Ceremonia Wants Your Haircare Routine to Be a Spa-Like Experience

It’s a picture-perfect day in Los Cabos, Mexico. The sky’s the perfect shade of blue, a soft breeze is coming off the ocean, and not a single cloud threatens to block the sun. I’m sitting at a poolside table across from Babba Rivera, founder of haircare brand Ceremonia. While it is not the typical setting for a beauty interview, our location is very intentional. Rivera chose Las Ventanas Al Paraiso, a Rosewood resort, to be the home of her brand’s very first spa collaboration. To celebrate this milestone, she has invited Byrdie to explore all that this beautiful property has to offer.

Tucked away at the tip of the Baja peninsula, the five-star resort is home to several restaurants, oceanfront villas, and one of the most beautiful spas I’ve ever seen. “Mexico is my go-to spot when I want to get my cultural fix because Chile is such a trek,” she shares. “Rosewood hotels have impeccable spa experiences, but I also wanted to bring this experience to a Latin American destination.”

Rivera launched her brand in 2020 with just one product, the Aceite de Moska Hair Oil. “I used to bring my hair oil to every spa and give my massage therapist a crash course on scalp care,” she explains. Now, during the next several weeks, guests of Las Ventanas can add a complimentary scalp massage with the Ceremonia oil to any spa treatment. 

However, spa culture was engrained in Ceremonia long before this collaboration came to fruition. Ever since the brand’s inception, Rivera has set out to create haircare products that bring a spa-like experience into her customers’ homes. Over breakfast, Rivera walks me through the evolution of Ceremonia, the latest product innovations, and her definition of hair wellness. 

How the Brand Started

Growing up, beauty—specifically anything about hair—was a family affair for Rivera. “My father was a hairdresser back in Chile,” Rivera says. “When he immigrated to Sweden, he could never get a job in the field due to the language barrier. Instead, he practiced on anyone who would let him, and I was an easy target. We had a hairdresser chair in our apartment. I would come down in the morning, and he would spend hours braiding my hair using little oil tinctures he had from his grandma’s backyard. I grew up thinking every kid had this relationship with their dad.”

Similarly, Rivera’s mother, who she refers to as an unapologetic self-care queen, taught her to prioritize taking a moment for herself through beauty from a young age. “I attribute my self-care approach to my mother because she modeled that self-care is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. In my household, washing your hair was a ritual. It was something to look forward to, and it was done as a social activity. I had a beautiful relationship with beauty at home, but then I became a teenager.”

Like many of us, Rivera became influenced by outside standards once she reached her teens. “I was desperately trying to fit in by reading beauty magazines and looking for a solution to be considered beautiful,” she explains. “In Sweden, most people did not look like me. So, the beauty standards that I grew up with were blonde, straight hair. I spent over a decade frantically damaging my hair. I thought I wasn’t professional or put together enough if I wore my natural hair. It got to the point where I had to chop all my hair off from how damaged it was.”

Rivera tells me reaching this breaking point planted the first seed for Ceremonia. “I wanted to get the best version of my natural hair back,” she says. “It became a beautiful journey for me to reconnect with my heritage. For the longest time, I had been running away from my culture. The journey of building Ceremonia was the first step in really reconnecting with my heritage. And through that, I got the download from my family members about all these natural ingredients.”

Defining “Hair Wellness”

Throughout our conversation, there was one phrase that Rivera kept repeating—”hair wellness.” You might assume it simply means taking an elevated approach to caring for your hair. But I learned that it is a two-pronged mantra. “It’s wellness for your body and the planet,” she explains. “Ingredient transparency is at the core of everything we do. We treat our formulas the same way you would treat food. If you want to know what you’re putting in your body, you should know what you’re putting on your body as well.” 

The second part refers to your relationship with yourself. For Ceremonia, that all starts by creating sensorial products that mimic a spa-like experience. “As a mom of four, I don’t have time to get treatments like I used to,” Rivera says. “So, for me, if it’s going to happen, it has to be simple. It’s about upgrading my products and turning them into impactful and joyful experiences.”

Below, discover the best-selling Ceremonia products, from the original hair oil to a luxurious scalp scrub.