Brothers Beard brings a fresh presence to the grooming scene
Established in 2016 in South Africa by University of Cape Town graduates Takura Chimbuya and Vizolet Kuwanda, Brothers Beard was born out of a shared frustration with the limited choices of facial hair products in retail stores during their move to Johannesburg for their careers.
Beard growth dominated conversations during weekend hangouts for Liverpool and Arsenal games or kitchen experiments. Taking a Breaking Bad approach, they turned a bedroom into a lab, testing over 100 formulas, bottles, and suppliers. Each trial on their own beards strengthened camaraderie, refining the product continuously.
Six years later, Brothers Beard offers a variety of beard oils, balms, brushes, and combs in South Africa, Rwanda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. They're set to expand into new markets, introduce fresh products, and enhance customer experiences.
The Brothers Beard elevates their services with a private grooming lounge at 301 Park Corner, Parkwood, Johannesburg—an exclusive urban retreat that enhances the grooming experience through its unique ambiance.
By offering top-notch grooming products and fostering a network of like-minded bearded individuals, they unite a global brotherhood of men, promoting care for both them and their communities.
GQ had a chat with Brothers Beard co-founder Vizolet about the inspiration behind his business.
GQ: How did Brothers Beard come about?
Vizolet: My friend TK and I came up with the idea. We were at UCT and just starting to grow beards. The products available at the time were kind of lacking, we were really unimpressed with the results but also with the experience of using them.
We were curious to see if we could make something good on our own, so we went all breaking bad with a home lab set up to design an organic beard oil. We liked the results, others did too and it’s grown step by step from there.
GQ: What was your career path before getting into the grooming industry?
Vizolet: Coming from a traditional African family I was encouraged down a certain path — accounting, like my sister. At the time I thought, she says it’s cool, she seems like she’s doing well in it and they say it pays, so, yeah.
I still wanted to get there in a less traditional way, so there were some stops along the path — studying abroad in South America, learning Mandarin for a while, things like that.
GQ: Why the name “Brothers Beard”, and what makes it unique?
Vizolet: A friend of mine suggested using the words in some form with TK and I being close friends, aka brothers. But it quickly transcended beyond ‘two brothers with beards,’ especially now that TK isn’t part of the business anymore (he’s moved abroad). The ‘brother’ part contains so much more now, from being black to wanting to care differently for people and for ourselves.
GQ: Tell us about your ingredient philosophy
Vizolet: We look for the shortest path to what works. It’s also been shaped by making the best of what’s available; we wanted high quality formulas we would be able to sustain — no chaos when some tricky ingredient is unavailable.
You can find something that works brilliantly, but can you provide it again and again? Just like how we started, trying to solve our own problem, we look at concerns men have and select the simplest combination of ingredients to target those concerns. Our main difference is that we just say the simpler the better.
GQ: What are your thoughts on existing beard care routines?
Vizolet: Us brands could do a bit more in terms of educating communities on beard care routines; we’re coming up short. Routines are underdeveloped but we can provide the information people need.
We’ve also got to onboard them to the idea of care in the first place, and there’s a lot of resistance there, but we see women contribute to that quite a lot; sisters and partners and any women in their lives recommending something. It starts small, like suggesting castor oil for the hairline.
GQ: How would you define this ‘man’ your brand is targeting?
Vizolet: Many kinds of men who lead very different lives have beards, and they all have skin to take care of (we just launched skincare, btw), but what unites them is that care matters to them in some way. For some it’s more around family, and their self care is still a touch point for that because they’ve got toddlers who play with their beards.
It could also be in the form of care in the workplace, showing up as your best self by taking care of your skin and beard for when you’re presenting, pushing your dreams and aspirations as a business owner… even showing care for what you stand for or care for your clients.
Leaders in other spheres showing care for future generations by inspiring and mentoring them. The Brothers Beard man is a guy who makes a daily, deliberate choice to care about what matters, and to say that taking good care of himself is part of that, and that’s where we come in to help.
GQ: What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned from creating Brothers Beard?
Vizolet: Keep testing things and be open minded. Keep expanding your thinking about how a brand or any set of values can show up in the world and leave a positive mark.
We started out with just products and just beards, but we’ve added a truly special barbershop/lounge experience, skincare products to take home and even a skincare clinic in the lounge. The real value may not lie where you think it lies.
It’s an honour to be part of people’s lives and to provide some part of the space for belonging that everyone needs. Men come to the lounge and just download sometimes; for some of them it’s the only time that week that they will take a moment for themselves, get to vent about things that are happening to them, or get to relax into being cared for. It’s a business but you realise it’s about more than numbers.
Our relationship with our masculinity is in flux; things are more tense than they have ever been. The whole question of healing it, I think it just needs a community effort. It matters because whatever our relationship with it is, that affects society; it’s up to us to determine if masculinity is going to be negative or positive.
We can’t look at it in men’s and women’s problem silos because we all live in the same communities and will be at least indirectly affected, from having an absent father to being affected by how someone who had an absent father shows up in the workplace.
GQ: How did you penetrate the African market?
Vizolet: We had made inroads in Rwanda, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia before the pandemic, but we’ve scaled back from those markets to build at home because building here and expanding there were pulling on the same resources.
We did get a taste of how things work in these other African markets, and what it will take to scale across all the differences from place to place. Right now we are building a stronger foundation at home for all those new markets to stand on.
GQ: What are your best-selling products?
Vizolet: Our beard oil and beard balm combo is the stuff of legend, and it’s been untouchable at number 1 for a while. Now, our lounge experience is giving it a run for its money; the gents keep coming back for more.
I say try them both, especially now that we have an exciting new partner that allowed us to open a skin clinic in the lounge. DMK is a top shelf skin treatment brand loved by professionals everywhere, including LA’s plastic surgeons, and though we’ve just started working with them, they’re bestsellers on their own, too.
GQ: What’s next for Brothers Beard?
Vizolet: We think we’ve got something good going, especially with the changes in the last year: Launching a cleanser and moisturiser, opening the lounge and bringing DMK onboard all happened inside the last 12 months.
Now we just want to get all of this more exposed to the gents and also get more involved in the ecosystem. The goal is to build a world of care for men, and we are looking into how we partner with others, even in fashion and beauty, to expand the place of belonging that Brothers Beard represents and make this about more than haircuts.