July 5: A much-cluttered industry is now being taken by storm by this up-and-coming hair care startup that brings together Ayurveda, Nutrition and Dermatology to target the root cause of one’s hair issues and trigger hair growth. Traya Health, through its digital consultation, has catered to 1Lakh+ customers and has a stellar efficacy rate of 93%. An entrepreneur, wife and mom, Ms. SaloniAnand, the Co-founder of Traya Health, shares the story behind Traya and how it plans to disrupt the hair tech space in India.
- What does the word Traya mean? What does Traya, as a company, mean to you?
Traya in Sanskrit means Trinity threefold, which is precisely what we do. We bring in the power of 3 sciences of Ayurveda, Dermatology, and Nutrition together on one platform to fix all hair-related issues, especially hair fall. I don’t see Traya as a company but as a way of life. It all started with our personal story –AltafSaiyed, my co-founder (& husband), and I adopted a holistic way of living by mixing these three sciences. It changed our lives, including unimaginable hair growth for Altaf. I am extremely passionate and excited that I am here, building an honest brand that works in one of the most cluttered and corrupt industries.
- Ayurveda, as a practice, is an age-old Indian Tradition that people worldwide follow. What is it about Traya that is different from one following a purely Ayurvedic regime for their health (hair or otherwise)?
Ayurveda manages hair loss by working on strong internal health. We at Traya not just work on scalp health or good hair quality but work on digestion, metabolism, absorption, hormonal imbalance, PCOS, and Thyroid using Ayurveda principles. We have more than 175 herbs across all our products. We give actionable diet plans built on Ayurvedic principles to manage these issues. Other Ayurvedic brands make a mistake by looking at Ayurveda through ingredients, for one can buy off-the-shelf Bhringraj or Curcumin and eat. But these alone are not useful. The real power of Ayurveda lies in customisation.
Ayurvedic therapies to manage hair loss are targeted toward rejuvenating internal health with the help of herbs and essential oils, making it a preventive measure in treating various modern hair care problems. But an Ayurvedic treatment will only help control root causes and not drastically improve hair follicle health. One science alone can’t solve your hair fall concerns. Nutrition deficiency-induced hair thinning would require supplementation, holistic care, and not just Ayurveda.
- What are some of your milestones with respect to Traya? Do you see yourself going global? If so, what is the acceptable timeline for that?
We started by helping a few family and friends, which later turned into a startup. The first big milestone we hit was getting a 93% efficacy with customers who completed five months of treatment. For the first year at Traya, we aimed to work on adherence measured by repeat rate. In 2021 January, we hit a repeat rate of 80% on the 2nd-month order. We clocked a 5x growth in the 2021 financial year, and our goal this year is 7x. We did some experiments with global markets, which look attractive, but we have pushed it to 2023. We want to first become the largest hair fall solution brand in India and venture out.
- As a startup entrepreneur, please share your learnings from the pandemic.
My biggest learning has been that an early-stage startup needs to be under a roof, and the work-from-home model is not very appropriate. We were the first ones to start the office and enjoy it. I hope we don’t see another wave crazy enough for a lockdown. The pandemic gave us much time to introspect and build the foundation for the company. Our major portion of tech got developed during the first Bharat Bandh.
