Why I Brew Herbal Tea Before Making Every Hair Product And Why It Changes Everything

I want to tell you something that most beauty brands never talk about.

Water is the biggest percentage in almost every hair product you have ever used. Shampoo, conditioner, leave-in cream - water typically makes up 60 to 80 percent of the formula. It is the base that everything else sits in.

Most brands use plain water. Deionised, purified, completely neutral. It keeps the formula stable and costs almost nothing.

I refused to waste that percentage.

But I also had to be honest with formulation science. A product that separates on your shelf or grows mould within weeks helps nobody. Stability matters. So what followed was a long period of trial and error, testing the highest percentage of brewed tea that could go into the formula and still stay stable. Adjusting. Testing again. Starting over.

The result is a formula built on a blend of deionised water and the highest stable percentage of brewed botanical tea we could achieve. Not a token amount. Not a trace. As much as the science allows.

That percentage is our formulation secret. And your hair feels the difference.

A Busy Mum. A Kitchen Full of Plants. A Problem to Solve.

When I first started formulating Umthi I was a busy mum of two boys grabbing whatever minutes I could in the shower. Before Umthi existed I used to make fresh treatments in my kitchen - mashing avocado, blending banana, straining fenugreek water. I knew from my own hair journey that fresh botanical ingredients worked. I could feel the difference.

But I couldn't be mashing and straining things before every shower. Not with two boys needing me and five minutes between one thing and the next. Whatever shower break you can grab, you take. Those minutes are precious and small.

So I asked myself a different question. How do I get that same fresh botanical goodness into a product that sits on the shelf, ready when I am?

The answer was the same thing humans have been doing for thousands of years.

I brewed tea.

Close-up view of natural botanical ingredients in glass jars

What Happens When You Brew Six Plants Together

The first time I brewed the full blend - hibiscus, amla, fenugreek, marshmallow root, rose and aloe vera together, the colours were extraordinary. Deep burgundy from the hibiscus bleeding into amber. The smell of rose and hibiscus rising from the pot, warm and floral and alive.

And then marshmallow root. Which smells, I will be honest with you, deeply herby. Not unpleasant, genuinely medicinal. Like something your grandmother might have made. But not exactly what you want on your hair.

This is where most natural beauty formulations stop. They add an extract a fraction of the plant's benefit in a standardised, shelf-stable form and call it done.

I was brewing the whole plant. And that meant I had to solve the smell.

The Aromatherapy Blend That Brings It All Together

This is the part of Umthi's formulation that I am most proud of. Finding the essential oil blend that could cut through six botanical smells, harmonise them, stabilise them, and add something of its own.

Bergamot was the answer to the marshmallow root; bright, citrus-forward, uplifting. It lifts the whole blend and stops it smelling like a health food shop.

Frankincense grounds everything. It is one of the oldest therapeutic botanicals in the world and it brings a warm, resinous depth that anchors the formula.

Litsea adds a clean lemony warmth that ties bergamot and frankincense together without competing with either.

But here is the thing I did not choose these three just for the smell. Each one has a specific emotional and physiological function. Bergamot for anxiety. Frankincense for grounding. Litsea for its natural antibacterial properties. The aromatherapy blend is not a fragrance decision. It is a therapeutic decision that happens to solve a formulation challenge at the same time.

That is Umthi. Every decision working on more than one level.

Eye-level view of Umthi Beauty hair care and body products arranged on a white slate

Why Brewing Is Different to Extracting

Most brands that use botanicals add them as isolated extracts a concentrated fraction of the plant's active compounds, standardised and shelf-stable. It is efficient. It is predictable. It gives you a consistent percentage of one or two active compounds.

But a plant is not just its active compounds. When you brew hibiscus as a tea you get the vitamins, the amino acids, the natural acids, the colour, the antioxidants, the complete plant, not a fraction of it. The same way a cup of green tea gives you more than just caffeine.

Every drop of every Umthi hair product carries the complete plant. Not an extract. Not a concentrate. The brew itself.

What This Means for Your Hair

The tea base means your hair is being rinsed in six plants from the first moment the product touches it before any butter or oil is added. The marshmallow root is already coating your strands with slip before you start detangling. The amla is already at your scalp. The hibiscus is already working on your cuticle.

By the time you rinse off, your hair has been in a botanical bath.

That is why Umthi works differently. Not because of what we add on top. Because of what we start with.

The Shelf Next to Your Shower

I think about those five minute shower breaks often. The mum with two children who needs something that actually works without a preparation ritual. The woman who used to make kitchen treatments and misses that feeling of real ingredients. The person who wants fresh botanical goodness without straining anything before 7am.

That is who Umthi was made for. That is why the tea exists.

Your shower shelf deserves better than water.

Shop the Botanical Brew Collection here

Lolita — Founder & Formulator, Umthi Natural Beauty 12x Award-Winning · Sustainability Champion 2026 · Made in London Healthy for you. Healthy going down the drain.