Great Women behind Great Brands with Roxie Jane Hunt, Founder of Free your Hair Brush
Sometimes the energy behind a brand is so strong, that you know you’ve discovered something special within seconds.
This is how we felt when we first heard Roxie speak about her hair brushes. We where fascinated from the start about her way of seeing hair brushing as an energetic ritual, her presence and joy and the beautiful brushes she created.
Let us take you on a journey today to rediscover the forgotten art of hair brushing and to learn about hair care as a spiritual practice with Free Your Hair Brush Founder Roxie Jane Hunt.
Brushing someone’s hair has always been an act of love, attention and connection. Somehow along the way we forgot about this beautiful practice. What fascinates you about brushing and what are the core benefits of making hair brushing our new beauty ritual?
The ritual of brushing left the building with the widespread marketing campaigns of Shampoo in the 1950’s. Lather Rinse Repeat became the new method of care, instead of the loving tradition, mechanical cleansing and oil distribution (So Shiny!) of hair brushing.
What fascinates me most is how quickly we remember the beauty of our unique hair texture when we regularly brush our hair and work with our natural oils instead of against them. The hair becomes a new and different material altogether, maintaining so much more moisture, integrity and vitality and also growing so much faster!
I am also very fascinated with the cultural aspect of grooming, and the history of humans and even pre-human primates connecting with each other through acts of ritual grooming. Grooming rituals have been passed down for centuries and brushing the hair is a perfect example. There is so much pleasure, safety and love in the simple acts of brushing each others hair.
Would you walk us through your brushing ritual?
My personal ritual is a little different every time, because some days I am using my brush to brush intention into my hair and scalp, and other times I am brushing to release what is ready to be let go of.
Generally I do this ritual before I shower or bathe: I begin by lighting a candle, grounding myself in a comfortable seat and taking some deep breaths to arrive in my physical body. I bring to my attention a prayer or an intention, something I am wanting to bring into my life. Or what I am ready to let go of. I focus on this intention as I slowly brush my dry hair. I brush it all backwards, forwards, and to each side, really moving slow and feeling the contact of the bristles on every part of my scalp. I focus on sensation and intention as I brush. I continue to remind myself to slow down and breathe. When I feel finished, I thank myself and blow out the candle. If I have focused my attention on letting go of something, I pull my hairs out of the brush and offer them to my garden.
What is really special about your work and your brushes is how you teach brushing your hair as an energetic ritual. When did you first discover this opportunity of connecting your hair care to your spiritual practice?
I have long sensed the energy that lives in the hair and moves through the 7th chakra. I have been touching peoples crowns every day for the last 30 years, and I experience that having my own hair brushed brings me into a state of unconditional love, which I believe to be an ancestral transmission down the maternal line that lives inside the relational motion, sensation and mudra of brushing.
The way I see it, our crown chakra connects us to higher self, wisdom and universal intelligence. Our hair connects us to our environment through subtle movements, sensation and nerve pathways bringing information to our brains. Brushing our hair brings our own bodies intelligent sensing technology into the same field as a universal intelligence, plugs us into a higher power.
What do you love most about the work you do?
Touching people and taking great care of them so that the feel seen, loved, and safe.
What does it mean for you to live a beautiful life?
Without the filth and pain of life, beauty is too easily ignored. So don’t bypass the ugly parts. They are what make beauty more possible. They are in fact, part of the beauty. Feel everything. Tell the truth. For me, the deepest beauty is shown when we are willing to notice it in the hardest moments.
What are your favourite (spiritual) wellness routines?
Brushing my hair, breathing, prayer, creating altars and mandalas with the natural world in service to beauty.
Which of your brush designs do you love the most?
I love the snake the best, personally. I also love the poison set and the FBS brush for children because I want kids to understand that beauty standards are harmful and also not the truth.
When do you feel most beautiful?
When I am in water.
Each of the big brushes comes with an intention and mantra. Reading through them it seems like you really speak to the challenges we go through individually but also as a collective. What are your thoughts on leadership and the role a brand can play in where the (beauty) world is going?
I believe that the commercial beauty world is pretty monstrous and harmful under capitalism and patriarchy, and that small brands can be taking part in reducing the harm that our industry is continuing to perpetuate and create by doing whatever they can to help people access their own inherent beauty as birth right. I love to see people in our industry saying things that no one else is saying. It takes courage to go against the grain but I do see people using their voices.
What are you currently reading?
So many books at a time! I am reading a book called Hands of Light, and another one called Healing Love through the Tao, about cultivating female sexual energy.
Rediscover the Art of Brushing and choose your Free Your Hair Brush today.
How to decide which brush to take? Go with your gut and choose the design that speaks most to you. You will be surprised how oftentimes when you read the mantra and intention that comes with it, it will be exactly what you needed.
Enter code ANDSPIRIT10 to get 10% off at checkout.*
Photo Credit: Free Your Hair Brush Co, Roxie Jane Hunt.
Roxie was interviewed by Isabelle Brockbals, Founder of &Spirit. (Isabelle is currently working with the energy of the Floral Brush.)
*Affiliate Partnership.