Sarah-Jane Crawford Is Bringing Clean Haircare to the Masses With Clean Curls

The former BBC Radio 1Xtra host built a self-funded curl care brand for curly and Afro hair that now sits on Superdrug and Ocado shelves

Sarah-Jane Crawford was 13 years old when she began chemically straightening her curls with box relaxers, and for years afterward she kept her natural texture hidden beneath extensions. Today she is the founder and CEO of Clean Curls, a haircare brand created for curly and Afro hair and built on a promise she once could not find on any shelf: clean formulas that truly perform, at a price everyday shoppers can afford.

British audiences have known Crawford as a broadcaster for close to two decades. She spent seven years at BBC Radio 1Xtra, where she rose to host the station’s weekday afternoon show, fronted ITV2’s The Xtra Factor, and has presented on Hits Radio. She now pairs that career with a self-funded beauty business sold through Superdrug and Ocado, two of the most recognizable names in British retail.

Curls Out, Labels Under the Microscope

The turning point came in 2020. With salons closed during lockdown and a pregnancy underway, Crawford committed to wearing her natural curls and went looking for the cleanest products she could find, according to the founder’s letter she shares on the Clean Curls website. By the time the world reopened, she had welcomed her second child and was shopping with a new level of scrutiny.

“After lockdown and everything opened back up, I had just had my second baby, and I was on a mission to shop for non-toxic products,” Crawford tells Bacon Magazine. “I discovered the Yuka app, and I set about scanning barcodes in the Trafford Centre.”

Yuka, a free app that rates food and personal care products based on an analysis of their ingredients, delivered results she did not expect. “To my surprise, there were some brands that I picked up that had always been marketed, in my mind, as pretty clean and natural, but when I scanned them, they scored poorly,” she recalls. “There must be so many other products that we know and love and use regularly that are the same.”

The Gap Between Clean, Effective, and Affordable

Every strong consumer brand starts with a problem the market has not solved, and Crawford found hers on those shelves. The curl products that worked often failed the scan, while the ones that passed came with a premium price or underwhelming results.

“The gap in the market that I identified was that there were effective and affordable products for curly and Afro hair that were toxic in formulation,” she explains, “and the clean products that did score highly on the Yuka app were either highly priced or not very effective.”

Her answer was to refuse the trade-off entirely. “My idea was to bring to market products that were affordable, effective, yet very clean,” Crawford says. “So bringing clean to the masses, without the hefty price tag.”

That promise shows up in the details. The Clean Curls lineup covers a complete wash day, from the Super Softening Shampoo and Super Slip Detangling Conditioner to the 2 -in -1 Leave In & Curl, the Super Shine & Define Curl Custard, a Multi-Use Vit E Oil, a Detangling Water & Curl Refresher, and the newest addition, a Super Rich Deep Conditioner. The brand describes its formulas as free from sulfates, parabens, SLS, and phenoxyethanol, as well as cruelty- free and vegan -friendly. On the company’s own site, individual products range from £6.99 to £14.99, a price architecture designed for the repeat purchase that keeps a haircare brand on the shelf.

Crawford also built Clean Curls as a family brand, with its shampoo marketed as suitable for all ages and hair types. The choice widens the customer base from one person to an entire household, and it reflects a founder who wanted products safe enough to use on her own daughters. The company captures the ethos in its tagline: “Because curls mean more than just hair, and clean is more than just washed.”

From Launch to National Shelves Without Outside Funding

Clean Curls launched into Superdrug in 2024, the year the retailer celebrated its 60th anniversary on the British high street, a milestone Crawford celebrated publicly. The line is also sold through online grocer Ocado, which places clean curl care in the same basket as the weekly shop. Crawford reached both retailers without outside investment.

For a self-funded founder, that distribution is a significant commercial achievement. It puts her products in front of shoppers who may never have searched for clean curl care on their own, and it proves that a brand built for curly and Afro hair can compete for space in mainstream beauty aisles at an accessible price.

When the Headphones Come Off

Crawford continues to broadcast while running the business, and she is candid about how different the two roles feel from the inside.

“The biggest lesson and the steepest learning curve has probably been that the buck stops with me,” she says. “As much as I love being a broadcaster and presenting and hosting and delivering creativity for huge networks and other organisations, ultimately you can take the headphones off and the work belongs to someone else.”

Broadcasting, as she describes it, trades a measure of creative control for reach and structure. “There is a framework, there is a remit, and whilst that doesn’t always afford you every bit of creative freedom that you may want in that moment, the beauty of it is that it travels far and wide and somebody else is dealing with the compliance.”

Ownership places every one of those responsibilities in her hands. “When you become a founder, everything from the creativity, the branding, compliance, the logistics from end to end, it is all your responsibility, which is super exciting but very overwhelming at times,” Crawford says. “But you learn to take the rough with the smooth.”

Every Chapter Is a Business Plan

Alongside Clean Curls and her broadcast work, Crawford hosts Hormones & Heroines, a podcast featuring women who navigate serious health challenges while leading demanding, high-achieving lives. Guests have included Grammy-winning rapper and actress Eve, a conversation Crawford says has helped the show build a large online audience in the United States, as well as RIXO co-founder Henrietta Rix.

“For us women, we wear so many hats, we go through so many phases in our lives, particularly hormonally,” she says. “I would say just lean into whatever chapter you are in rather than seeing it as a hurdle. Work with it and then it can work for you.”

Clean Curls, in her telling, could only have come from the season of life that produced it. “The chapter that I was in was transitioning away from straightening my hair, living sober, leaning into becoming a mum, all whilst juggling broadcasting and navigating perimenopause,” Crawford says. “I couldn’t have created Clean Curls back in my 20s. I hadn’t been through the experiences that led me here.”

It is a perspective that reframes experience as capital, the kind no investor can hand over and no competitor can copy. The woman who once hid her curls under extensions now sells the products that help others wear theirs with confidence, and her final word to aspiring founders carries the conviction of someone who has done it herself.

“It’s important to embrace the stage that you are at now and really think about ways that your life could be improved, and what it is that you’re not seeing out there in the world, and go and create it,” she says. “And if it does exist, but you want to put your spin on it, go and brand it.”