“My Grandmother Told Me Dates Are So Good For Hair Health”: 14th Night Founder Negar Mohammadi On Sun Protection, Surfer Girl Haircare and Family Beauty Secrets
Tried and true tips to protect your locks this summer from a hair expert…
Hair wet from an early morning surf run, Negar Mohammadi calls in from Montauk — a sliver of sand in the eastern part of Long Island, New York. The Persian founder of 14th Night spends the majority of summer under the sun, but not without a few homegrown beauty rituals to protect her tresses.
Founded in 2021, Mohammadi’s sustainable hair brand first came to fruition during the Pandemic. “14th Night is a Persian reference to beauty that is common in Rumi poetry where you’re equating someone’s radiance to the 14th light of the moon. So when it’s full, it’s the ultimate compliment. It means you light up the room,” she explains.
The Hair Elixir was the first product introduced, an oil meant to improve the look and feel of your hair with each use. “I had this blend that worked like magic. The oil from pomegranate seeds is just so full of antioxidants and Vitamin E and biotin that it really does bring your hair back to life.”
Infused with all-natural ingredients, the golden blend is intoxicating in scent and feel, enriching your locks with pomegranate seeds–a nod to her grandmother. “My grandmother would make all of her beauty products. She would visit us from Iran and would have her own shampoo, her own conditioner, an oil she would use for her hair, an oil she would use for her body, stuff for her skin–even her own laundry detergent. Her reason for it was she just didn’t trust anything that didn’t come from nature.”
As Mohammadi turned to her grandmother as her source of inspiration, she continued to build homemade recipes without the use of harmful plastics and silicone. “My grandmother would tell me, ‘Nature has everything you need.’” Following her Hair Elixir came The Natural Surf Spray. Like its predecessor, the potion only uses natural ingredients, holding a light pink hue from red algae and amethyst crystal, protecting your hair from the summer heat while nourishing your strands. “I’m just really thinking about the ingredients. I’m seeing how they nod back to things I learned in my Persian culture of being beneficial for your body from the inside out. It’s something that’s so spoken about—true beauty comes from within.” It’s the perfect post-surf potion to tame ocean hair. The silica from the amethyst crystal prevents breakage while the red algae offer UV protection–au naturel approach to damaging rays.
Having spent many a summer riding waves from the coasts of Portugal to the true blues of Costa Rica, here are a few more of Mohammadi’s hair hacks to try out this summer.
Natural Ingredients Are Key
“I want to have long, shiny, healthy hair–that’s what I’ve always wanted. I was spending all this money to on treatments to get it a certain way. I was spending all this money on products. I kept having this voice in my head saying, ‘Nature is best.’ Nature is how you actually get long-term benefits.”
Keep Your Hair Hydrated
“Anytime I know I’ll be spending a lot of time in the sun, I’ll use the Hair Elixir to take a moment and give myself a deep conditioning hair treatment. So if I’m going to lay out by the pool or by the beach, I’ll take a full dropper. I’ll rub it in my hair and either do it in a light braid or twist it up for a beautiful day at the pool or the beach. Maybe I’ll get in the water, but when I shower and rinse my hair out, I’ve infused it with all these oils so I’ve given myself this deep conditioning treatment.”
Treat Yourself
“This is something my grandmother told me–dates are so good for hair health. They’re full of vitamins and they’re great for hair growth…In the summer, what I love to do is cut a date open, put some almond butter in it, cover them with melted chocolate, and pop them in the freezer. It’s so good and dark chocolate is good for your hair too!”
Images Courtesy of Negar Mohammadi,14th Night