach or the pool because uh I'm in New Jersey, and so when you go in the ocean, you want to come out and you don't want to miss any fun. You just throw conditioner in your hair and then you move on with your day and go to the boardwalk, and then you go older, you go straight from the beach to the bars. I love the idea of like taking a dip and not having it mess up your day. And so you can dip the bar in water and run it down your hair and you can air dry and go. One of the most frustrating things about being a woman with long hair or any length of hair is you know, you have to a lot of the times you can't just go from like fun to dinner. Even if you're on vacation, you can't go from like beach straight to dinner. Or you can, but it requires a lot of kind of like you you would need at least an hour and a half in between. Like there's not happening.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

And so even though dip is like a great conditioner for the shower, I wanted to also like the name comes from this like idea that you can still have fun and go swimming again and you could go take a dip.

Formulation Journey With A Veteran Chemist

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Did the name or the product and concept come first? Walk us through this process, right? Like you realize that there's a void and there's no judgment, this is a safe space. Like, I am also all about saving the earth, but vanity is a real thing, and there are things that are important to me that I'm not going to compromise on. And so you've recognized this, and here you are, you're like, I need to put this plan together. I I can create, I can, I can fix this. I can create a solution.

From Iterations To A Universal Hair Solution

SPEAKER_03 8:27

I was frantically, I've been in branding and marketing for a long time, and I was trying to figure out what name I could get a trademark for. And that's like very uh for someone who's never filed a trademark before, the biggest heartbreak is like doing all this branding and then finding out your trademark doesn't go through. So I had a few different names. I can't remember all of them, but you know, dip was like the front runner for me. I love the word, I love the way you can flip it and it looks the same. And then I had the other one, Finn. I thought Finn would be fun because you know, at the end of like a French film, they write Finn. And then it's also had to do with the ocean and taking a dip. So that was another, I couldn't get that one. Oh, another one I tried to what had on the list was inconvenience soap, which is like not as sexy at all. Yeah. Um, but it definitely told you like what it what it does. Like, because I I wanted to embrace the fact that switching to bars is not, it's it requires a little bit of of lifestyle change, and and pretending that bars are sexier than a sleek plastic bottle is just you can't really convince people of that, you know? So yeah, I wanted to just call embrace that and call it inconvenience soap. But dip dip was the winner as the front runner runner, it was the winner, and it was something kind of like the heavens opened up and dip had just whoever had the trademark before it had expired that week. And so I filed for it right away and was like ready to go. But you know, in the meantime, like while you're waiting for all that stuff, because you're like you start doing your branding, and it might be in vain because you don't know whether everything's officially gonna go through. So that's how I mean people don't realize that you can come up with like five or six different names for something and it doesn't it doesn't mean anything. So you can't even do your branding or you can't like go full full head on. But yeah, you have to do a lot of a lot of work to find out if it's gonna even come close to passing. I love that inconvenient soap was even on the table. I love that dip and an inconvenient soap is like so much. It's it's a it's a mouthful, it's it's not as sexy as dip. I mean, you're right, it's an orphan. I would have rolled with it, I would have turned it, I would have spun it into sexy had had I gotten it, you know? I would have exactly but I'm glad I have no doubt. I have no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

I'm relieved I didn't have to spin that one.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

I love it. Okay, so you come up with the idea, you c you're working on figuring out the name, you get the name. And so how the heck at your kitchen table do you create a product that you've created and is selling now?

Getting To Market: Retailer Pitches And Rejections

SPEAKER_03 10:59

So most of the the formulation stuff didn't happen at my kitchen table. It happened, I found I didn't find him. I knew him for a long time. I chose a chemist who had had 40 years of experience in doing really luxury hair care. So some of the stuff you see on shelf in you know, Sephora Ulta, he has the brains behind that, and also stuff that you see on the back bar in different salons. He was also the brains behind a lot of that for 40 years. So he knew the industry inside and out, and he had never made bars before. So I wanted to challenge him. I was like, okay, you've never made a bar, and so you're not tainted by any kind of benchmark I'm gonna bring you. Can you make the best bar? I won't even limit you on price, the best bar that you could possibly make. And he was totally up for the challenge. And then I was like, okay, well, you seem this challenge seems too easy. Now make it for all hair types so we don't have to divide it, you know. So you imagine a family like my best friend's mixed, and she has like several different curl patterns, and there was no hair care for her. And so I was like, make sure that I can use it and my best friend can use it. If we both go to the beach together, we can both go swimming and it we don't both have to buy it. And you know, we worked on it, we had came through like 40 different iterations, and I put it through the ringer with with all of my friends with type one hair and all my friends with type four hair and everyone in between. And then finally, when I we had the formula that was like locked out, we were like, this is it. But before that, there were many, many, what is it? We're kissing toads, like there are a lot of there were a lot of toads. A lot of toads that got kissed. They were like, not good. They were really, they were good for some people, and then like other people hated them. And I was like, this, I know it can be solved. And so yeah, once we got that final formula, I was ready to put it to market. However, it's not like you put something to market and you're confident, you're like, you still are your teeth are chattering, like you're biting your nails, you're like, it is a scary thing to bring something to market and try and trying to convince people who've already tried bars before and been like very upset by them. Like, hey, try this one now. You know, it was really it was tough.

SPEAKER_04 13:09

Yeah. So what did that look like? Because now you've got this product created. The science of it was created by somebody that's been doing this for 40 plus years. Your friends all donated their hair to check this out, and so you now you've got it. Like, how does it get on the shelves? Because I'm sure there's entrepreneurs out there, like, how do you take that next step?

Philosophy: Science-Friendly, Plastic-Hostile

SPEAKER_03 13:28

So I happened to be at the same time I was watching Sarah Blakely's masterclass. And if anyone doesn't know who that is, that's she's the founder of Spanx and now Sneaks. And she tells this story about how she just went to the retailers and showed them before and afters. And so I started to do that. I knew exactly where I because I was the customer, right? And so I was like, okay, I know that the customer like me shops in plastic free zero waste stores, or they're called refilleries. Like, I'm I went on foot to almost every refillery I could and was like, if this is not the best hair care you've ever tried in bar form, then we're we're done. But sometimes people called me from their towel. I cannot believe the conditioner worked because that's how people are just used to having a conditioner that was like lackluster, and and I mean I made the conditioner so good that I have two full bottles of orbe in my in my shower, and I have them at my fingertips all the time. I never touch them because I prefer the way it dip makes my hair.

SPEAKER_04 14:34

Oh, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

That's for guests. I don't expect guests to use my bar.

SPEAKER_04 14:38

Yeah, yeah. So okay, so you you start on foot, hitting all of these places. What was kind of that reception like when you went in there? I mean, you showed them before and after.

Motivation, Lows, And Customer Bright Spots

SPEAKER_03 14:48

So, you know, I was a little bit of a traveling salesman. It was it's a little awkward. Of course, I did some digital reach out as well. So it wasn't all like it wasn't, you know, only going with a suitcase full of diff places. Yeah, it I mean, it was a lot of rejection and it was a lot of excitement on the other side. You know, a lot of the decisions I made for the product kept someone who wanted eco-friendly hair care in mind, but you know, it's not all natural. I didn't want all natural. I embrace science in these bars. I wanted them to work and to perform because my enemy is plastic. My enemy is not hair care science, you know, the stuff that really makes your hair look beautiful. So, some eco-friendly people that, you know, there's kind of this in the sustainable world, it's like if I can't pronounce it, I don't want it in my store. But that's it's not my fault, those the these safe ingredients are named something that you don't you don't like the sound of. Like we were very, very respectful to the earth when we made it, and you know, someone else's lack of knowledge of chemistry has held them back from from having it on their shelf. But more often than not, I'd say probably 80% of the people I pitch to have taken dip. And dip for many, many stores around the country pays the rent. The dip sales pay the rent. So, like if you can imagine that one person tries it in town and then they start to tell other people in a town, and then suddenly, like, this whole town is using plastic-free hair care. It's pretty amazing, and that happens because of the way we we have positioned it in different retails.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

Oh, incredible.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

You're seeing the ripple effect, right? Like the impact is there, and you're you're seeing the ripple from that drop in the pond.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

You only get that ripple effect if you've surprised someone.

unknown 16:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:35

Absolutely. You've wowed them.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

Yeah, they don't they don't think it's gonna work. They're like, okay, I'll try it. Like, I'll listen to this lady, you know, that owns this store, and then they're like, oh, actually, I need to get this for my sister, I need to get this for my mom, I need to get this for my best friend, and that is how it has grown.

Emotional Resilience And Real Coping

SPEAKER_01 16:51

How did you keep yourself motivated to continue to push through? Because I know that you said 80% of the people that you spoke to, they said yes, and that's great. On the, you know, 2020's hindsight is is great when you say I've got 80% adoption, but you get those days where you might hit 10 of that 20% in the same day, right? Where you're just getting inundated, who knows? Yes.

Brand And Packaging: 80s-90s Nostalgia

SPEAKER_03 17:12

There are certainly demotivating days, and I would say those come around more and more than you want them to. Like they're they're demotivating, they're derailing, and you you literally sometimes you're like, why did I do this instead of get a job? Like, this is there are many miserable moments. I don't want anyone to think that this is like I'm having a good day today. I think that's entrepreneurship in in general, right? That's that's not the product or service specific, that's just entrepreneurship in general. Yes. I don't think people that don't own businesses realize how tough those days can be. Yeah, they can be days where like you don't want to get out of bed. There can be days when you're like, I, you know, my my thing, and I don't know who else has this, but like I my body wants to get everything out if I'm having one of those days, like high nerves days. And it's so, it's so, so tough. But I think sometimes the universe kind of when you're feelings were super low, you'll get like kind of a like a little bright light that shines on you from either a customer or an employee or you know, even a social media thing, and you're like, and it shines a light, and you're like, oh my god, this is why we do it. So a lot of times dads write to me and they're like, My job is detangling my daughter's hair. That's the job that my wife has given me. And dip has now I have like ouchless detangling with my daughter, and that's a part nice part of it. Used to be a routine that like we hate we didn't really like, no, neither parent wanted to participate in because detangling like a daughter's hair is is tough, you know, especially if I feel like it hurts them. Like dip has made that something to look forward to. And like those little things that come through, you're like, oh my god, I didn't need this isn't even something I considered, and this is like something that makes it so fun. And so like then you're like, okay, the next day I spring out of bed, and I'm like, okay, what dad are we gonna help this time? You know, like you know, what set of sisters, one's using all they have curl, both have curly hair and one squeezes way more conditioner out than the other, and like it just, you know, like it's impossible to use the dip conditioner bar fast, which is like so fun. So I mean, those are the things that kind of snap me back into reality and like re-ground me. But man, if I would be lying, if I said those bad days weren't so much louder than the good ones sometimes. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Is there anything that you do introspectively that helps to pull you out of those moments as well?

SPEAKER_03 19:31

I would love to give a deeper answer to this, but I I sometimes I just say a group of balls crying. Like so that's part of the getting everything out.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Yes, everything is out.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

I think that just like I think everyone else. I don't, I'm not above crawling into a ball and crying like everything.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

No, that's perfect. That's exactly what we need to hear.

Community Playfulness And Sustainable Joy

SPEAKER_04 19:53

That's yeah, it makes it real because there's probably, I'm sure there are other entrepreneurs, and I probably have had those days where I'm just like, I am gonna go get a real job because this is terrible. And you do want to cry. But then you have those good days, and you're like, oh, this is why I do this.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

I did buy a heated blanket because I feel like it makes the crying feeling look.

SPEAKER_04 20:17

I have a weighted blanket, so I'm the same thing. I just the weight of the blanket, you're like, oh, this makes everything better. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

It is unbelievable. I've never considered myself a super emotional person, but like entrepreneurship throws you into the it'll bring it out of you. That's for sure. I should just even be careful what I say, because if you say you're not an emotional person, like the universe starts throwing things at you really, really. That's true. That's true. You don't need yeah, you don't need that.

Cost, Longevity, And “Girl Math”

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Yes. You don't need that at all. Smudge that. Let's get that out of here. I love it. I love that. Kate, as you were building out the brand and and you're out and you're promoting the branding, the packaging, all of that. Was that later on or was that at the very beginning? Because that's at the very beginning. I'm gonna show I'm just gonna hold the packaging up for everyone. So this arrived. I had no idea what was coming in the mail. And as I opened it, I was like, I think I need to do like a whole unboxing video. What am I opening? Like, this is the coolest thing ever. So this was at the beginning. And for those that were old school trapper keeper lovers like myself, it's got the trapper keeper opening to get you right in. So talk to us about the branding because this is impeccable. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 21:31

So, my so the branding of like the actual box. It's not shiny. So, this is inspired by, and you guys will probably know this. Remember Sweet Valley High? Yes. Oh, yeah. So I fell in love with hair from the old Sweet Valley High books. I still have mine. I I read them all. I love them. I love all their hair dramas and like all this stuff. I just I look at the covers of those books and I'm just like, this is that it reminds me of being a little girl. Even like as a kid, I waited in line to to meet Francine Pastor. In the mall. Oh. I love that late 80s, early 90s culture and color palette and all that stuff. And so, yeah, you notice like if you look at the bars, they're like very high school-y in like they're playful, but like the conditioner is called the overachiever because it does so much. It can replace curl creams, it can you know replace leave-in sprays, and the shampoo is called perfect attendance. And that is so you you actually never have to choose between your workout and a good hair day. You can use it every it's gentle enough to use every day. You don't have to, but say if you're like a daycare, you work in a daycare and you need to shower every day, or you're a nurse, or you work in a restaurant, like there's so many jobs where you have to shower more often. And so you're not, you can't like do that, you know, to okay, I'm showered today, tomorrow is a bun, and then the next day is a hat situation that a lot of people do. So some of us have to shower more often. So so yeah, it's based on the branding. Like, I love the trapper keepers kind of is new. I just introduced that piece of it, and the garbage fail kids are also super fun. If anyone remembers the garbage pale kids of the late 80s, yeah. Oh, yeah. So that's Betsy Toss. She's really funny.

SPEAKER_04 23:14

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

She's standing on a mountain of plastic bottles, and I just love that. I I just love that one so much. I have a friend who's an illustrator, and he we have a whole series of them. So he draws those, and the customers actually our customers name them. Oh, I love that. Oh, I love that. We run contests periodically like through the year, and our customers name the next garbage fail kid.

SPEAKER_04 23:37

Oh my gosh, that's fun.

SPEAKER_03 23:38

That is so much fun. So fun.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

I love it. I mean, our customers are funnier than anyone I've ever met. And it's it's really, really cool to see in sustainability. So sustainability is seen as very like kind of you know, preachy and serious, but our customers are fun. They're like every woman I know. They're like silly, they're laughing, they're like making fun of themselves a little bit, and like making fun. They also, you know, I want the joy to come back to marketing because there's so much marketing that's either like super crass, which is like funny in its own way, or it's like so serious when you're like, I don't know anyone, I don't know this person in this ad, you know.

SPEAKER_04 24:16

Yeah, so yeah, or not relatable. And so I feel like that's that marketing speaks to everyone.

SPEAKER_03 24:22

Yeah, thank you. And it's and it's just fun. It's just light in a very heavy world. And I think that um people don't want to know how bad the plastic situation is all the time.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

They know. We don't need to tell them anymore. And then you have these women that absolutely love it because they're doing something good that makes them feel good for doing it, but they're not sacrificing looking good.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Right. And they and they save a lot of money. So, like for me, I used to be I because I used to buy orbit once a month, like that adds up very quickly. I my one conditioner bar lasts me a little more than a year and it'll save me over$500.

SPEAKER_04 25:02

It's insane.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

Yeah. So, you know, it's it's funny because some people see a$32 conditioner bar and they're like, ooh, it's like the most expensive one. And I'm like, it is, however, if it if you're switching even from a panteen, you're still gonna break even.

SPEAKER_04 25:19

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:19

But if you're switching from like something very, very pricey, you're gonna, you're, you're gonna have a lot more money to do other things. Yeah. There's a cost savings there. Absolutely. Isn't that what girl math is all about? Totally. Yes, it is. I was just gonna it's girl math.

Closing And Listener CTA

SPEAKER_00 25:35

I love it. I love it. Thank you for joining us today on the Reignite Resilience podcast. We hope you had some aha moments and learned a few new real life ideas to fuel the flames of passion. Please subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, like or download your favorite episodes, and of course, share with your friends and family. We look forward to seeing you again next time on Reignite Resilience.