A shampoo and conditioner designed to work together, not against each other
In Perth, a twenty-one-year-old hairdresser named Daniela Matic has done what years of industry inertia could not: she looked at a problem everyone accepted and decided to solve it. Launching Orchard Maine this week, Matic offers what the beauty market has long neglected — a shampoo and conditioner for oily hair designed not merely to coexist on a shelf, but to work as a unified system. It is a reminder that the most enduring innovations often begin not in laboratories or boardrooms, but in the quiet accumulation of listening to what people actually need.
- For years, oily-haired consumers have been caught in a frustrating loop — stripping shampoos undone by heavy conditioners, leaving scalps overproducing oil within hours of washing.
- The beauty industry, crowded and capital-hungry, has largely treated this as an acceptable gap rather than an urgent problem worth solving properly.
- Matic partnered with cosmetic chemists to develop complementary formulas — celery seed extract and ceramides in the shampoo, quinoa protein and hyaluronic acid in the conditioner — each ingredient chosen to reinforce rather than undermine the other.
- Orchard Maine launched Wednesday with shampoo, conditioner, two combs, and a cosmetics bag, signalling a brand built around full experience rather than isolated product claims.
- With ambitions already reaching beyond oily hair toward a globally recognised multi-concern line, the brand's trajectory is set — but its credibility will be earned one solved problem at a time.
Daniela Matic was fifteen when she began her apprenticeship in a Perth salon. By twenty-one, she had spent years watching the same frustration play out across every chair: clients with oily hair would buy a shampoo to fix it, reach for a conditioner, and find themselves back where they started. The two products worked against each other — one stripping oil, the other triggering the scalp to overproduce it again. It was a cycle the industry seemed content to leave unsolved.
Matic decided to build what didn't exist. Working alongside cosmetic chemists, she spent months learning formulation chemistry and testing ingredient combinations until she had two products that genuinely complemented each other. The shampoo uses celery seed extract alongside ceramides and plant proteins to control oil without stripping the hair bare. The conditioner hydrates and repairs with quinoa protein and hyaluronic acid, staying deliberately light at the roots where oiliness matters most. The solution, she explained, wasn't one hero ingredient — it was the relationship between all of them.
This week, Orchard Maine launched with those two products plus a pair of combs and a cosmetics bag — small additions that speak to a brand thinking about the whole experience. Launching a beauty brand at twenty-one is no small act of courage in an industry that is crowded and unforgiving, and Matic acknowledged the fear openly. But she also acknowledged that waiting for the perfect moment would mean never beginning at all.
Her ambitions extend well beyond oily hair. Matic has spoken of expanding into other hair concerns and building Orchard Maine into a globally recognised name — a brand people don't merely use but genuinely trust. For now, though, the focus remains narrow and deliberate: one problem, one solution, two products that finally work together. It is precisely the kind of small, well-aimed idea that changes how someone's day begins.
Daniela Matic was fifteen when she first stepped into a salon chair as an apprentice. By twenty-one, she'd noticed something that most people in the industry seemed to accept as unsolvable: nearly everyone who came through the door complained about the same thing. Their hair got oily. They'd buy shampoo to fix it. The conditioner would make it worse. They'd give up and choose one or the other, never quite satisfied.
Matic spent years watching this pattern repeat. She tried products herself. She consulted with clients. She listened to what they actually needed versus what the market was selling them. What she found was a gap so obvious it seemed strange no one had filled it properly: the shampoo and conditioner for oily hair didn't work as a system. They worked against each other. A shampoo might strip excess oil effectively, but then a standard conditioner would weigh the hair down and trigger the scalp to overproduce oil again within hours. It was a cycle that kept people buying more products, not fewer.
So Matic decided to build what didn't exist. She partnered with cosmetic chemists and spent months testing formulations, learning how ingredients interact, understanding the chemistry of what makes hair feel clean without feeling stripped. On Wednesday this week, after years of research and development, she launched Orchard Maine—a brand built around a single, deliberate idea: a shampoo and conditioner designed to work together for oily hair, not against each other.
The shampoo uses celery seed extract to target excess oil production while ceramides and plant proteins strengthen and protect without adding weight. The conditioner takes a different approach: ceramides, quinoa protein, and hyaluronic acid hydrate and repair the lengths of the hair while staying light at the roots where oiliness matters most. It's not one secret ingredient, Matic explained. It's a combination of ingredients chosen specifically to solve a problem that existing brands had largely ignored or half-solved.
Launching a beauty brand at twenty-one is not a casual decision. The industry is crowded, capital-intensive, and unforgiving to newcomers. Matic acknowledged the fear. She also acknowledged something else: waiting for the perfect moment to start would mean never starting at all. She had a problem to solve and clients who needed the solution. That was enough.
Orchard Maine debuted with more than just the shampoo and conditioner. The launch included two combs and a cosmetics bag—small touches that signal a brand thinking about the full experience, not just the product in the bottle. But Matic is already looking beyond oily hair. She's mentioned plans to expand into other hair concerns, to build Orchard Maine into something people don't just use but trust and connect with. Her stated ambition is global recognition, a brand known for formulations that actually work and for making people feel confident about how their hair looks and feels.
For now, though, the focus is narrow and intentional. One problem. One solution. Two products that work together instead of against each other. It's a small thing, but it's the kind of small thing that changes how someone's day feels—how they feel about themselves. That's where most successful brands begin.
Citas Notables
Even if you're using the right shampoo, using the wrong conditioner can still weigh the hair down and make it become oily faster.— Daniela Matic
Being 21 is scary at times, but it's also the best time to chase something you truly believe in.— Daniela Matic
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why did it take until 2026 for someone to make a shampoo and conditioner that actually work together for oily hair?
Because most brands approach hair care as separate problems. They make a shampoo that sells on the promise of oil control, and they make a conditioner that sells on the promise of moisture. They don't think about what happens when you use them together.
But Matic figured that out just by working in salons?
She figured it out by listening. She spent six years watching the same complaint come through the door. That's not a small sample size. That's a pattern.
What made her think she could actually formulate something better?
She didn't try to do it alone. She brought in cosmetic chemists. She was willing to learn the science instead of just guessing. And she was willing to spend years testing before she launched anything.
Is this just a shampoo and conditioner, or is there something else happening here?
It's a shampoo and conditioner, but it's also a statement about how products should be designed. Not as individual solutions competing for shelf space, but as systems that work together. That's a different way of thinking about the category.
Do you think she'll actually build this into a global brand?
I think she's built something real first, which is the hard part. The global part depends on whether other people feel the same relief she's trying to create. But she's not starting from nothing. She's starting from a genuine problem and a genuine solution.
What's the scariest part of what she's doing?
Probably that she's betting her time and money on something that could fail. But she's also twenty-one, which means she has time to fail and try again. That's an advantage most people don't recognize until it's gone.