Ever since BodFood Natural Haircare launched in November last year, customer feedback on their products made from naturally derived and organic ingredients has been overwhelmingly positive.

Needless to say, this year, the feedback from industry at Naturally Good 2022 was just as strong. “This was our first time at a tradeshow and we’re so glad we attended,” says founder Linda Ireland. “We went with the intention of getting market feedback and retailer partnerships and both proved successful.

“We have built many successful relationships and collaborations since, as well as partnering with several retailers and a distributor as a result. The contacts that came from the event have been invaluable to us.”

New products in the works

BodFood’s first product to market – it’s Dry Shampoo is also its best performing product. “People love the performance and the unique addition of rose quartz crystals in every bottle,” Linda says. “However, since launching the rest of our range, sales have been quite consistent across the board. We are currently looking to add a new Dry Shampoo that is specially formulated to suit dark hair which is going through formal focus group trials right now.”

Next on the to-do list is to focus on launching six new products in BodFood’s new Algae Sea Minerals Range. “We are currently finalising focus group testing with the intention to bring these beautiful, powerful products to our community by December 2022. It’s set to be a first of its kind produced in Australia utilising some of the planet’s most nutrient dense ingredients and is set to be the cleanest, high performance hair care range in the country, so that’s very exciting.”

From struggling to get out of bed to a thriving new business

Created on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, the BodFood journey has been a very personal one for Linda who previously owned a finance company that was ranked number two in Australia. “It was a busy and demanding business but unfortunately it took a toll on my health,” she says. “It was a classic case of burnout after 15 years of running the business.”

Suffering from chronic fatigue and autoimmune conditions, Linda says there were days when she struggled to get out of bed with waning cognitive function. Almost immediately she went in search of answers and solutions to support her recovery.

“Part of the research I conducted lead me to discovering amount of toxic chemicals that I was absorbing through my personal care products, and the damage these can cause to our endocrine systems. Even products I thought were natural.

“I decided to ditch everything with potential hormone-disrupting chemicals in an effort to heal. I made the switch to the most natural haircare products I could find, however unfortunately they didn’t offer the same performance of the salon quality products I was used to using.”

With her health on the mend, Linda decided she wanted to bridge the gap between salon quality results and natural ingredients which eventuated in the BodFood range which is sulfate and paraben free.

Happy customers

Since launching online Linda says customers have been thrilled with the results. “We’ve had numerous people comment on the dramatic improvement of their scalp health, which is a really common issue due to the chemicals we have all been subjected to. Scalp health is a focus of ours across our entire range. Our products are targeted to specific hair diagnosis and are solution focused.”

The business owner says that knowing she has helped people has been very gratifying. “I had one customer write back saying, ‘I am absolutely hooked. As someone with thin, fine hair, I was having to wash my hair three to four times per week for my oily scalp and dry ends. This would make my hair heavy and frizzy and felt terrible. Not only that, I was losing clumps and clumps of hair. Now I am able to wash with these products once per week producing instant volume and shine.’”

In terms of the next 12 months and few years after, whilst continuing to bridge the gap between salon quality and natural ingredients, Linda says environmental and health concerns are a priority for the business. “We’ll continue our commitment to ocean, grey water and septic tank friendly products that are 100 per cent vegan and free from hormone disrupting increments and toxins.

“We hope our products make their way into more Australian homes, so our community benefits from performance products without compromising their health.”

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