The actress-entrepreneur is turning personal struggle into a premium haircare business with national reach.
Gail Mabalane didn’t set out to launch ‘just’ another beauty brand, she built one rooted in personal experience, market opportunity and strategic alignment. In 2022 she founded Ethnogenics, a 100% Black, woman-owned haircare brand designed to meet a gap in premium textured-hair solutions in South Africa.
Her journey into entrepreneurship started with a personal health challenge that led to unexpected hair loss. “When I started losing my hair, I realised how little I actually knew about it,” she said. “There was a flood of women crying out for help, answers and support. That’s when I knew this wasn’t just my story.” That insight became market validation and what followed was focussed product development, strategic retail partnerships and clear brand positioning.
Ethnogenics launched with six core products – a cream shampoo, conditioner, co-wash, moisturiser, stimulating scalp lotion and a hair growth supplement – all enriched with shea butter and biotin. The brand’s message is simple but powerful: when we know better, we do better. “Hair loss is a big issue, a very sensitive one,” Mabalane relays. “I wanted to build something that didn’t just treat the symptom but educated women about what’s really happening to their hair.”
Capitalising on hard earned goodwill
Product alone isn’t enough. Mabalane secured an exclusive retail launch with Clicks, aligning the brand with one of South Africa’s largest health and beauty chains. Within seven months of launch, Ethnogenics became the number-one premium haircare brand in its category both in-store and online.
From a business perspective, the key ingredients are authenticity, focus and distribution. Mabalane also admits that the process hasn’t been without setbacks. “Business is not for the faint at heart,” she says. “From failed attempts in the research and development process to securing funds, every challenge has been part of the lesson.”
For founders in Africa’s beauty and wellness sector, Ethnogenics offers a light blueprint for building with purpose: identify a genuine, under-served consumer need rooted in founder insight, focus on doing fewer products better, partner with retail platforms that can scale visibility and trust and maintain the brand’s story as authentic and founder-driven.
Three years in, Ethnogenics has moved from a personal project to a recognised brand with commercial momentum and category credibility. For Mabalane, this is just the beginning. “We’re building a brand that lives beyond me,” she says. “Something that educates, uplifts and continues to make women feel seen.”
