Cover Sacha Mitic, the co-founder of Sachajuan, at the intimate session in Kuala Lumpur (Photo: Sachajuan)
Sacha Mitic, the co-founder of Sachajuan, at the intimate session in Kuala Lumpur (Photo: Sachajuan)
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A well-loved Swedish haircare brand, Sachajuan is known for its minimalist approach and signature Ocean Silk Technology, designed to enhance hair health, strength, and shine
Sachajuan began as a salon, founded in 1997 by internationally renowned stylists Sacha Mitic and Juan Rosenlind. Over time, they began to notice a shift in the industry: haircare was becoming overly complicated, filled with hard-to-pronounce names and unfamiliar ingredients. In response, they launched their namesake haircare brand in 2004, built on a philosophy of simplicity and functionality. Today, Sachajuan is recognised around the world, but its roots remain firmly grounded in the craft of hairdressing.
As the first haircare brand in Ken’s Apothecary’s impressive repertoire, Sachajuan has gained a following in Malaysia. With products that not only works with all hair types, but works well in our humid weather, it’s not surprising that the products have become a crowd favourite.
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More than anything, Sacha sees himself as a hairdresser first—a point he proudly emphasised during our conversation. We had the honour of speaking to the founder when he stopped by in Kuala Lumpur for an intimate session at B Hotel’s Upper House KL, complete with a masterclass by Sacha that featured key products in their line.
How did your background in hairdressing help when you were developing your brand?
I think that it was one of the key things. Because what we’ve been doing is developing a toolbox, and you can’t do that if you don't understand the craft. I started young, and I’ve been working with hair in different situations; working in a salon and manipulating hair for photography. You want to have your products work for you, rather than fail you. So I think finding that balance between the two was really important and played a key role in developing the brand.
The way we found balance when developing our products was the key to the success of the products. It may sound easy, but it's not that easy to understand the approach, to understand different textures, and to understand all this complexity about having the balance.
Above Sachajuan's well-loved range of products
Sachajuan's well-loved range of products
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With all the different textures of hair, how did you manage to ensure that your product works well across the board?
For me, hair products have to be super functional but very lightweight in the hair. It’s quite hard to achieve, but I think we achieved that. So for us, it was very important to have ingredients that supported that vision. Part of the ingredients we use are a mix of algae that we call the OceanSync technology.
In one sentence, how would you describe OceanSync technology?
Well, it's actually different algae that we combined into our formulations. It's not only one that is going to make the product—it's like when you make a dish, there are a few ingredients—it’s a balanced mix of a few algae.
A Sachajuan woman—how would you describe them?
I would say it's someone that appreciates quality and simplicity. I always say, we don’t only create products for hair but we also build people’s bathrooms. Many people call it minimalistic, but I see it more as understated, more whispering than screaming. So that goes for everything, from how the design looks to what kind of fragrance we choose.
It’s more of an approach really, it’s what you want to have. Because I think people are people, regardless of age or gender.
As Malaysian weather is quite humid, what haircare advice can you give?
When you have humidity, your hair tends to collapse. You would need more texturising products. That's why I think our ocean mist is something that will be really fitting this climate because it kind of gives you texture and makes the hair not collapse as much.
See also: 7 well-loved K-beauty ingredients and the popular products that use them
Speaking of hair texture, if someone has fine hair would it be okay for them to layer on products similarly to someone who has coarser hair texture?
That's an interesting question you have, because layering is the way we've been looking at how we create a new type of surface on hair. So all our styling products are designed for layering. You can put in quite a lot of product without having that product being sticky or heavy in the hair as we develop our formulas on the lighter side. We love when hair still has movement and looks shiny.
Lastly, would you say that authenticity is something that's also really important for Sachajuan?
We have had the same approach since we started. We haven't changed that much. We obviously evolve in what we do and create new products. But the DNA remains the same.
We don’t just do something we think will fare well for one season. We do something we identify as Sachajuan. I believe that's actually when you become a brand.
Sachajuan is exclusively available at all KENS Apothecary stores and at kensapothecary.com.my
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As Senior Lifestyle Writer, Aina writes across the lifestyle vertical, covering wellness, travel, arts and entertainment. Based in Kuala Lumpur, she previously worked at CLEO Malaysia, where she headed the lifestyle, culture and entertainment sections.
