Monday haircare founder Jaimee Lupton addresses ‘hair loss’ allegations as she launches bid to be ‘next L’Oreal’

Monday founder Jaimee Lupton turned a pink shampoo bottle into a $300 million business. According to viral TikToks, the brand is either ‘liquid gold’ or could burn your hair off. We asked the ex Sydney PR girl turned CEO how that happened.

Monday founder Jaimee Lupton turned a pink shampoo bottle into a $300 million business. Claims her product could burn your hair off are all “hearsay”, she says. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Monday founder Jaimee Lupton turned a “millennial pink” shampoo bottle into a $300 million dollar business. According to viral TikTok videos, the brand is either ‘liquid gold’ or going to burn your hair off.

Confused?

Sydney Confidential sat down with Lupton in Bondi — who today launched her new bodycare brand Châlon Paris — to talk disruptive business, those “hearsay” allegations, and her ambition to be the “L’Oreal for Gen Z”.

Monday shampoo, created by Jaimee Lupton. Picture: Supplied

Châlon Paris body washes and hand soaps are one of 15 new beauty brands Monday founder Jaimee Lupton is launching in 2024. Picture: Supplied

The 31-year-old, who lived and worked in Sydney for the five years prior to launching Monday in her native Auckland, says she was inspired to start a business by fiancé Nick Mowbray.

He and brother Mat Mowbray are behind toy company Zuru, which was founded back in 2005 and now also spans consumer goods and construction.

In 2024, the brothers topped the NZ National Business Review’s rich list, which estimated their networth to be $20 billion.

“I’ve been in the university of Nick Mowbray for five years,” Lupton told Confidential. “It’s been a steep learning curve.”

Jamiee Lupton pictured at her Bondi rental, from which she is launching her next range of products Châlon Paris. Picture: Sam Ruttyn/The Daily Telegraph.

She was formerly a Sydney PR girl, working at luxury agency Black Communications and that’s how she met Mowbray. The couple, who base their marketing arm out of Sydney, are currently house hunting in the eastern suburbs.

“I saw what Nick was doing with all these disruptive brands, and I thought, ‘I think I can do this’,” Lupton said.

She brought on school friend and Sydney-based supermodel Georgia Fowler to front her retail pitch in 2020. At $10 a bottle, Coles bit.

The company is now on track to deliver $300 million in retail sales in 2024, selling about 50,000 bottles per day – or 35 per minute – in over 65,000 retail stores across 33 countries.

Châlon Paris body washes are the first of 15 new beauty brands Lupton has “in the pipeline”, all of which she says will retail for less than 10 dollars. She expects to launch four this year.

But the higher you are, the harder you fall. Monday has had its fair share of negativity online – from hairdressers accusing the brand’s products of reacting with chemical treatments, to shoppers claiming the shampoo has caused their hair to fall out.

Social media users from multiple countries went viral with their allegations that the Monday haircare products had caused their hair to "burn" and "fall out". Picture: TikTok.

This TikTok user said that she suffered hair loss after using the products for three weeks.. Picture: TikTok.

One TikToker, Desiree Gonzalez, amassed 10.4 million TikTok views on a video where she claimed the Monday products caused her hair to “start falling out” after three weeks.

“That was a smear campaign by hairdressers,” Lupton told Confidential of the social media firestorm in 2020. “It’s all hearsay,” she added when asked about the allegation that the chemicals in highlighted hair reacted with something in the product formula, according to hairdressers.

“Hairdressers weren’t happy about us launching an affordable product at mass,” she said. “We wouldn’t be sold at Coles, Walmart, and Target if that was actually happening. Our formulas meet and exceed European cosmetic regulations which are the toughest in the world.”

Monday founder Jaimee Lupton. Picture: Sam Ruttyn/Daily Telegraph.

Model Georgia Fowler was the face of Monday for its 2020 launch and is also a school friend of Lupton’s. Picture: Daily Telegraph/Monique Harmer.

“Personally, it was tough. But the brand is such a success now, it doesn’t bother me.”

While the company initially engaged a third-party manufacturer to create Monday, Lupton said all her brands are now engineered in a nine-level research and development facility in China.

“Our goal is to always innovate and improve, and we’ve made natural progressions to our formula over time,” Lupton said.

She added that the company’s new Research and Development Director, who came from L’Oreal, “has overseen these updates.”

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