How the Desert Inspired Amber Fillerup Clark’s Dae Hair Brand

Can you tell us about yourself and your background?

My name is Amber Fillerup Clark. My husband and I are raising our three children in Arizona. We are both free spirits and love to travel with our kiddos. Together, my husband and I run my blog Barefoot Blonde, our hair extension company BFB Hair and our hair-care line Dae Hair. When I was in hair school ten years ago, I started posting selfies and tutorials of hairstyles I would do, which is how I ended up growing my following over the past decade. I have always loved hair so much and have had such a passion for it, so our businesses happened really naturally and just felt right. 

What inspired you to launch Dae Hair?

My husband and I have talked about launching a hair-care line since 2013, and we knew we would but just wanted to wait until the time was right. When we moved from New York City to Arizona we both felt very inspired by the beauty of the desert. I had always taken it for granted growing up here, and I just fell in love with it — the simplicity, the colors, the sunsets, the citrus and so much more. We wanted to take all of these beautiful aspects of the desert and let other people experience that warmth through our hair-care line. We wanted our line to play a role in everyone's daily routine, so we came up with Dae which stands for dawn, afternoon, evening. 

What is desert-inspired hair care?

Our line is simple. We always want to have a straightforward offering of simple and effective products. We incorporated the desert theme in all aspects of the product. The scent is inspired by all of the citrus we have here in Arizona, like fresh squeezed orange juice and orange blossoms, which are two of my favorite things in life. I wanted to give people those same scents we experience. We used desert botanicals to create a clean and nourishing formula that would leave the hair feeling healthy and looking amazing. The colors of the labels were inspired by all of the colors you see in the desert when watching an Arizona sunset. 

Tell us about your products and the ingredients used?

We launched with our Daily Shampoo, Daily Conditioner and Deep Conditioning Treatment. It was important to us that our products were clean, so all of our products are vegan and formulated without sulfates, phthalates or parabens. We included desert botanicals like false daisy extract, moringa leaf, aloe leaf, hibiscus flower, jojoba seed and more. 

Later this month, we’re launching our Prickly Pear Hair Oil, which of course has prickly pear extract in it. There are so many incredible benefits that come from the prickly pear. It is packed with vitamin E and is extremely high in essential fatty acids omega-6 and omega-9. I have fallen in love with the prickly pear fruit over the years, and we love to make prickly pear jams at home. I am so excited for more people to experience it. 

What’s been the biggest pinch-me-moment for you in your career thus far? 

Definitely seeing Dae in Sephora stores! It was the most amazing feeling.

What’s your daily beauty routine?

I love to get a good sweat in the morning, which always helps clear my skin. I follow with a citrus shower using Dae (of course!), and I do my skin care and makeup while my hair air dries a bit. My kids are always hanging out in the bathroom with me while I get ready, and we are usually listening to music and chatting. When my makeup is done, I will put on our Prickly Pear Hair Oil from mid-lengths to ends and then blow dry. I then style it in something simple like a braid or just leave it down.

What’s next for Dae?

We now have four products in our line, so we are working on a fun holiday kit that will have variations of all four products and will be available this year. We have several launches next year that I am so excited about. We are almost done with our refill station here in Arizona that will be available for local customers. They will be able to bring their bottles and refill them. We also have a really cool recycling program we will be starting soon to go along with this. 

Beauty is...

Knowing who you are and what is truly important to you — and reminding yourself of that over and over and over again.