Katie Warner – CEO & Founder
JSL Essentials was founded by Katie Warner; an experienced Sports and Holistic Therapist. Katie has an unconditional love for all things natural and began her holistic journey at a very young age. She grew up on an agricultural farm in the Kent countryside, which soon unveiled a passion for all living things. After watching the process of her parents’ planting seeds, watching them grow and then eventually consuming them herself, Katie realised the incredible health benefits of plants and decided she wanted to harness those benefits and share them with the world.
Katie started embracing her curls 10 years ago – prior to that she literally would not leave the house without her straighteners! She eventually grew tired of trying to conform to society and the false image of ‘perfection’, so decided to start embracing her natural curls.
Katie tried many products but struggled to find the right combinations for her fine, loose curl pattern, so she decided to start formulating her own products. This very soon led to a qualification in Cosmetic Legislation and Organic Hair & Skincare, where Katie began her journey in formulating and manufacturing her plant based curly hair, skin and home care products.
JSL Essentials was born at the end of 2021 using mainly plant based materials to honour Katie’s family legacy as British agricultural farmers. Unfortunately Katie lost her father to mental health, so she decided to dedicate her business to her father, naming the brand after him. Mental health is something that is very close to her heart, therefore she donates a % of every sale to a mental health charity.
Liane Bayliss – Business Development Director
Liane started embracing her curls back in 2018 after hiding them behind straighteners since her teenage years. Her daughter had straight hair and at the time, was desperate for curls. Liane was trying to teach Emilie to “embrace what God gave her”, but realised she was being a bit of a hypocrite – how could she instil that belief in her daughter when she herself was not embracing her natural curls? And so began her healthy hair journey.
In 2019 Liane created @curlycast – what started off as an Instagram journal of her own curly hair journey, turned into so much more. Liane created an amazing community of over 30,000 curlies, sharing her favourite products and encouraging people to embrace their natural curls. Liane then went on to offer curly hair consultations, helping others on their own healthy hair journey through her years of experience trialling many products and techniques.
In 2022 Liane discovered JSL Essentials and quickly fell in love with not only the products, but with the owner Katie and the company’s ethos. A beautiful friendship was born – joining the JSL Essentials team needed no time to think about at all!
Liane firmly believes that every head of hair is beautiful. Whether you have beachy waves or the tightest of coils, your curls are like your fingerprints – each one beautifully unique!
Victoria Cooper – Marketing Director
Victoria has always embraced her curls from a very young age – having a hairdresser for a mum meant having no choice in the matter! Victoria’s mum (Bev) always taught her that she’s lucky to have curls and to embrace them at every opportunity! However, she never fully understood how to care for her curls until three and a half years ago, when she decided to cut her hair short and began her curly hair journey.
Initially, Victoria struggled to look after her curls after cutting her hair and wondered why her hair didn’t look like other people’s on social media (those with the juicy curl clumps!) – so she decided to give the curly girl method a try and created @curlycooper26 on Instagram to track her progress. Her instagram page began as a diary for herself to keep track on what routines were working/what wasn’t working. After a short while, Victoria discovered that other curlies began following her progress and over the past 3 years, she has built an incredible curly community of over 50,000 followers.
JSL discovered Victoria’s page back in 2022 and she instantly fell in love with Katie’s products and Katie herself! The conversations they’ve shared have created a friendship that cannot be broken. Katie is quite literally Victoria’s angel and a sister she could only have wished for.
In Victoria’s spare time she offers piano tuition and enjoys engaging with her curly community on her instagram page via messages and comments.
