Our story didn’t begin with a product.

It began years before Maaii existed, with our founder, Sarah.

From the beginning, Sarah had the kind of hair that refused to go unnoticed. Thick, frizzy and full of curls, it wasn’t always easy to manage. Throughout much of her childhood, her hair was kept short, simply because, at the time, that seemed the easiest way to handle it.

Long before she understood her hair, Sarah had already learned to see it as something that needed fixing. And when hair feels like such a big part of who you are, the way you see it can shape the way you see yourself.

"Growing up, I never really fell in love with my hair. I was far more interested in what else it could be. I learned to hide the parts of it that made me feel different".

Sarah’s fascination with hiding her natural hair had grown into a desire to understand it. She wanted to learn about hair, how it worked, how to care for it, and perhaps, along the way, understand her own.

That curiosity led her to the Hair Academy, where she began studying hair professionally.

From the Chair to the Screen

Sarah wanted to reach the women who would never sit in her salon chair.
So in 2015, from her living room with nothing more than an iPhone, she shared her first hair tutorial on Instagram.

One tutorial became another, and before long, millions of women around the world were watching. Her tutorials became known for making professional hairstyling feel simple and achievable at home. No complicated techniques. No salon chair required. Just Sarah sharing what she knew, step by step, with one message at the heart of it all:

“If I can do it, so can you.”

What started in her living room grew into a global audience, with women returning not only for inspiration, but to understand their own hair a little better.