There's a reason Matilda Djerf's hair is so big. Like Gretchen Wieners says in Mean Girls, it's full of secrets—until now, that is.
This morning, the Djerf Avenue founder and online It girl announced she's stepping into the beauty space with the launch of Djerf Avenue Beauty, her new grooming business. Complete with two styling products available for purchase starting March 27, Djerf Avenue Beauty has been a labor of love for the 26-year-old Sweden native. Everything, she explains on a call with Who What Wear, was meticulously intentional. Given her status and online popularity, she could have rushed to put out a beauty line and have it sell out almost instantly, but for Djerf, it was more about getting it right without compromising her standards.
"We have been able to build up a really beautiful community with Djerf Avenue, and now, we're able to launch beauty. It feels like it should have been a strategic plan, but it was kind of a happy coincidence," Djerf tells us over Zoom, chatting from her headquarters in Stockholm. "If it took two years or four years, it really didn't matter to me."
Djerf and her co-founder/partner Rasmus Johansson first approached the idea of starting a beauty line in 2021, but the Scandi's main motivation for her new Breezy Styling Mist and the On the Go Styling Gel, she admits, comes from a selfish place. "I was just missing these two products from my cabinet," she explains, nodding to her long history of working with beauty brands and not being fully satisfied with anything she's tried out. After cutting her bangs and going viral on Pinterest in the late 2010s, Djerf knew that the multiple products she had to use to force her hair into submission simply weren't going to work for her routine eventually. "It felt like too many products for me to pack when I'm traveling. I have enough clothes and shoes in my suitcase—I can't possibly bring my whole beauty cabinet," she says.
The styling mist doubles as a texturizing heat protectant complete with wheat protectant, aloe vera, and sunflower-seed extract, and Djerf's double-sided styling gel acts as a shiny, frizz-proof sealant perfect for creating a slicked-back bun on your way to the office or post-workout. They seem pretty simple on the surface, but like all things with Djerf, there's an executed, calculated science to making everything look as effortless and easy as possible.
Apart from using 100% recycled PCR packaging, Djerf and her team shopped out the idea of creating the best product at the lowest possible price point for months. They eventually landed on a Swedish manufacturer in Djerf's backyard. A small circle of business partners, close friends, and fans of the brand tried and tested out the products for months on a range of different hair lengths and textures to ensure that, like most things Djerf Avenue strives to create, they're useful for everyone.
After a stellar run in 2023, it doesn't look like Djerf and her team are stopping anytime soon. A beauty pop-up in partnership with Dyson opens in New York City for a week starting on March 27. While the two styling products are the first things to be on the menu, Djerf says there's more in the pipeline as the line builds and grows alongside her. If you see things like shampoo, conditioner, and body products in the future and want to spend all of your money on them, don't say we didn't warn you.
"It's been really challenging to keep this a secret, right? Every single time I'm using the products, I just want to share it. I just want to talk about it with everyone," she admits. "I've learned even more now that things take time, and you have to trust the process. If you want to produce something that you're passionate about and that you love, you have to also trust that it'll take time—maybe a lot—but that that's okay."
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