Brand Spotlight: Little Rootz

Little Rootz fills a major void in the hair industry by offering a range of hair accessories that make Black children feel like heroes and princesses! With exclusive designs on products like durags and bonnets Little Rootz is promoting healthy hair, creativity and inclusivity with every product. Meet its founder, J’La Dade! 

During the height of the pandemic you were moved into action and started working on creating Little Rootz. Tell us your founder's story. 

Little Rootz is primarily a children's bonnet and durag line. I started my brand for my son. His name is Jet and at the time he was two. I was recently laid off for my position due to the pandemic and restricted to my home because it was locked down. There was a lot of uncertainties going around at that time it aligned with the murder of George Floyd. In addition to him needing different products for his hair, because his hair was starting to come in, all those different things aligned. And I'm like, there's not really a lot of representation that my son is seeing on these children shows and there's not a lot of characters who look like him. And then also I'm like, okay, where are the durags that fit these two year olds? I was seeing things of course on Amazon. There's a small selection, but they're not really high quality. So I'm like, let’s make something for him. His favorite show at the time was PJ Masks. I put it on social media. People were DMing me Like, where are the bonnets? And I'm like, I never thought about that. I have a son. I’m not saying that he's not going to need a bonnet eventually because boys do wear bonnets. But anyway, I developed bonnets and then they were like okay, where are your other patterns? So it started becoming a thing. 

Your products have exclusive designs and are made with Satin. Can you tell us more about how the products are made? 

So, not all satin is made the same. And I've specifically used satin because silk is pretty expensive when you're talking about goods for children. So my satin is different in the sense that it's genuine satin. It's not mixed with polyester. Of course, when I launched my brand I was introduced to a whole community of wavers and they've educated me a lot as to what to look for in a durag. So our durags, the seams are on the outside so you don't have that imprint that's being placed onto your head while you're sleeping leaving like that harsh imprint. And then in addition to that,my sizing is specifically for children ages two through 12. Adults could fit our standard size but I really wanted to make sure that it was reaching a smaller demographic of children because there's not a lot of products for toddlers, especially hair-related products. 

How have your products improved your son’s hair and what’s been the feedback from customers? 

So you're going to retain a lot more moisture in your hair. My son has sandy hair. Some people call it sandy, some people call it red. It's like that blondish reddish hair. So sandy hair is a lot more dry. It just soaks up moisture. It doesn't retain moisture very well. So being that, when he was younger, he was laying on cotton pillow cases. The cotton absorbs the moisture in your

hair. Satin products create a barrier between that pillowcase and the product, and the bonnet helps to retain the moisture. They also help with detangling and split-ins, things of that nature, because you are retaining that moisture. 

You have exclusive designs on your products. They look so real and are packed with detail! 

My hero designs are my favorite. These are all exclusively designed superheroes with different hairstyles that are associated with our culture, different shades, different characteristics, just to make sure that everyone is represented to a certain extent. So I have this satin bonnet. And then in addition to that, we expanded the line because people were asking for additional products. So I developed a shower cap specifically with my hero durag and bonnet print. Ours are satin lined, so you can do a deep condition. It’s available in pink and purple. Something that I'm most excited about and just recently developed are our satin scarves. They're huge purposely. This is new and designed with combs and things associated with it taking care of your hair. I wanted to put it on a scarf that also connected to my culture. And then of course I did our hero on a scarf as well. I purposely made them oversized because a lot of times when we're looking for scars, when we have longer hair, like box braids it’s hard to find scarves that actually fit and allow you to style.