David Fletcher (pictured) or ‘Fletch' as he’s known in the industry, trained at Tony & Guy in Manchester. He began his career working in the salon of the world-wide luxury cruise liner ‘Freedom of The Seas’, before becoming the Creative Director for Unite - who make hair products for industry professionals - helping to establish + sell their products into all global territories. From there David went on to become a lead stylist in the prestigious 'Urban Retreat’ hair salon in Harrods, before going on to work on hit TV shows - Strictly Come Dancing + Dancing on Ice.
Soo Wilkinson (pictured) + John Grant of multi - disciplinary award winning Manchester based design studio Igloo Design, specialise in the concept + design of bars, restaurants, nightclubs, immersive events + product design.
Greg Adshead is a Melbourne based property developer + entrepreneur, who also happens to be David's cousin!
The Journey (as told by David)
“After a cycling accident in 2016, I had to take six months off work due to having a metal plate fitted in my arm. I spent that summer in Ibiza recuperating, meditating + keeping warm (to help my arm heal).
My dream has always been to launch my own hair product + one day whilst meditating + looking across at Es Vedra I had a eureka moment! I realised that the industry I worked in needed a product that was professional salon quality yet didn’t contain harsh chemicals such as parabens, silicones or sulphates that are usually found in most high performing hair products. When I meditate I use crystals + I thought it would be really cool to infuse the product with essences of crystals for additional well being.
From Ibiza I travelled on to Australia to visit my family out there + on a day out walking with my cousin Greg, we stumbled across a goldmine where I found some untouched quartz. Apparently where there’s quartz there’s gold. I thought “wow, this is a good omen.” It felt that the universe was sending me a message to pursue my dreams!
I then returned to the UK armed with my quartz + an idea. I called upon my good friends Soo + John as I wanted them to design the packaging as well as collaborate on developing the concept. We composed a business plan + after many wine induced brainstorms around their kitchen table, we landed on the name Crystal Earth.
Crystal Earth perfectly summed up our ethos + we also loved how it formed into a futuristic logo by combining the NASA abbreviation for the word crystal ‘XTAL' with the universal sign for earth ‘♁'. We now had an ethos, a unique bottle design, a name + our logo + were ready to embark on the long + winding road of manifesting XTAL♁ into an actual product…”
Bringing the idea to life
First of all they had to find a UK based hair care manufacturer to help develop the formula + scents. Then came the slightly trickier challenge of finding someone to make the complex crystal shaped bottle. During the next 12 months they had developed the first product formula + found a bottle manufacturer + were ready to seek financial investment in order to bring the product to market, in steps Greg + together they formally established Yaia Hair Ltd.
Team Yaia have now fully developed four products to date: Rose Quartz, Amber + Amethyst, all of which are 93% natural, + an organic 2-in-1 product infused with Green Fluorite. With three more products in the pipeline, Azurite, Jasper + Black Tourmaline, they will complete the full range of chakra aligned, crystal coded shampoo + conditioners. Further into the future the team wants to add finishing creams, sprays + hair treatments to complete the full range of XTAL♁ products.
This is only the beginning!
