You can eat it with a spoon, squeeze it from a tube or even freeze it and have it for dessert. But put yogurt on your hair? Absolutely, says Anne Buhrdorf, director of marketing at Project Beauty, which brought Hairgurt to the world earlier this year.
 
“We see a big trend for natural products and consumers adopting a healthy lifestyle,” she explained. “Plus, there is a lot of interest in do-it-yourself beauty regimens and yogurt plays a big part in many DIY formulas.”
 
Hairgurt’s formula includes yogurt protein and prebiotics to bring back bounce and vitality to hair. According to Project Beauty, yogurt also has anti-fungal properties to help fight dandruff, tames frizz, adds shine, conditions and reduce hair fall. Everyone knows about yogurt’s health benefits; so, can’t consumers just slather some good old yogurt on their heads rather than pay $14.50 for a bottle of Hairgurt shampoo or $29.50 for Hairgurt masks?
 
“We are beauty junkies,” explained Buhrdorf. “We’ve taken the best of the best ingredients and combined them. You don’t need to DIY when we do it for you.”
 
Besides, Hairgurt goes way beyond curds. The formula also contains quinoa, which is said to nourish and hydrate the scalp, seal split ends, reduce breakage and maintain color. The other key ingredient is a signature botanical oil blend that contains six vitamin rich oils, including hazel seed (to hydrate hair), sweet almond (to impart shine and soften hair), macadamia seed (to smooth hair and enhance shine) and pomegranate (to moisturize and protect hair). The Hairgurt lineup includes masks and shampoos in three formulas: curl-perfecting, smoothing and intense repair.
 
“In a side by side, comparison with an SLS-based shampoo, our product had an 87% reduction in breakage and a 28% improvement in softness,” boasted Buhrdorf.
 
Project Beauty is the retail arm of Alcora Group, a Miami-based direct sales marketer, which is making its first foray into other retail avenues. Hairgurt is available online at myprojectbeauty.com, but this month the line is featured in the Circle of Friends subscription box and in September, the company is putting 100,000 samples in the Boxycharm beauty subscription box. The Project Beauty team is in negotiations with HSN, Ulta and Sephora.
 
The target audience for Hairgurt is 25-34 year-old women who read blogs and dare to be different, according to Buhrdorf.
 
“We’re all about the trendsetters who want something new and different,” she explained. “If you want the everyday beauty products, we’re not for you.”
 
And, so far, Hairgurt and Project Beauty are finding an eager audience. Now the company is investigating new skin care technology as part of a complete skin care line that will probably debut next year. According to Buhrdorf, for too long the beauty industry has been dominated by multinationals that offered the same-old, same-old when it came to new product development. By the end of the year, the company expects Hairgurt to be available in 2000 doors; primarily smaller retailers like Blue Mercury and Ricky’s.
 
“The beauty market was stale,” recalled Buhrdorf, who’s been in the business for nearly 20 years. “The great thing is that the smaller indy brands can compete with the big companies. Now there are new products and new retailers all in the market at the same time.”
 
And all of them are demanding a seat at the beauty table.