It all started with a seed, Chébé, to be exact.
We’re so excited to introduce you to our CEO, Salwa Petersen. You may already know a bit about her inspiring journey and what led her to create Chéribé, but today, we’re sharing the full story—told in her own words—in this behind-the-scenes Q&A article.
A New Era
What’s in our name? Love, care and ancestral wisdom. The rebrand from Salwa Petersen to Chéribé wasn’t just a quick decision - it was 7 years in the making! The name was chosen as a bridge between Salwa’s heritage and the legacy of the Chébé ritual.
Q: How did you come up with the name Chéribé?
Salwa’s Answer: I wanted a name that was meaningful and, of course, beautiful. Our new name is an homage to ma chérie (my beloved) great-grandmother Chéréye & her potent heirloom Chébé seeds, putting our hero ingredient into the spotlight as we move into a new era for the brand.
Salwa's experience with Chébé isn’t new, it goes all the way back to her childhood. She grew up in Chad, where she was taught the Chébé ritual and saw first-hand how it created generations of women with long, beautiful hair.
By the way, our heirloom Chébé seeds come straight from Salwa’s family farm in Chad. In fact, our heirloom Chébé is up to 100x more potent than other commonly found Chébé.
Rooted in Ritual. Made Modern by Science.
After graduating from Harvard Law and working in product development at L’Oréal, Salwa realized that even the most advanced formulas in the world couldn’t compare to the power of the seeds she had known her whole life. So what did she do? She went ahead and developed her own line of hair care products with Chébé, but in a different way.
Q: What inspired you to build a modern ritual around Chébé?
Salwa’s Answer: Access to the most advanced haircare in the world helped me realize how truly special Chébé seeds were. It was the inspiration for me to take up the unprecedented challenge of enhancing our ancestral ritual with the best of modern hair science, and make it accessible to a new generation.
Salwa worked with the best labs in Paris to develop what we now call the Chébé Complex™. It takes the wisdom of the past and pairs it with cutting-edge hair science, making it possible for the heart of the Chébé ritual to fit into your daily life. And we say this with love and experience: it’s the best thing you can do for your hair!
Designed to repair bonds, deeply nourish, and keep your hair in a consistently protected state. Whether you braid it, flat iron it, blow dry it, or wash and go, your strands will stay healthy - giving you softer, stronger longer hair in return.
Q: How do you carry the spirit of the Chébé ritual into your everyday life now with Chéribé?
Salwa’s Answer: Today the Chébé ritual looks and feels very different, but it still maintains that love and closeness of previous generations. Instead of weekends spent toasting seeds over the fire and preparing ingredients by hand, I'm often at swim classes with my daughter, helping her wash and detangle her hair with our hydrating shampoo and our leave-in conditioner. Like the origins of the ritual, our products are developed with input from many generations of women in the family and beyond.
Behind the Chébé Complex™
In a whole new way, Salwa is passing down this ritual to her daughter - and to future generations - all while making a positive impact on the world. Preserving the tradition of Chébé means more than honoring the past, through Chéribé we’re building a sustainable future rooted in care for both people and the planet.
Today, Salwa's family land in Chad has been transformed into an organic regenerative farm, nurturing her great-grandmother’s one-of-a-kind, potent heirloom Chébé seeds. Every step of the process is carefully overseen in-house to ensure that the powerful, hair-fortifying nutrients of the seeds are preserved in our patented Chébé Complex™. We proudly pay European Union-equivalent salaries to our Chadian employees, which is more than three times the local average.
Our give back? 1% of every purchase goes directly to supporting the Zakouma National Park and the Ennedi Plateau, home to ancient cave paintings depicting the Chébé rituals, the mascotte soleil, which is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Q: How does Chéribé make an impact beyond beauty?
Salwa’s Answer: We’re not just building products, we’re building something bigger. We’re creating opportunities for women in Chad and making sure the land that gave us Chébé continues to thrive for generations.
Whether you’ve just started using Chéribé for the first time or have loved us since the beginning, we thank you for being part of our story.
Be Part of the Chéribé Story
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