43. Surf, Sustainability, and Stunning Post-Surf Hair: Dip's Eco-Friendly Revolution

Free Shipping: Shop Dip's after swim (and surf!) detangler bar and get FREE shipping when you use the code confessions at checkout.

Finding plastic nurdles on the remote beaches of Sri Lanka left Kate Assaraf heart broken. Having grown up in New Jersey where seamlessly going from beach to nightlife was a part of summer culture, Kate never left home without a bottle of conditioner to treat her hair after a day in the saltwater. Now a surfer and long term hair-care enthusiast, Kate hated the fact that her post-surf hair care contributed to the world's growing plastic problem. After dozens of iterations working with a chemist, Kate created an eco-friendly solution in her company called Dip! An environmental awareness company parading around as a damn good hair care company.

In this episode you'll learn all about Dip and how this badass entrepreneur combined her love for hair, sustainability, and surfing into a haircare line fit for surf ladies who love the environment (and are tired of those post-surf tangles!)

Main Themes:

Plastic Pollution & Kate's Inspiration to create Dip!
"When I was in Sri Lanka, they already had like a bit of a plastic problem. A ship had spilled plastic nurdles all over. It broke my heart. Sri Lanka is one of the most beautiful, untouched places I've ever been and nurdles just mimic food for so much wildlife there. It's heartbreaking". - Kate Assaraf

Accessible Sustainability
"Sustainability is a weird subject, right? People want to care about it. But they either don't feel included or they feel disenchanted because they don't think that they can do much about it. For me, like the little emotional thing in my day, is my hair. If I'm having a bad hair day, I'm miserable it affects my confidence. So I thought why not make something amazing that that tapped into doing something good? Something you use regularly that reminded you about reducing your plastic instead of like finger waggled you into it." - Kate Assaraf

Greenwashing & Beauty Products: Reef Safe vs. Reef Safer
"Surfers want their their heart and soul in reef safety and understandably so. And I'm also on that on that team. When you're in the cosmetics industry, and you know that this term doesn't mean anything but consumers hold so much weight with it. It's tricky. You see consumers going back and forth on brands on reef safety. The term that I've seen that is most appropriate is "reef safer". It's very easy to put reef safe on anything right now there's no one there there no police it." - Kate Assaraf

Resources:

• Shop Dip and get 15% OFF with the code "confessionsofasurflady" at checkout at Dipalready.com
• Follow @Dipalready on Instagram here.
• Follow us your host Laura Day: @confessionsofasurflady
• Follow The Surf Société: @surfsociete for surf lady

Transcript

Laura Day: 0:00

I need to start taking better care of my hair especially after serving. And on the podcast I always joke about being served nasty, which is like not taking a shower after you surf because you're on a surf trip and you're in a surf again and all of that and I feel like this is like the perfect product to be like surf nasty but not it's

Unknown: 0:18

designed for that intentionally because I wouldn't say I'm so surf nasty but I'm like disgusting New Jersey person. The culture in New Jersey is you spend all day at the shore on the beach, and then you don't want to waste time and go home and shower and you want to go straight to the bars. I'm 41 now so it's like not my life anymore. But you know all through my 20s That was like what do you call it serve nasty? Nasty we would call it being dirty Jersey so go straight straight to the bars like if you just throw on some eyeliner and go on with our day and have like this beautiful salty wavy hair yet again I would bring leave in conditioner to the beach or like I would always buy like a cheap conditioner for the beach but in the sun when it's really hot not only does like now that I know like plastic like the endocrine disruptors like leach into the product in the sun the formula is often separate and become like cottage cheese and it would always grossed me out like I just I hated it. But you know, you had to do what you have to do because you had where else and you didn't want to go Yeah, it's a congruent experience.

Laura Day: 1:22

Hey, lady, welcome to Confessions of a surf lady, a podcast by the surf society. For so long women have been misrepresented by the surf industry, only highlighting a narrow and exclusive version of a who surf lady can be. But you and I both know that there's so much more to women surfing than that. This, this podcast right here is a place to tell our story, how we want to tell it. At Confessions of a surf lady, you'll meet everyday surf ladies doing amazing things in their local communities, as well as pros, World Champs big wave riders and badass living legends from women's surf history, all sharing their stoke on this blossoming Global Women's surf culture. What's even more special though is that you Yes, you will get a chance to participate in the conversation by leaving me your confessions. I'm your host, Laura day thing to me as your new favorite surf sister connecting you to your beautiful Global Women's surf community, helping you boost your competence before you head out for your next surf and even dropping a few surf tips from the surf society along the way. If you want to stay connected with me, find me on Instagram that's at Confessions of a surf lady. kind of use that like my personal account. And then go ahead and follow at surf society. That's s your FSOCIE te. There you'll find a handful of free resources to help you through your surfing journey. All right, lady. Thanks again for joining me here at Confessions of a surf lady where we're cultivating a global woman surf culture through thoughtful conversation. Let's get to our episode. Yeah. Hey lady, it's your host Laura day and I am so stoked to bring you this episode. Today you are going to meet Kate surfer trail runner, haircare enthusiast and badass entrepreneur. Kate is the founder of dip in environmental awareness company parading around as a damn good hair company. I am so proud to share with you that dip is our very first sponsor here at Confessions of a surf lady. It feels so good to be supported by an amazing woman owned company who shares our values. So thank you, Kate. And thank you did for my ladies with that post serve tangled hair, I need you to listen up. Kate has created this beautiful plastic free conditioner bar that actually works with the salt in your hair to help you detangle it. Dip includes a range of other haircare and personal care products. But this conditioner bar is perfect for those days when you get out of the surf and you can't make it to the shower right away. Or maybe you just want to be a little bit surf nasty to pick up your conditioner bar also known as dips after swim detangler because it is also made for the pool or the lake had to dip already.com and use the code confessions to get free shipping. I'll have the link in the show notes for you. All right, lady. Let's get to our episode. Yeah. Hi, Kate. Welcome to The Confessions of a surf lady podcast. I am so stoked to have you here. I think this is super exciting for me because you're our very first sponsor here. And I think we have like a really cool connection being female entrepreneurs. So we're gonna have so much to share today. So why don't you introduce yourself, tell us where you're from and tell us like get us started a little bit on this dip story. Sure.

Unknown: 4:51

Hi, everyone. My name is Kate SRF. And I learned to surf in Sri Lanka when I was 28. And one of my favorite things to do You my whole life, I've been going to the beach. And I've always had pretty long hair. And I've always struggled with tangling my hair when I come out of the water. But especially when I got out of the water after surfing, so I developed shampoo and conditioner bars. I'm also a trail runner, that's what I do every day is run in the woods. So the shampoo bar is made so that you can shower every day if you want to, you don't have to choose between your run and a good hair day. And the conditioner of our specifically detangles and softens hair and protects it from brittleness when you come out of the ocean, not just the ocean, it could be the pool, the lake, wherever. But I know that in the surf community and I love this like camaraderie of people getting together and like celebrating the ocean. What's cool about just surfing in general is just that you're always at the mercy of the ocean. And I know that so many surfers that I've talked to you are so passionate about protecting it. And I love that whole energy that you get from surfers that you just don't get from anywhere else. It's

Laura Day: 6:02

pretty special. I just came back from a trip I was telling you about it in Baja. And it was just six of us girls. And I mean it was one awesome because we're the only ones in the water. Yeah, that camaraderie is just so special and just being disconnected from modern societies disconnected from the world. And having like that play time, I always laugh at how like I'm in my 30s. And we're still playing like I'm still playing with my friends. And it's the most fun. When we first met, you told me about your inspiration for depth. And I thought it was such a great story. And like such a great visual you gave me about going on a trip. Can you tell me more about that.

Unknown: 6:38

I tell two different stories. One of the genesis of dip and making it for all hair types is that I've had the same best friend since I was 11. And she has type four hair. And so everywhere we went, she struggled with using haircare because it wasn't accessible to her. And we would go specifically to hotels where she has like type four curls for anyone that doesn't know or that in the hair world is black hair. And so she would ask for conditioner at the hotel. And she would need like four or five bottles of these mini conditioners because it just like didn't cut it. And she would always be looked at with kind of this upside eye by the staff as if she was trying to get more than her fair share. And it's really just what she needed to take care of her hair. And so when I was making dip, I wanted to make sure it would work for my sad we call me she makes fun of me for a white girl hair and her like big beautiful curls at the same time. Because if you have a family or you have a set of friends or sisters that have different hair types, you shouldn't have to invest in multiple bars. And it was really important to me to make sure that that translated into the product. I'm not really in the business to sell lots of bars for the same family. I think it's like a heinous business plan. I really wanted it to be something that not only lasted a long time, but was a family with three different hair types could all just share it because otherwise who could store this stuff?

Laura Day: 7:54

Yeah, totally. And then you mentioned something about traveling. I don't remember where you said it was but seeing like plastic nurdles on the beach. So yeah, that was

Unknown: 8:06

oh my goodness, yeah, Sri Lanka, even after I was there, but when I was there, they already had like a bit of a plastic problem. But then, afterwards, after I left, a ship had spilled plastic noodles all over and I look like snow on the sand there. And it broke my heart because have you been to Sri Lanka yet? I haven't yet. It's one of the most beautiful, untouched places I've ever been. It was almost like jarring when I was there because you could be walking on the beach and then come across like a herd of like 20 Cows just hanging out on the beach. And no one owns the beach. It was just one of the most beautiful places and to hear that the wildlife nurdles just mimic food for so much wildlife there. And it is the most heartbreaking thing to just find out whether it was carelessness or just a mistake or like maybe the ocean showed that boat whose boss you know, you don't really know. It's heartbreaking to find out that the byproduct of that is just hurting animal health. And

Laura Day: 9:02

the nurdles are those I don't know if you know is that like the pellet that is used to melt down to create products like conditioner and shampoo bottle.

Unknown: 9:09

Yeah, it's like the secondary raw material between oil and then making a finished product. Yeah,

Laura Day: 9:16

that was really amazing. Okay, so I have a dip box right here. And I picked this summer I have a shipment to that I wanted to open I want to do an unboxing I haven't done yet. But I picked this up for the Baja trip. And so that was my first time using it. And one of the things for me is like I'm growing my hair. I'm like if you've known me for a long time, I usually do short hair, and it's helpful in the surf because it doesn't get that tangled. But as that starts growing, I started realizing like okay, I'm having an issue here with the tangles and I have like this weird thing in my mind where I'm like, I'm 36 like this might be my last time to like grow. It's super long. I'm doing it now you know. So before we even chatted, I was like I need to start taking better care of my hair especially after serving. And on the podcast. I always joke about being served nasty, which is like not taking a shower after you surf because you're on a surf trip and you're gonna surf again and all of that. And I feel like this is like the perfect product to be like surf nasty, but not it's designed

Unknown: 10:11

for that intentionally because I wouldn't say I'm so surf nasty, but I'm like, disgusting New Jersey person. The culture in New Jersey is you spent all day at the shore on the beach, and then you don't want to waste time and go home and shower, and you want to go straight to the bars. I'm 41 now so it's like, not my life anymore. But you know, all through my 20s That was like the, what do you call it serve nasty, nasty, I mean, we would call it being dirty jersey. So like, we just go straight, straight to the bars, like we just throw on some eyeliner and go on with our day and have like this beautiful salty kind of wavy hair yet again, I would bring leave in conditioner to the beach, or like I would always buy like a cheap conditioner for the beach. But in the sun when it's really hot. Not only does like now that I know like plastic like the endocrine disrupters, like leach into the product. But in the sun, the formula is often separate and become like cottage cheese and it would always grossed me out like I just, I hated it. But you know, you had to do it you have to do because you had where else and you didn't want to be here. Yeah, it's a congruent experience for both of

Laura Day: 11:16

us. It's so perfect, though, because like exactly what you describe, which is like spending all day at the beach, and then like not having to go home and like get dressed up and go back out. Like, that's part of the experience, like just being able to like spend the whole day enjoying the day, which I love. So now like for me, the routine is going to be I have I usually do like a big water jug in the back of my car, that's gonna be you know, rinsing it down, wiping the dip across my hair a couple times, and then doing like another splash of water. And then if I don't get to a shower right away, like, I don't feel so bad. And if I have a meeting, or if I have something going on, like sometimes I like look in the mirror, like I'll go out to lunch and I look in the mirror. And I'm like, do people think this is just like acceptable, just walking around with like this big, tangled mess of hair. So now like you've saved me now I don't have to do that. Yeah,

Unknown: 12:07

and if you use it, when when you come right out of the water, you don't even have to rinse it out or use additional water, you can just use the water that is still in your hair, and just swipe it down really wet. So you need a really wet bar, really wet hair. And then you can like just swipe it down. And usually most people can go like this afterwards. And then they're good to go. That I noticed I need to bring a jug of water if you don't want to.

Laura Day: 12:29

That's perfect because I didn't notice that like as soon as I put it through, I was able to get my hands through real easy, which was perfect. And my hair's not as prone to tangling as I feel like other people's are because the texture isn't as curly or anything. But yeah, this is my new favorite thing. This is like everybody's got to add this to their head. And it really is a big bar. Honestly, I I was surprised that how big the bar was when I opened the box.

Unknown: 12:50

That's intentional. I feel distanced from like the beauty industry, even though it's a beauty industry product, but it really the condition of our especially because I used to buy on eBay, and urology and Kara stasis, do all the things because I thought my hair needed all of those things. And once I kind of distilled the information out, I realized that you don't need all those products, a lot of those products are the same, but with different water content, like leave in conditioner, and hair mask and conditioner, luxury conditioner, they're all pretty much the same thing with different water contents. So they're just selling you more stuff with preservatives. And so with the conditioner bar, I wanted to be really big, you know, because curly haired people like they go through products like that, because they're sold so many things. And they have to apply so much. And so much goes down through their fingers into into the drain. Yeah, I wanted it to last a really long time. So it's kind of my middle finger to the beauty industry and every bottle, high end conditioner I've ever bought, because I can buy a dip conditioner bar, and with my family of four, it can last over a year. Wow. Sometimes it lasts people two years if you're using it by yourself. Some people with really long hair long, curly hair for the last eight months. But generally I haven't had someone use it faster than the eight months because it's friggin impossible.

Laura Day: 14:01

That's so great. I love it. And that goes back to the sustainability and the eco friendliness of it. I really liked what you mentioned about the ingredients and how conventional conditioners leak endocrine disruptors into the actual bottle or the actual product, which is really, I mean, I've been kind of getting more into that health stuff lately, like because, you know, we're women and our cycles in our hormones are affected so quickly with these kinds of endocrine disruptors. And that's another reason why I really appreciate the ingredients that you have in here and the care that you put into it. Because those toxins in our environment just add up and affect our bodies so negatively, and like I personally have experienced like oh my gosh, I can't figure out what's going on with my body. I feel like I'm doing everything right. I feel like I'm exercising, I'm eating right. And then it's you start looking at like what's in your environment, what's in your lotion, what's in your soap, and that stuff is coming into contact with your skin like the biggest organ, most absorbent organ on your body. Yeah, it's It's really crazy. So another reason why you don't want or need even, you don't even need to have plastic for your conditioner.

Unknown: 15:07

Right? My whole plastic free journey started around nine years ago, my son is going to be nine in a few months. And so when I was pregnant with my first son, I was reading this book, it was called boys adrift. And basically, as my older brother gave it, to me, it was like how to raise a son that is going to be a productive member of society. Like that's what the gist of it was. And this person, like broke down all the things that erode boyhood into manhood. And I was like, Okay, I'll read it, I read it. And, you know, they talked about video games, and they talked about lack of spending time outside, but one of the things that they talked about that actually, like frightened me the most and was such like a blip in the book, but I carried it with me in my brain, everywhere I went was they found that plastic run off from a factory into the Potomac River and Maryland, turned the male fish that fully female, but it allowed it turned them into an organism that could lay eggs. And I thought that was so scary, is just a byproduct, if something humans were creating, that altered this biology of this fish so incredibly strongly that it like, it changed the gender, completely change the gender, they're still male fish, but I guess they could like lay eggs, it was so frightening to me, because it's like, what are we doing when you're pregnant, they tell you, you need to drink all of this water and take all of these vitamins and do all of this extra extra extra stuff. And a lot of that, you know, because I was ignorant to it at the time, I was sucking down plastic water bottles, because I felt that's what it was good for me. And lo and behold, like I just accidentally got had access to this information. In 2014. Now it's been a full decade we're seeing and like, now people are talking about it. Now they're talking about plastic like microplastics and testicles, and like all that stuff. And blood and in the Arctic and in the rain. I mean, like it's just everywhere. And so I know that people want to care about sustainability, right? Like sustainability is something it's a weird subject, right? Because people want to care about it. But they don't either feel included or they feel disenchanted because they don't think that they can do much about it. And I know for me, like the most emotional thing in my day, besides the normal big things is the little emotional thing of my day, every day is my hair. If I have a bad haircut, I'm miserable. If I have a bad, a bad hair day, I'm just it's not that I'm miserable. It's just like, it just affects my confidence. So I thought why not make something like, really, really amazing that tapped into doing something good? Like, right? Yeah. But it's something you use regularly that reminded you about reducing your plastic instead of like finger wagging you into it.

Laura Day: 17:41

Yeah, I love how you said it's either people don't feel included, or they don't feel like that they can make a difference. But then when you bring it into that effect it has on your body, the endocrine disruptors, that is you're immediately seeing how it can affect your health. And they hopefully that's something that inspires people. But I also think the barrier to entry to being sustainable is sometimes like, interestingly difficult in this. It's such a like, I don't know, contradiction or oxymoron to me, because it's like, you know, I grew up in an Asian household. So Filipinos, we reuse everything, right? So there's always this joke where like the grandma's using the same ice cream tub from 20 years ago to store the thing, right. And that's, that's sustainability, right? She's reusing. But I also think that there's because of the market prices of things, and sometimes the way it's marketed can make sustainability too inaccessible. But I love that what you have is it lasts long. I think that's like the one great thing. And I know, like I've read on our website, too, like you're not really about this idea of pushing and shoving sustainability down people's throats, which I think is a really good thing because it should just be the better choice. That's what that really is. Like, if you truly want people to be and have the sustainable lifestyles they should be the better and the easier choice. And that's how we can achieve it.

Unknown: 19:03

You know what it is? It's like, even if you don't care about sustainability, so you just like you're like I don't care. There's some people that just don't care or people do care about something that will save them 500 bucks a year. Like if you're switching from something I don't know whether say the brands up but if you're if you're switching from like an actual salon brand, I used to spend around 50 to $70 a month on my long hair just on conditioner. Like this bar saves me over 500 bucks a year and that I'll dip into motherhood for a second like as you're expected especially with the economy right now you're expected to make like all these sacrifices right? And I think to an outsider sometimes like we're the mom guilt you would feel is for buying expensive conditioner like it's seen as a frivolous purchase to anyone else right like to say, a man with short hair, right? Like my husband has short hair. Like he would look at those bottles and be like it's ridiculous spending that money and it is now that I know like I created a substitute for them that lasts way longer. I want for women that are like not really. They are priced out of this luxury haircare they can use dip and know that it's going to work for them. That was really important to me. Because like, I don't know, I don't think that having nice hair should feel guilty. You shouldn't feel guilty for it you

Laura Day: 20:18

ever found and I really do. I think it's really cool. You've kind of found this like Venn diagram that middle, that middle of all the overlapping pieces of the things that are important to you. And I'm an entrepreneur, I like love talking about entrepreneurship. But tell us more about like your journey. I mean, how did you get to this place where you knew that these were the three things that you wanted to incorporate? And then as a business person, you were taking it forward into what it is now? Sure.

Unknown: 20:47

So I had a brand that people may have known in the California surf community in 2020, I launched a similar brand, it was called nope, no AP, and it looks like soap. And I discovered pretty quickly that I wasn't in the right partnership. And so we closed it. But I lived and breathed and loved hair so much. It took me four years to build Nope. Like I was always working on it when I wasn't like working on anything else. But anyway, when it came to dip dip is like my second rodeo. And I started it at a time when. So I actually closed my first business, it wasn't a fun closure. And my husband had lost his job during COVID. And I spent all my money on the first brand. And so it was really like a sink or swim kind of thing. And I was depressed when no clothes like really, really depressed. And I was like, You know what, like, I love hair. I talked about hair I didn't want I'm going to do it again. So I looked at what I didn't like the little nitpicky things I didn't like about the first brand. And I made like version 2.0. And now this like conditioner bar is like my magnum opus, I love it so much. But like I hired a chemist that I knew did a lot of the really high end stuff that you find in salons, and I made sure he would do these exclusively for me. And what was really exciting for me was that he had black grandchildren, and mixed grandchildren. So he was not only new hair, like as it was perceived for the past 40 years, like in the beauty industry. But also like after 2020 Like inclusivity was like a big deal. So he had this like separate mission to also make the bars inclusive with me. And it was really, it was kind of Kismet that we found each other and we were able to build work on this together. And he was just as passionate as I was. And so I put these bars through the ringer. And with the conditioner bar, I wanted to solve that problem like, can I use this every day. And also can we formulate it so that the less you press it to your head, the more ladders so it uses speed instead of pressure to create the ladder. And so men, the chemists, we probably did like a few dozen iterations before we really got something that worked for every body. And that was like, once I had the product and the branding, I worked on the branding with my husband would wake up at like four in the morning and just like work, work work before kids woke up, then it was time to like hit the ground running. And I was so infatuated with like the Zero Waste community and the refill stores. And I had a really good relationship with many of them. And a lot of them in California are like some of the best in the whole, not only just the country, some of the California stores are the best in the world, I would say fill up buttercup in Costa Mesa is one of my favorite stores I've ever walked into. And ethos in Santa Cruz is also one that's just like, it's just incredible. And those are like the OGS of sustainability that like have really elevated it and made it more accessible and made it cool. That's how we got to where it is now. But that's my my villain origin story. Yeah,

Laura Day: 23:44

no, it's so great. Because I mean, I relate to you so much. So I have a surfwear line. It's interesting. The sustainability part too is like, I loved making the clothing. That's half and half. Because when you're doing clothing, even though it's clothing for surfing, like you're not really surfing a lot like you're working like you are working with a chemist I'm working with like distributors and suppliers and everything. And I hit this point, along with COVID thinking, I'm making more stuff, like more stuff, like I'm trying to use the most eco friendly material, but I'm still at the end of the day making stuff and everything I make to design it. They have ways to produce it, there's waste. And so that part kind of like didn't sit amazing with me, but at the same time, okay, well, you think like if I can just do it a little bit better, and like that's a part of the solution as well. At some point, I think 2021 I decided you know what, like, I think that this like I've learned what I came to learn from making clothing and I think I'm moving on to the community and the podcasts and everything that I love so much about it. And I think the first act like that first business or that first idea is sometimes it's not given like enough credit, because a lot of people are like, Oh my god, well I'm really sorry or that failed. Like that's it Have people use that language before and I had to be like, it didn't fail. Like I chose, I chose different, right? And I learned so many things along the way. So it's really great that you were able to take your first experience, and then really accelerate it to something you really, really wanted with the second product.

Unknown: 25:15

Yeah, and the first time I was kind of like the frontman for my company, and when I closed it, like, I had this, like crippling shame, even though everyone was everyone was dealing with something during the pandemic, but like, that crippling shame that you like, put something out there and it didn't work. And it's like, I don't know whether you had that with your line too. But it's just this weird thing. Like you don't want to, like run into someone's like, Oh, how's your thing going? When, you know, like, they know the answer, you know, and you think that that's like, their motivation, but it's always not. It's like, the shame like haunts you in a way that is quite like, crippling. And so when I was like, restarting, I was like, oh my god, am I too late? Like, there's already like a million bar brands out there. Like, is anyone gonna even care now that there's when I launched if there are about 200 Bar brands, I was so so nervous that I just like missed the boat. And that made me more depressed. You know, I knew like the problem that I was specifically solving had not been solved yet. And it had not been addressed in a way that I felt was genuine. Like, there's a lot of people out there like opening sustainable brands, but have never bothered to understand the consumer. I'm okay with like a little science in our bars that makes someone adopt this change long term. It's not that they're not eco friendly. It's just that you know, I didn't make a bar with just like eucalyptus and junk in it, you know, like I really want to learn it's so many people and I'm guilty of that of projecting out into the world that are eco friendly. And then using this like beautiful high end haircare in my shower that like comes in like 6.8 ounces and lasted me three weeks. Like I felt like I was like hitting the bottle in the shower and projecting out into the world that I was reducing my plastic and I always felt so guilty about it. But I felt like there was a need for something that would make someone like me, who's like a little bit vain. A lot of it Persian.

Laura Day: 27:03

Like

Unknown: 27:05

to do it forever, you know? Yeah.

Laura Day: 27:08

Yeah, I think that's great. And the point that you made, that was something I had a really hard time with, and still kind of have like, when I see sir for airlines, and they talk about sustainability. So I studied architecture. Sustainability is like the top like the meaning of sustainability. Like we take that seriously. The theories definition. And like, I mean, architectural mind, people like me, anyway are like really snooty with certain words. Like what they mean, right? Yeah. So when I started doing the surfer line, I'm like, Okay, how can I make this most eco friendly or mostly the best decision possible? And you running two different lines that are marketing is like, circular material and sustainable and blah, blah, blah. And I know because I did like deep deep research, like call these companies so I don't know that doesn't sound right. You know, you say it's circular. It's only circular when it's like this, but when it's mixed with other stuff, it's no longer circular. And I love how you're like very transparent about like the way you use your marketing words your intention behind it, because it's so easy for consumer to be like, Oh, it's sustainable, like no big deal, right? It's just gonna go planted in the ground and it's gonna become a tree or something like I don't know. And I'm like, No, that's not how swimsuits like that's not how fabric works at all right? But it's really great with this product that it's very clear about like, this is what we're doing and we're not trying to like use it as a marketing tool because that that greenwashing is really really what gets to me. Yeah,

Unknown: 28:32

and for anyone that is listening, reef Safe is a marketing tool, or term that does not apply to haircare. I just want to say it one more time reef safe does not apply to haircare I get bombarded with people asking you if it's reef safe, it doesn't have the any of the ingredients that would hurt a reef that are tested for reef safety. There's a few things going on there. I want everyone to know because like it is something that I think surfers want their heart and soul are in like reef safety and understandably so. And I'm also Ahmed team. Yeah, but when you're in the cosmetics industry and you know that this term doesn't mean anything but consumers hold so much weight with it. It's tricky, right? Like you see consumers going back and forth on brands all the time about reef safety and it's like it's definitely a term where they the actual term that I've seen that I think is most appropriate is reef safer. So if you see that you see it on stream to see they have sunblock like they say reef safer and they explain what that means. That means so much more than reef safe because reef safe is unregulated. And the owner of that company, her name is Autumn and she's like amazing. She really explains and educates her customers about that. The greenwashing and the marketing like it's very easy to just put reef safe on anything right now. Because people want it one it drives sales to and there's no one there there are no police They're like, this is like a thing. And it's kind of like the reason that I like to stay away from it, even though we're a beauty brand, like, I just don't feel like I'm part of the club that wants to oversell and like over promise. Yeah.

Laura Day: 30:14

I mean, that, in itself is sustainability. That in itself is being you know, yeah, like, I'm not gonna just try to push you on buying more stuff just to buy more stuff, where

Unknown: 30:23

I'm from, and I don't know how many people from New Jersey, you know, we're very straight up with each other. And so I run my brand in a way that is as straight up as I can be without being like, too, over at the top. But for the most part, like I think we owe it as people that start brands to be the change that we want to see in the world. And it's part of something that we dip that I find really kind of fun and a little bit rock and roll is that we don't retarget and we don't follow people around after they visit our site, and we don't bombard you with digital ads, or we've never run a meta or tic tac, or Instagram ad we just like don't bother people. Because I don't think that's how people truly buy haircare. And I could be so wrong. But I genuinely don't buy anything unless someone I know recommends it to me at this point, in my little social experiment with dip is to see if I could create like a word of mouth brand that people really loved and shared. And so far has been working. And it's feels really nice to know that someone finds dip because like their sister loves it, or like their cousin or their co worker. It's like, it really is like the coolest thing.

Laura Day: 31:31

That's so cool. And I think that's that was the Kismet of us coming together to I love that we got to chat and right away you're like this sounds great. Let's do it. Because I feel like we're just so aligned in so many ways. And that's exactly what I was looking for someone that was really aligned and I loved the product. So that just like it helps so much. I was so stoked to take it on the trip. Tell us what smells it comes in because what I have here is rosewater and Jasmine, but I know you sent me a few other ones.

Unknown: 31:56

Yeah, so there's rosewater and Jasmine. There's coconut and almond that has like this late 80s kind of coconut a smell. There's tangerine and honeydew there is Mimosa and sandalwood. There's wild sage and vetiver there is tobacco and driftwood and Rose and matcha those are seven cents and we also have fragrance free and our fragrance free right now you will see if you look at our website, it's dressed up in Surfrider packaging. Yeah, and as a brand I love and as a human, I've done everything for Surfrider that I could possibly do before I started my brand. I've done the beach cleanups, I've attended meetings, I've done all the things I've donated to their gallows. I just love that they go and change the laws about plastic they send people to go to Congress to change laws about plastic and that is what it's all about. It's bigger than shampoo. It's bigger than conditioner. It's like the whole reason being an entrepreneur is not fun, but like when you can do it and drive and help drive change. It's like the most satisfying thing and like a reason to spring out of bed in the morning and run my company. But anyway, so I kind of went on a Surfrider tangent because I liked them so much. Yeah,

Laura Day: 33:07

well, yeah, so right now you do have a partnership with Surfrider. Yeah, so if we buy the Surfrider dip, what's the yeah if

Unknown: 33:15

you buy it and surf shop or online, I will contribute $1 or bar sold to Surfrider our minimum commitment is $25,000. So I've pledged no matter what I'm going to send$25,000 over Surfrider. But if we sell, God Willing like 50,000 bars, I'm sending $50,000. To Surfrider Nothing would make me happier than to do that usually donate to like several places. But I was like on a bigger scale, like let's put all of this energy into something that can really do dramatic change. And I believe Surfrider is like the vehicle to do that. I get a little like emotional about it, because like, I never thought that when I started this, it's not even three years old, that I'd be able to ever be in a position to be able to write a check for $25,000. Like, that's still a little crazy to me, and couldn't do it without our customers and like the enthusiasm of the Sustainable Community and the surf shops like it's, it's overwhelming, like, I'm like, that feeling of like being like, swollen with like, gratitude. It makes me feel so good.

Laura Day: 34:17

That's so great. Then on that note, where can our listeners pick up dip? Sure, so

Unknown: 34:23

we encourage everyone to shop in store, if there's a store near you. So you picked it up at SR Solana in San Diego and I love that you went and did that. So if you go to dip already.com You can go to the store locator and find the location that's near you. I make more money when you shop online and like that's cool, but like if you can shop in your local store or salon or surf shop, which are the only three places that we carried it, I would encourage you to do so. And then plastic free July is coming and our dip Instagram handle does a lot of really weird contests where you can win the ball So if you're up for free so we never do free stuff it only during classic free July and it is like a party online. So check out at dip already. Perfect

Laura Day: 35:09

and I'm gonna put the links in the show notes for all of that. I'm so stoked. Thank you so much, Kate. We are so honored to have you as our first podcast sponsor and I'm stoked on this like my hair is gonna grow long because of you. It wasn't me not enough untangled after surfing, I can be even more surf nasty. And we're stoked to have you on the podcast. Thanks so much.

Unknown: 35:34

Thank you so much for being open to it and I am I just love what you're doing. So keep it up. And for anyone that's listening, I'm easy to find if you have any questions at all.

Laura Day: 35:45

Hey lady, thank you so much for joining us for our show today. Now if you would like to support this podcast and support a badass female entrepreneur like cake and dip and support Surfrider you can do all that while having beautiful tangle free post surf hair, head to dip already.com and shop any of dibs beautiful haircare products including the conditioner bar and after some detangler like the one we talked about today, or the after serve conditioner with cars dressed up in the Surfrider Foundation box shopping a dip not only supports our show and supports Kate and Surfrider, but you'll also get free shipping. When you check out use the code confessions, that ce o n f e s s IO N S for free shipping for the cherry on top shopping it dip is just one easy way to reduce your plastic waste. All right, so here we go. Head to dip already.com and use that code confessions at checkout to get free shipping. I will put that link in the show notes for you. I'll see you on our next episode. Your host Laura day.