- Jade Oliver, known as Afrolecia, transitioned from chemically treated hair to embracing her natural curls, documenting her journey on YouTube and later gaining TikTok fame.
- Her success on TikTok led to her winning the Africa Rising Creator of the Year award, prompting her to launch her own hair product line.
- With a large following and international recognition, Afrolecia’s entrepreneurial venture marks a shift from content creation to business ownership.
One could say it’s been a ‘‘hair-raising’’ journey with many a twist and plenty of curls that took her from tutorials on YouTube to award-winning TikTok creator to entrepreneur.
Or was it just a “natural” progression for Jade Oliver (28) or Afrolecia as she’s known on social media?
The young mother from Kuils River says it all started with a need to understand her hair.
In one of her earlier YouTube videos, she talks about transitioning from chemically damaged hair to natural hair.
“For two years I never got a haircut, but my hair stayed short. It was literally breaking off.”
After five months of not straightening her hair, the big chop to cut the damaged hair made her feel bold due to the unexpected shrinkage of her natural hair. “It was horrible. I didn’t expect it would be so short.”
She wore a wig when going to the shops. Then it was braids for months which made her hair thin out. About a year into the process she started experimenting with homemade natural treatments, getting tips from others in the natural hair community on YouTube.
“I started to get to know my hair, mixing things from the kitchen. I tried lots of products.”
Many women could relate in different ways to Jade’s experiences.
Award
Seeing the success of others on TikTok Jade decided to give it a go. Afrolecia debuted on TikTok in 2021.
“I try to be super consistent, and it paid off.”
At the 2023 TikTok Top Creator Awards in Johannesburg in February, she walked away with the trophy (and a vlogging camera) as Africa Rising Creator of the Year.
More than 18,5 million likes later, Afrolecia now has around 490 000 followers.
Her most-watched video has more than 20 million views.
“In general, the views on my whole TikTok account are between five and 10 million per week.”
Most of her followers are American. “Whenever I post with my location, someone will comment: ‘Oh, you’re from South Africa’. It’s quite weird, I don’t know how that happened,” she says, “but the majority is from the US and second most South African.”
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Content creation is Jade’s full-time job. She studied for a diploma in mechanical engineering but realised during in-service training it was not for her.
“I worked at a call centre while I started on TikTok – just month to month. Then I got married and my husband said I should do it full-time.
“I run socials for another company one day a week but otherwise I’m busy full-time creating content.”
Jade says she can’t make money directly from TikTok as South Africans don’t have access to the app’s creator fund making payouts based on views.
She earns an income by giving brands exposure.
“Companies will send me products to review for them. I have a rate card for this.
“It is also the main reason I am starting a product line because it will make things more consistent,” she says.
Launch
Her range of Afrolecia hair products will be launched on Thursday 20 June with a media event. “It will go on sale online on Thursday.”
Jade has been busy creating the products over the past 18 months.
“I have been working with a local lab. I gave them all the specifications and we took it from there.”
It was important for her to get everything, from ingredients to the packaging, done locally even if it would cost more or took longer.
“Being 100% natural and made in South Africa was a big deal.”
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The products infused with tea tree and peppermint oil were designed for natural hair but are suitable for all hair types.
She could not imagine she would go from creating content to her own hair product line but says support and demand from her audience fuelled the idea.
“I’m getting old for TikTok so I’m moving over to the entrepreneurial side,” she says with a laugh.
