72. Tiwani Heritage

Kitchen Table Award Shortlisted

For the entrepreneurs who spotted a gap in the market, and through sheer determination and little-to-no initial funding, have delivered a disruptive business idea.

Startups 100: Kitchen Table Awards

Founders: Carol Lathbridge and Lola Cawood
Founded: 2020
Website: tiwaniheritage.com

Tiwani Heritage is revolutionising the world of synthetic hair extensions, by only stocking products which are made, packaged, shipped, and disposed of using eco-friendly methods. 

The startup offers a rewards-based, opt-in recycling programme which means its hair extensions can be used again and again, helping to reduce the estimated 21,000 tonnes of synthetic hair that ends up in UK landfills every year.

So far, more than 75% of its customers have signed up to the scheme, but founders Carol Lathbridge and Lola Cawood have bigger ambitions. They told us: “Our mission is to help decrease the amount of plastic hair waste in landfill by 20% over the next five years.”

Our mission is to help decrease the amount of plastic hair waste in landfill by 20% over the next five years.

The London-based online retailer is also soon to launch the UK’s first plant-based hair extensions, made from banana and pineapple fibres, which it says are “better for you and our planet”. Customers can simply dispose of the product alongside their food waste, where it takes about six months to biodegrade with no negative environmental impact.

Tiwani Heritage, which is proudly black woman owned and operated, opened its store in 2020 and expects to grow precipitously in the near future, with aims to open five brick-and-mortar shops in London, Manchester, Paris, New York, and Johannesburg, as “these locations are the gateway in reaching many of our customers.”

Customers can simply dispose of the product alongside their food waste, where it takes about six months to biodegrade with no negative environmental impact.

As well as fighting climate change with its business processes, Tiwani Heritage also exists to form long-lasting bonds among its customers. Plans are already in motion for a series of Tiwani Heritage pop-ups to be hosted in London in spring 2023.

Lathbridge and Cawood hope the brand will create “a safe space for women of colour to shop more consciously and suitably, enabling them to build a community that impacts future generations to be part of the climate solution.”