BRUNS: Natural hair care from Skåne with fantastic results

With a handful of carefully selected natural ingredients, an in-house laboratory and a vision to change the hairdressing industry – and your hair! – BRUNS hair is minimalism and sophisticated beauty at its best. Learn more about BRUNS award-winning hair care, carefully handcrafted in Skåne.

There are several famous quotes that talk about the beauty of simplicity. “Less is more” from the famous architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is one of them, as is “to be simple is to be great” said by the writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson and not least “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” coined by – some say – none other than Leonardo da Vinci. All of these winged words fit perfectly with BRUNS, the hair care brand that from the start has offered natural, effective and easy-to-use hair care products with tailored formulations without unnecessary ingredients. When BRUNS was founded by Johanna and Cecilia, both with decades of experience in the hairdressing profession and with a strong vision of changing the hair industry with high-quality raw materials and an obvious commitment to the environment, it was obvious to affirm both the beauty and sophistication that lies in simplicity.

But let's start from the beginning. When Johanna and Cecilia met on a hairdressing course in the early 2000s, they knew they were onto something. Not only because they couldn't stop talking to each other, much to the chagrin of the course leader, they also soon discovered that they thought alike about how the hairdressing industry could change for the better. When it was time to break up, they exchanged business cards with each other - only to discover that they had chosen to decorate the cards with the same unusual, wallpaper-like pattern. In 2012, the journey towards BRUNS really began, when Cecilia joined the hairdressing salon where Johanna already worked. The hairdressing salon was called BRUNS Frisörer, named after the Brunius neighborhood in central Lund where it was located, and the name was allowed to live on.
“We wanted to be an organic hair salon, but at the time there were very few organic hair care brands and the few that were available we weren't too keen on. That's why we quickly realized that we needed to create our own hair care products,” say Johanna and Cecilia.
Said and done. With the help of inspiration from herbalist acquaintances as well as existing hairdressing clients with great chemistry expertise – Lund is a university city after all! – Johanna and her father began to tinker at home in the kitchen. After nine months of work, BRUNS' first own shampoo saw the light of day, a shampoo that is still sold, No 02. Johanna and Cecilia then gave the shampoo away to their curious clients at the hairdressing salon.
“We didn't sell anything, we gave everything away, in glass jars, cleaned ketchup bottles and the like, because we had lots of customers who wanted to try the shampoo and then just asked for more. The big turning point came one day when a man in his 40s walked into the salon. He was wearing artisan clothes and wasn't really our target audience at all. He asked to buy a shampoo which, as he said, 'came in strange bottles' and which he had been given to try by a friend. We looked at each other and understood that something big was about to happen,” say Johanna and Cecilia.

Today, over a decade later, both a lot and a little has changed at BRUNS. A lot, because the brand has both its own laboratory and its own factory outside Landskrona and offers over 40 different products in both hair care, styling and body care in environmentally friendly packaging. There have also been several prestigious awards along the way, both for BRUNS hair care products as well as for Johanna and Cecilia's business building and environmental commitment. A little, because Johanna still creates all natural and high-quality recipes by hand and with the same uniquely low number of ingredients. In fact, products from BRUNS are a small careful craft in themselves, not only because the unique products are free of harmful chemicals and unnecessary ingredients but also because they are made according to their own recipes and natural raw materials. To say that BRUNS were early on the ball with the trend of minimalist hair care, hair minimalism , is almost an understatement.
“When we started making our own products over ten years ago, we couldn’t understand why hair care contained so many ingredients, why the ingredient lists were so long. Now we know that many shampoo manufacturers have a basic recipe, where the motto is usually to add new and trendy ingredients to old formulations. They add instead of remove, which usually involves drying synthetic raw materials and silicones. A method that is as common as it is cheap. BRUNS has instead chosen to work with both natural raw materials and as few components as possible, because we know that a few ingredients are more than enough to make a good shampoo or conditioner. We don’t need much, because we use such fine natural raw materials and ingredients,” say Johanna and Cecilia.

BRUNS is, in short, hair minimalism at its best, a trend that has been very successful worldwide and which involves using as few hair care products as possible, preferably with natural ingredients. BRUNS hair care products are also completely free of sulfates, parabens and silicones, where the base of each recipe is both minimalist and contains ingredients of natural origin. If we again connect to the fact that simple can be both beautiful and sophisticated, we are also on the verge of another trend, sophisticated simplicity. With its tailor-made formulations and complete transparency regarding raw materials, in-house production and environmentally friendly packaging, BRUNS is a perfect example of sophisticated simplicity . In this trend, just like in BRUNS, it is quality, efficiency, results and sustainability that play the main roles. For Johanna and Cecilia, it has always been important to offer hair care that is sustainable, of high quality and that gives great results without compromising either the environment or their minimalist thinking.

"BRUNS not only contains few ingredients, many of the products can be used in several different ways. For example, you can use our hair masks as both leave-in treatments and as sleeping masks. Our best-selling conditioner, No 03, is a real multi-product that can also be used as a makeup remover, body lotion and shaving cream. It is also perfect for cleansing and moisturizing sensitive children's and babies' skin," say Johanna and Cecilia.
In other words, getting beautiful and healthy hair doesn't have to have a negative impact on the environment or fill your bathroom shelf to the brim. With the help of BRUNS, you can both reduce the number of unnecessary additives and harmful chemicals as well as excess hair care products, while enjoying the big difference that high-quality raw materials and natural ingredients actually make on your hair. BRUNS is minimalist, natural and gives fantastic results without hassle. The beauty and sophistication lies, as we know, in simplicity.