Born and raised in London to a Vincentian (from the Caribbean island of St Vincent and Grenadines) mother and a Ghanaian father, for as long as I can remember, I have had a deep-rooted sense of the importance of having pride in my hair and skin. I have early memories of going to school with hair oil running down my neck and glistening from every inch of my body and being shined with lotion. Admittedly, I never really appreciated the lengths my mother would go to to source natural products we used. Now, a little older and much wiser, I think back fondly on the hours spent sitting on the floor between the knees, getting about another set of twists and braids with shea butter on my scalp. Like every self-exploring teenager, I tried every hairstyle, color, and trending skin fad until I found myself ironically back using the same unglamorous products my mum used on me.

It wasn’t until years later, when moving to Melbourne in 2023 I suddenly found myself lost with how to maintain my natural hair. I was stuck between feeling like there were no products for me in any of the mainstream stores and paying for overpriced, heavily manufactured imported products that felt like they were doing nothing for my hair. I began the journey of handcrafting my own hair care products. Being the DIY queen I am, the years of bathroom potions were finally being put to good use. Understanding that this surely couldn’t be a problem I was only facing, I bit the bullet and decided to launch Little Abena’s Atelier. Taking inspiration from my Ghaninan roots and what also happens to be my middle name, Abena (meaning girl born on Tuesday in Twi). So here we are, born of the love passed down from my family of black hair and skin, fuelled with a passion to share the loving goodness of the natural, real ingredients with everyone.