Beating the ‘lamington’ curse turns into a milliondollar business for Melbourne beauty entrepreneur

Meagan Pate is giving dandruff the brush-off with a booming “scalp wellness” business that is attracting millions of dollars from deep-pocketed investors.

Malvern entrepreneur Meagan Pate is tapping into the “flawsome generation” as she tackles the lamington nightmare – dandruff – with her fledgling scalp-care brand that has already attracted millions in funding from a multinational.

Pate, and her four co-founders, launched Straand, Australia’s first microbiome-focused scalp care brand in July last year, after two years of development. By February the brand had landed a US$2m investment from Unilever Ventures.

The aim was to tackle an “ugly” beauty issue like dandruff by approaching it as scalp wellness.

“It is an area so ready for disruption,” Pate said.

“I remember being in high school and people were called ‘Lamingtons’ because of the flakiness that would be on their shoulders. It definitely was not sexy.

“Younger people are embracing their flaws now. We refer to them as the flawsome generation.”

Pate said Straand was designed to “lean into the skin-ification of hair.”

Meagan Pate is the founder of STRAAND, a hair care company focused on scalp health. Picture: Mark Stewart

The Melbourne entrepreneur strategically positioned her product in ‘scalp care’, learning on skin care practices. Picture: Mark Stewart

“People are ready to look at their scalp as an extension of their skincare routine,” she said.

“We strategically positioned ourselves in a scalp care category that leant on skin care practices, and created products that delivered that premium, ritual type feel so you jump in the shower and actually enjoy using them.

“We work with what is naturally going on within someone’s microbiome to help provide them with results rather than relying on some of those more outdated formulations.”

Straand recently exhibited at Cosmoprof, the world’s biggest beauty trade show, in Italy where the brand’s hero product, the Crown Fix Scalp Serum, won the award for hair.

The brand is already stocked with Adore Beauty, will launch in the UK in September and

seeding in overseas markets includes China and the US.

“The scalp serum has definitely been the stand out performer. One of those would sell every 15 minutes,” Pate said.

“The reason people are loving this product is because it is new, innovative, restores the scalp, and has lactic acid which breaks down sebum and product build up, so it gives a root refresh.”