How Queensland’s Auriche is fixing real hair care problems for fake tan users

Faced with the impossible choice between golden hair or golden skin, Brisbane-based corporate lawyer and skin cancer survivor Lana Kelly decided to create the world’s first haircare range for fake tan users with real hair problems.

After four years of research and testing in order to offer the ultimate hair care regime for self-tanners, Kelly officially launched Auriche on December 1.

The Auriche product range, which is scientifically formulated, cruelty-free, Australian-made and comes in recycled plastic packaging, uses native botanicals and advanced technology to protect, cleanse, nourish, restore and repair fake tanners’ hair.

When Kelly, who has a personal and family history of skin cancer, found herself working from home during the COVID pandemic she decided it was the perfect time to test whether there were any commercially available products out there that could protect hair from fake tan.

After nothing worked on a collection of trimmings from her local hairdresser, Kelly brought in some chemists to create world-first formulas and over the next few years they refined the Auriche formulas and conducted clinical tests and trials.

This included an experiment in conjunction with the University of NSW, which showed that fake tan could be as damaging to hair as bleach. 

Kelly said Auriche had received an amazing reaction from the community since its launch.

“There’s been lots of people in the tanning industry who say that they’re super excited that there’s this innovation because they’ve known about the problem for a really long time,” she said. 

“We’ve had lots of interest and lots of people approaching us to stock it and whatnot.

“We have registered trademarks in Australia, but also in the US and Europe. 

“Because the biggest tanners per capita in the world are in Ireland and next after that is probably Canada. 

“So really big markets for us overseas. The plan is to see how we go in Australia and then scale internationally from there.”

Kelly said she created the protective products after a decade of regular fake tanning, when she noticed persistent discolouration around her blonde hairline and realised that weekly spray tans were the culprit. 

“Forced to choose between my hair and my skin was an impossible decision so I decided to find a solution that meant I wouldn’t have to sacrifice one for the other,” Kelly said.

“With some 17,000 Australians expected to be diagnosed with melanoma this year – that’s a diagnosis every 30 minutes – the only safe tan is fake tan. 

“Auriche allows Australians to enjoy a healthy glow year-round without ever having to worry about the impact of regular fake tanning or the dangers of the sun.”

According to Auriche’s research, under a specialist microscope, researchers examined virgin hair after a single exposure to fake tan and discovered the hair follicle was cracked, brittle and had sharp, shredded ends. 

However, strands exposed to fake tan that had been protected with Auriche appeared smooth and healthy with no discernible cracks.

Kelly said in the lead-up to the launch she was interested in getting a bit of a community around the problems. 

“So the way we’ve done that is mostly organically through social media,” she said. 

“There’s some videos and TikToks I posted about the scientific research that we did that got half a million views and got a lot of interest, but particularly because people don’t realise what the problem is.

“They might have the problem, but they don’t put two and two together as to the cause. 

“We put a lot of focus on educating around the problem to start with and really just building up those relationships in the community, so with leaders in tanning in particular and some important people in here as well because we really need their help with the education piece.”