How Ganiyat Salami Is Redefining Clean Beauty With Haircare Brand Èyí Dára

Ganiyat Salami is determined to change the clean beauty industry with her values-led haircare brand Èyí Dára, which means “this is good” in Yoruba.

Hailing from Nigeria, Ganiyat works to create products that are steeped in intention, heritage, wellness, and making sure that people feel complete nourishment through using her brand. Her focus is for hair to not only look good, but feel good, allowing people to embrace their natural curls and coils.

Growing up, Ganiyat’s journey with her hair wasn’t an easy one, as she said she often felt overlooked due to her 4C texture. Throughout her life, the entrepreneur ventured in and out of salons and even tried relaxers, but never felt truly comfortable with the results. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic, when salons began to shut down, that she decided to take matters into her own hands. In 2022, she started her clean haircare brand in her apartment kitchen with 99% natural ingredients that not only gave her hair what it needed, but would help others looking to experience their own beautiful ritual of self-love. 

Backed by haircare education and science, Ganiyat developed three products to give her customers’ hair the best treatment including the the moisturizing shampoo bar, the deep conditioning mask, an the nourishing leave-in. Ganiyat’s story is one filled with integrity and faith, defining how clean beauty can empower women.

Her Agenda: What made you start your wellness-forward haircare brand Eyi Dara? 

Ganiyat Salami: I’ll start with the significance of the name Èyí Dára. Èyí Dára is actually a Yoruba phrase. I’m originally from Nigeria. I’m from the southwestern part of Nigeria, where you have the Yoruba tribe. The phrase means “This is good.” When I think about the name Eyi Dara, it holds so much meaning. My brand focuses on creating hair care products that are highly natural. I believe nature has the longest track record of giving us products or ingredients that are so beneficial and good for us. Part of the meaning is thinking about using clean ingredients from nature. The other aspect is the importance of prioritizing and caring for your hair, which is a good thing. The final meaning that comes to mind for me is learning to embrace your hair as it is, authentically. Your hair is good, especially when we think about people with textured hair. That’s the origin in terms of the meaning of the brand.

Her Agenda: How did your personal experience inform the creation of the brand? 

Ganiyat Salami: Growing up, I didn’t have a very good relationship with my hair. I wasn’t even knowledgeable about my hair. I have 4C, the coiliest of the coiliest hair. I was always made to understand that my hair was just not “it.” It wasn’t pretty enough. It wasn’t tidy enough. It was the kind of hair that you just wanted to hide. 

When I went to get my hair done as a kid, all I remember is pain. It was a very unpleasant experience. I was close to my 30s when I decided [to] try this natural hair thing again. During that time, I would go to the salons, and it was still the pain. I typically went to the stylists who were were not very familiar with taking care of natural hair, although they were African women, which was quite sad. After a few months, I decided to switch to a proper natural hair salon. I was going to the salon, which I loved. The lady who did my hair was amazing, but I just noticed that my hair wasn’t growing. I asked her, how can I grow my hair? She said your hair does not grow. And when she said that statement, it really just broke my heart because I felt, wow, I guess what you were thinking is true. During that time, I came across this Korean lady on Instagram who said, your hair can grow. 

She was teaching a course. Part of what she was teaching was how to grow your hair, not just from the outside, but from the inside. I was like I need to actually change my habit of growing my hair. Part of the lessons from that course was the importance of ingredient choices. From the course, I was also able to start learning how to create my own hair care products. I turned my kitchen into a lab. I was making my shampoos. I was making my leave-in. I was making my deep conditioning products. My hair just felt really nourished. I kept doing that. I kept making these products. I never actually intended to start a business, but as time went by, my friends would come over, and I would gift them the products that I was making. One of my friends was like, you need to create a product. You need to create a brand with it. I was in corporate America, and I was working as a project manager. I just wasn’t enjoying work. I decided to go to the woods and take a few days off by myself. I’m glad that I did.

I went back home, and said I’m going to learn how to make whipped shea butter that I can use for my hair and my skin. That was how Èyí Dára was actually birthed. I was like, there’s a need here, and I created a hair care line. 

Her Agenda: How has the brand progressed since its launch? What has the reception been like towards the products?

Ganiyat Salami: Since I’ve launched the brand, honestly, I think things have just been very slow, which is normal in a very crowded space. When you think about the beauty industry, there are so many products out there. It’s really difficult to stand out. For me, in terms of people’s openness to the product, I would say that we’ve had fewer people be exposed to the products to actually use the products and buy the products. Once they’ve tried a product, they have been very pleasantly surprised by, for example, how it feels, how it smells. For me, that was part of the intention in creating the product. I really needed to make people feel special.  When I think about textured hair and products that I designed for us, it usually comes across as an afterthought. I thought it was crucial to make products that would help people feel like this is a love letter to my hair. I feel like there’s that excitement that a hair care line is truly committed to making people feel like they’re pampered.

Her Agenda: How do you choose the right ingredients for your products? 

Ganiyat Salami: It hasn’t been a very straightforward process. I’m not even going to lie to you. I remember, when I initially started with the hair care line, the plan was never to do a shampoo bar.  My plan was to make a shampoo. I wanted all the products. Part of our commitment is that all our products have to be at least 99% natural. That is the standard. When the shampoo was being developed, I tried it, tested it, and I just felt that yes, it’s a highly natural product, but the sensation also has to be there. When I’m washing my hair. I don’t want my hair to feel stripped and dry. I don’t want that harsh feeling. When I tried the liquid shampoos once they were developed, that was always happening, and it just kept getting worse. I was like, no, the shampoo has to leave my hair clean. It has to make my hair feel soft. It also has to make me feel like in the moment, I’m smelling something that is just nurturing my senses. As a result, that was how I was able to come up with what ingredients I wanted to use. I wanted people to feel like as you’re washing your hair, you’re cleansing, you’re fortifying, you’re locking in moisture, but then it smells amazing. 

Her Agenda: What piece of advice would you give a younger Black woman who wants to break into the clean beauty industry? 

Ganiyat Salami: I would recommend that anyone trying to start a business in clean beauty work at their own pace and do what works for them. I feel like the reality when it comes to trying to set up a business is that it consumes so much money, and there usually is this push from people to recommend that you do different things. I feel it’s so important for people to just do what they feel is really true to them. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important to take advice, but I think it’s also crucial to filter that advice and see whether or not it works for you. Building a business is a lot of work. It’s challenging to say the least. It could definitely make you feel exhausted, and sometimes you feel like you want to lose hope. I would recommend, as I said earlier, the importance of staying true to yourself, doing what you feel works for you, and just trying to be persistent.