Negin Mirsalehi’s Hair Brand Has FINALLY Launched In The UK And You’re Going To Want To Get Involved

Negin Mirsalehi is a big deal. Negin was one of the first major influencers on the scene - she has a 6.4 million strong Instagram following and counting - and is famed for her signature long, shiny and voluminous hair. It comes as no surprise then that her first major venture outside of the influencer sphere took place in 2015 when Negin founded haircare brand Gisou. Why wouldn't the masses want to buy into a haircare line with such a glossy-haired figurehead? But there's more to Gisou than meets the eye. Negin grew up working with honey. Her family's heritage is deeply rooted in beekeeping and her mother used the honey from her family's Mirsalehi Bee Garden to formulate at-home remedies and haircare solutions. Inspired by Persian self-care practices Negin's mother, a hairdresser, harnessed the power of bee-sourced ingredients to serve up conditioning and restorative haircare products for the family. Today Negin is proud to take that family legacy a step further. Gisou is a haircare range centred on the powers of honey and its first launch was the line's hero product, the Gisou Honey Infused Hair Oil, £68, and since then the range has expanded to include seven other products. This week they launch exclusively into Selfridges, Negin's favourite London shopping destination. Here she talks exclusively to Grazia about the story behind Gisou, her own go-to haircare routines and her dreams for Gisou's future...

On Her First Memories Of Haircare

'My first memories of haircare centre around my mother - a hairdresser. From a young age she taught me the importance of taking care of my hair and nourishing it with quality ingredients like honey from my father’s bee garden. I have fond memories of her experimenting in the kitchen with our Mirsalehi Honey to formulate her own haircare solutions. It’s one of these experiments that turned into our family’s daily haircare staple and inspired Gisou’s Honey Infused Hair Oil.'

On The Honey Factor

'My family has a rich, six generation-heritage in beekeeping. My father was taught by his father and so on. Every summer he would go into the mountains of Iran with his brothers and his father to practice beekeeping in nature. As a family we used honey for just about anything - to heal our cuts and scrapes, soothe a sore throat or sweeten our tea. And of course, my mother used it on our hair.'

On The Story Behind Gisou

'I started my career by blogging about beauty and fashion, two of my passions, back when I was still in school completing my studies in Marketing. At that time I was one of the first "influencers" on Instagram and my following took off quite quickly as I learned what my followers liked and posted content catering to that on a consistent basis. In the beginning, my content was mainly focused on pictures of my outfits and beauty tips. When I shared more of my personal life and noticed how interested my followers were in my family’s bee garden and six-generation beekeeping heritage I was inspired to share more. So my partner Maurits and I formulated a business plan and launched Gisou in 2015 with the Honey Infused Hair Oil, now Gisou’s most iconic multipurpose hero product, based on a homemade family recipe formulated by my mother. Out of everything, Gisou is what I am most proud of; it combines all of my passions for bees, nature, family and beauty in one brand.'

On Gisou's Hero Product

'Our first product, the Honey Infused Hair Oil is definitely the hero buy. It’s an essential for all hair types! It nourishes and moisturises hair and gives it all of the powerful nutrients that our honey has to offer. It can also be used pre and post-styling to tame frizz, improve the appearance of split ends and add shine. You can use it as a deeper hair treatment too, you can add it to a hair mask for an extra dose of moisture, or apply it throughout your hair on its own and leave it in overnight before washing out the next day. I use it everyday, multiple times a day.'

On Her Haircare Routine Then And Now

'When I was younger my mother definitely instilled in me a "less is more" approach to haircare. My sister and I were taught to be diligent about nourishing and moisturising our hair and my mother made sure we only washed it 2-3 times a week. I definitely experimented with different hairstyles and colouring treatments in my teens, I can't say that my haircare was at its best then! Today,I still get a few highlights every now and then but I try to limit colouring my hair as much as possible. As far as my day-to-day routine, I use the Gisou Honey Infused Hair Oil, £68, every day to tame frizz and flyaways throughout the day, lock in moisture and nourishment after my washing routine, or to deeply nourish overnight when my hair is especially dry. Once or twice a week I treat my hair to the Gisou Honey Infused Hair Mask, £45, with a few drops of Gisou Honey Infused Hair Oil mixed in for a double dose of honey. Although styling tools can be damaging, I like to curl my hair pretty frequently and to minimise any possible damage from the heat I always make sure to protect my hair with Gisou Propolis Infused Heat Protecting Spray, £33. Before my styling routine, I also like to run a pea-sized amount of Gisou Propolis Infused Polishing Primer, £27, throughout my hair - it’s our styling all-in-one that ensures maximum volume, texture, definition and frizz-free results.'

On Her Top Tips For Boosting Hair Health And Condition

'My golden rules, passed down from my mother include not experimenting too much with different treatments, wash and condition hair 2-3 times a week maximum with a sulphate-free shampoo and conditioner and nourish your hair with good quality haircare products. The best advice has always come from my mother, and it’s simply to take care of your hair and to be gentle with it.'

On Heat-Free Styling And How It's Done

'There’s so many ways to style your hair without heat. I get so inspired scrolling through TikTok because I learn something new every day. One technique I learned recently through TikTok is using socks to create curls instead of a curling iron. When I don’t have a lot of time I also tend to spray my hair with the Gisou Propolis Infused Texturizing Wave Spray, £31, leave it in a bun for 10 minutes and when I take it out I have textured, beachy waves.'

On Her Dream For Gisou's Future

'I have so many ambitions for Gisou! We’re just getting started and we’re lucky to have such a supportive community guiding us along the way. Our community - and the bees of course - are at the core of who we are and what we do. Moving forward we want to expand on our community initiatives and make even more of an impact in saving the bees. For instance, we recently launched our Community Partner Initiative, providing a platform to showcase young entrepreneurs and their work. For bee season this year we are including Wildflower Seeds with every order placed via Gisou.com so that our community can plant bee-friendly wildflowers and support the full honey bee life cycle with us. This is just one of a series of exciting initiatives we have planned to raise awareness about the importance of bees for our ecosystem. At the end of the day, our community and bees are our guiding light. Although I don’t want to give away all of the projects we are working on I am so excited to be able to share our Honey Infused haircare heroes with more community members in the UK.'

Shop: Grazia's Favourite Gisou Products Now

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