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One thing about Matilda Djerf is that she’s always going to have perfect hair. The content creator’s blonde voluminous hairstyle and impossibly bouncy curtain bangs have enthralled her followers (she’s currently at 3.1 million on Instagram) for years, prompting countless questions about her favorite hair products. Little did the curious fans know: “I’ve never had hair products that I genuinely loved and [would] always go back to,” she says. That is, until she launched Djerf Avenue Beauty, an extension of her clothing and lifestyle brand.
“It felt like a longer and more difficult process to create beauty products,” Djerf says over Zoom from the brand’s headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. But she sensed that it was the right time to branch out into beauty. “I think we took our first meeting about starting the beauty line three years ago,” she adds. “It’s been in the works for a really long time.” Earlier this year, on March 27, Djerf Avenue Beauty finally debuted with Breezy Styling Mist and the On the Go Styling Gel, two multi-tasking styling products.
The Breezy Weightless collection.
Now, the brand is set to unveil its first two hair care collections: Breezy Weightless and Essential Moisture. While both feature a shampoo, conditioner, and hair mask, the former focuses on encouraging volume, while the latter is designed to nourish dehydrated strands. According to Djerf, the team went through at least a dozen sample rounds for each line, over the course of more than two years, before landing on the final formulas. All packaging is 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic.
The Essential Moisture collection.
“Nailing down the formulation has been the biggest challenge, because it’s about how it looks and feels, and the results it gives. It’s not just about adding one ingredient or tweaking. It’s really about all of the different mixes and then making it perfect,” Djerf says. The Breezy Weightless and Essential Moisture products, which range from $22–30, will be available to shop on djerfavenue.com starting October 16. Below, Djerf on the process of starting a beauty line, her love for one particular hair tool, and her best piece of hair advice.
What inspired you to branch off into beauty?
It was all about the general passion and interest I had for hair. I love beauty in general, but hair is something else. I’ve always been the girl within a friend group who does everybody’s hair. The older I get, the more I actually realize the impact that ingredients have on your hair.
How did you decide that Djerf Avenue Beauty would be an offshoot of Djerf Avenue and not something that lived on its own?
It felt like a natural step to just try this and see what happens. The Djerf Avenue community that we’ve built is so special. I wanted this community to trust us within the beauty segment as well. There were logistical things [too]—we already have a warehouse and a website, so we can just expand, rather than hire a completely new team. We’ve always said that Djerf Avenue is more than just a clothing brand. We have homeware, loungewear, and clothing.
How involved were you in product development?
I am very grateful to work with really experienced chemists—I put a lot of trust into them. I’m doing this with Johanna Axén, who is head of beauty and has been leading this project. The shampoo, conditioner, and hair mask were actually the first products that we sampled and started working on. Ever since then, I’ve just been testing and testing, and it’s been really fun. With styling products, you can see immediate results. But with shampoo and conditioner, it’s so much about how the formula looks when it goes into your hand, how it foams up, rinses out, feels in and after the shower, and how it looks. There are so many different aspects that you have to take into consideration. We didn’t want to settle for anything less than the best.
Matilda Djerf
Where are the chemists and the labs located?
All of the products are made in Sweden. For us, that was a given. Producing locally is so important to us, and we have really great factories here in Sweden. They’re in the southern part, and they’re close—we can just take the car down [from Stockholm]. It’s been really special to do it in Sweden.
Why did you decide to launch styling products first?
We nailed down the formulation quicker. We looked at the product line, and it felt like a natural step for us to launch the styling products first anyway, because the two styling products were ones that we felt were missing in the market. A lot of people questioned it: Why not shampoo and conditioner first? But we knew that it was coming, and in all transparency, the hair care was delayed; it was supposed to launch earlier this year.
Do the hair care products have a fragrance?
It’s the same core scent that our styling products have. I’m really picky when it comes to scents. I never wear perfume, because I haven’t found a perfume that works for me. I always let my hair products or body lotions be my daily perfume. When we created the scent for our beauty products, I knew that I wanted something versatile—not too feminine, or masculine. I was very against creating a scent that was too soft, floral, or overwhelming. A lot of people say that it kind of smells like cardamom buns, which is fun, and it has sandalwood. I feel like it’s a pretty universal scent, and the response has been really, really great.
Why launch two different hair care lines at once?
We want to create products for everybody, and it’s more difficult when it comes to beauty, because it’s so specific to your hair type and what your hair needs. We said, “How can we make two product lines that work for as many people as possible?” We knew we wanted to create one line that was anti-frizz and detangling and gives moisture and softness. But in Scandinavia, a lot of people here have really fine hair, so we wanted to create a line that gives that breezy feeling, fullness, and more volume.
What does hair mean to you?
A lot of my confidence sits in my hair. I think it does for a lot of women. After summer, I always chop a lot of my hair off, because I’ve been in salt water several times a day during the season. I’m not good at protecting my hair with a scarf.
In the first couple of days after I’ve chopped it off, I’m not myself. I don’t feel like me. If I have a bad hair day, my general mood is low. Hair is a way for me to express myself, like clothing. If I have a really important meeting, I’ll do my hair one way. If I want to be more casual, there’s another way I do it. I’ve also tried a lot of different hair colors. That was fun. It’s been weird. I’ve had black, red, pink, and ombré hair.
Have you always had a positive relationship with your hair?
Yes and no. During my young pre-teen years, I had a good relationship with my hair. But during my teenage years, I absolutely hated my natural hair. My natural hair is really thick. Here in Scandinavia, a lot of people have beautiful, silky, shiny, smooth, and straight hair. I was always the one with big, fluffy hair, especially when it was humid outside. Growing up, I wanted to straighten it or put it up. I wasn’t happy or proud of my natural hair. But the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve learned to love it. I do style my hair a lot, but it makes my life easier, in all honesty.
What’s your best piece of hair advice?
Beauty comes from inside, so drinking a lot of water really is key. Something I do get a lot of questions about is how to get a good blowout. I realized something the other day—I was giving my friend a blowout, and she doesn’t have layers in her hair. If your hair doesn’t have layers, there’s no dimension. Layers in your hair make a big difference. It makes your hair look fuller and bouncier. But apart from that, heat protection always.
What’s your daily hair-care routine?
I wash my hair about one or two times per week. I do a hair mask once a week. I alternate between the Breezy Weightless series and the Essential Moisture series. Like yesterday, when I washed my hair, I used the Breezy Weightless series, because I knew that I was going to do a blowout, and I wanted it to feel light and breezy. But when I know there’s a lot of humidity outside, I always go for the Essential Moisture series, because my hair will need the hydration and smoothness.
When it comes to styling, I always use our Breezy Styling Mist before putting heat on my hair, because it has heat protection and gives volume. In between washes, I always do a little dry shampoo. Also, it’s weird, because I’ve had bangs for so many years, but I hate having hair in my face, so I’m always putting my hair up. When I do more of a sleek bun, I always put a hair mask in.
What’s your favorite hair styling tool?
Definitely the Dyson Airwrap. I love it—I genuinely do. The Large Round Volumizing Brush attachment makes a difference. I can blow dry my hair in 10 minutes instead of 20 minutes.
Dyson Airwrap
Dyson Large Round Volumizing Brush
What are your top makeup essentials right now?
The Clear Brow Gel from Anastasia Beverly Hills is my go-to. The eyelash curler from Tower 28. That one is such a game changer. I don’t know if eyelash curlers can be good or bad, but the Tower 28 one is epic. I always have the Charlotte Tilbury Iconic Nude lip pencil on me. Always in my bag.
I love the Rhode Pocket Blush, simply because I can use it without any makeup under. I’ve been loving Toasted Teddy for a bronze look—it’s the one that I use when I want to feel sun-kissed. Sleepy Girl is also really nice for a bronzed look. I’m a skin tint girl; I don’t like foundations. The Kylie Cosmetics skin tint that they just launched is really, really good. The brush is so good, too. I’ve also always used the Fenty Beauty Eaze Drop Blurring Skin Tint.
My next question was going to be: What’s your favorite fragrance? But you don’t wear fragrance.
The only fragrance that I really ever used is Glossier You. But other than that, I love the scent [of Djerf Avenue Beauty] so much that, sometimes, I’ll spray the styling mist and will run through it to get the scent on my clothes.
Maybe you need to launch a hair perfume?
I know. I’m so tempted to launch an actual perfume, just because I love the scent so much.
What else is next for Djerf Avenue Beauty?
I will leave makeup and skin care to other brands. I don’t see launching makeup or skin care in at least the next two years. But there are a lot of things that we have in the sampling process right now, [and] a lot of formulas that we already really love. We have a lot of really good things coming, and things that I myself use every day. That’s the difficult part—I’m already using everything, and I want to share it and have other people enjoy it, but I have to wait.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Carol Lee is the Associate Beauty E-Commerce Writer at ELLE.com, where she covers all things beauty and personal care. Before joining the team, she was an editor at Food Network Magazine and HGTV Magazine and ran the beauty section at The Pioneer Woman. Carol received her bachelor’s degree in Journalism from New York University and was one of the first customers to visit Glossier’s flagship store in New York’s Soho neighborhood. Over the years, she’s tested countless makeup, hair, and skin care products, and written hundreds of articles covering the beauty space, from pieces about the trendiest launches to roundups of the best products on the market. As a Korean-American, she grew up in a sea of Korean makeup and skin care products and is a bona fide expert on the ever-expanding world of K-beauty, helping lead our coverage. Additionally, she’s also always on the hunt for the perfect lipstick and watches the same few comfort sitcoms (Frasier, Cheers, Seinfeld, New Girl, etc.) over and over again.