2024, a year punctuated by world regime changes, wars , dramatic election results, as well as hitting the unwanted major milestone of being 1.5 degrees C hotter than the pre-industrial temperature it’s easy to feel dwarfed and swept away. When one truck load of plastic enters our oceans every 60 seconds how can you look back on 2024 and feel that your impact has made any difference?
Well, we at An’du can and will continue to make a change. While our year has been less emotional than global events, we feel, in our own small way and with your help, we have been just as impactful.
How come I hear you say? The answer is that with every person with whom we have interacted, made friends with, sold our bars to or chatted about sustainability or hair care with, we have helped the world move in the right direction – towards a cleaner, plastic free more sustainable world.
At An’du - and that includes you – our community, we refuse to be vanquished or down. Delusional I hear you mutter, well may be a little, but without trying we will never know.
This year we prevented 2126 plastic bottles entering our oceans, compared to the very rough estimate – no one really knows - of 144, 000 000 000 plastic bottles entering each year – we have a fair bit to go – but as well as our name ‘to row gently against the tide’, we stand by our motto of ‘what can I do say one billion people?’
Equally, if not more important than feeling great about helping our world become a better place, you, our customers have just loved our bars. With over 35 x 5-star reviews in 2024 on our shampoo bars alone, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of your feedback. We have put a sample of reviews at the bottom of this blog, or to read more on line click here to see of our reviews .
We have also been proud to help out with individual requests for help with hair problems, from queries about hair loss to itchy scalps we have done our best, replying to everyone. Please keep these questions coming, we often do a blog about a product such for example Rosemary oil and hair growth on the back of them.
So, as well as making a minuscule start to our oceans' plastic problems and giving you amazing looking hair with healthy scalps to boot, below are our other achievements for 24 – all achieved only with your help and support in our never-ending quest to ‘row gently against the tide’
- Went local – this year we concentrated on local fairs*. Attending outdoor fairs introduced a new word in our An’du dictionary – the pluviometer – to measure the amount of rain fallen. Personally I think that the downpour at Hanwell Carnival won, closely followed by Kew Village Market’s July fair where a thunderous downpour emptied the market in under 5 minutes. We were thrilled to join new fairs at the Hare and Hounds pub in East Sheen and Kingston Grammar school Christmas Fair.
- Got sold at 50 hill rise – this is a big one for us, 50 Hill Rise Richmond shares the same caring ethos as we do, we are very pleased to be selling there.
- Random Act of Kindness Day in February this year we asked all our registered customers to name someone who would like a free bar which we then duly sent. This was hugely popular – and if our accountant allows, we will be holding something similar in 2025.
- Regular blogs – including a deep dive into Caffeine, Pumpkin Seed Oil, Rosemary Oil and Rice Water about their claims for hair growth – all blogs receiving positive feedback.
- Photo shoot - feeling more grown up we decided to get a professional photo shoot with @lunalightphotography. Hiring two fabulous local models we now have a professional store of photos at our fingertips. Thank you, Jannah, from lunalightphotography and a huge thanks to our wonderful models Tina and Siddhi
- Collaborated with of Nature – our mother’s days packs were a big success and @ ivaplantsuk for our advent calendar give away.
- Celebrated STEM Day, concentrating on women in STEM. Our Instagram post got great traction and interaction with many comments. In our opinion we need science and technology to help move our climate and plastic problems forward. We are proud of our sister/ daughter Katherine, who after doing an engineering degree followed by a PhD is now a team leader on a project at the Barcelona Supercomputer analysing climate change - go all you women and men out there tackling our climate problem.
- Made our second batch of shampoos – whoo hoo, this is a massive one for us – we actually sold out of our first batch – needed to find a new manufacturer and got our second batch of our Back to Basics and Nourishment made.
- Joined the oldest fair in London – Hanwell carnival in Elthorne park , had a ball in traditional carnival style and endured of the biggest downpour that you have ever seen with water running under the marquee walls.
- Won the SME UK Enterprise awards 2024 – Best Sustainable Hair Care Product 2024 – go An’du!
- Kept things sustainable with our own inhouse props manufacturer – aka my husband, we made our own strut cards and matching wooden holders out of recycled materials.
- Filmed our Christmas advert in mid-August. With Lizzy due a baby at Christmas we thought it might interfere with the creative process, so we got ahead of the game. Why do John Lewis never have this problem? See our advert herehttps://www.an-du.co.uk/blogs/news/andu-christmas-advert-2024?srsltid=AfmBOop_wOpfSdW2zDdptB9Xn8dn0IPCeMvVb8qkZlF_O3UhPjCl17Hp make sure that you watch to the end – the last 2 seconds are my favourite bit.
- Made friends with the Parent Collective Chiswick and had a brilliant women’s networking evening care of Killick and Co Chiswick, hosted by Parent Collective Chiswick. https://www.instagram.com/theparentcollectivechiswick/
- Had a baby – this year along with expanding our business, Lizzy gave birth to a beautiful baby. We are absolutely delighted – and – as we all know is the biggest achievement of all. Also , what an incentive to keep on doing our bit for the environment.
So, thank you everyone who joined our journey or stayed with us in ’24 . If not a member, please come and join our An’du community in 2025, sign up for our e mails to receive great tips on hair care as well as promotions . Become part of the solution. We look forward to meeting you either in person or online .
Where are we going in 2025?
- Your scalp is the foundation for your hair's health. As so many of you said in your feedback - if not properly cared for your luxurious locks won't shine. Our ambition is to get the message out to more of you about our double award winning 5* shampoo and conditioner bars - helping you all have a healthy scalp and beautiful hair.
- Continuing our campaign against plastic, only 143 999 997 874 plastic bottles to prevent entering the ocean compared to
- Being part of our local community is important to us. While always expanding our online service we love our wonderful South West London.
Fairs of 2024.
*Kew Village Market – held the first Sunday of each month starting in February
Kew Fete
Sheen Mount School
Broomfield School
Kingston Grammar School
Hare and Hounds Pub East Sheen
The Parent Collective Chiswick
Kew Horticultural Society Summer Fair
Sparkle Christmas Fair Teddington
Brentford Market
Sustainable Ventures - County Hall
Sample of reviews from 2024
- About our Nourishment bar This shampoo is a win, win! Good for my hair and good for the environment. I have now been using the shampoo and conditioner for several weeks. I have very dry and thick hair and it seems to love this shampoo bar. It smells delicious too! I live in East Sheen and my parcels are delivered by bike…Express delivery! On two occasions delivered within 2 hours of submitting my online order.
- I colour my hair and suffer with itchy scalp, but this shampoo and conditioner has stopped the itchy scalp completely and my coloured hair is left feeling nourished and soft. Highly recommend
- I never thought my hair could look and feel as good as it does when I use your bars. They take away all my frizz but keep all the volume.
- I have been using all your brilliant shampoo and conditioner bars for a while now and absolutely love them. They give a wonderful wash and condition, and my hair is so much shinier and silky even despite London water. Being bars rather than bottles makes them so much lighter on the planet and with the well-made tins they are really easy for travelling. I also have to add that Tina and Lizzy behind An’du are incredibly lovely, considering every smallest detail and giving that personal touch. Thank you!
- And if you have dandruff
- THESE BARS ACTUALLY WORK! I've always struggled on and off with dandruff and oily hair. I've been using the Flake Away bars for about 3 weeks now, washing every 2-3 days and I'm genuinely over the moon with how my hair and scalp are looking and feeling. No itchiness at all and huge reduction in flakes to the point where I don't even notice it any more. Cannot believe it! Goodbye crazy harsh over mediated shampoo that I had been using!
- From the first wash I noticed a great improvement. Scalp was noticeably less dry and even the hair felt better. Highly recommend