{"id":205310,"date":"2024-10-21T14:59:30","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T00:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=205310"},"modified":"2024-10-21T14:59:30","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T00:59:30","slug":"uh-alumni-sarah-cloes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/10\/21\/uh-alumni-sarah-cloes\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr>UH<\/abbr> Alumni: Sarah Cloes, Flora Flora Co founder"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_10291\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eFG6k6zUfns?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Alumni Around The World: Sarah Cloes\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>Meet Sarah Cloes, founder of sustainable hair care brand <a href=\"https:\/\/florafloraco.com\/?srsltid=AfmBOorZckp2SURf6WUIioclsQ50_1Yxz22GvPTn-9cY0-c5xPkgDG17\">Flora Flora Co<\/a>, which is sold in Whole Food stores nationwide, and even in select international countries. The company creates plastic-free hair care products with natural ingredients.<\/p>\n<p>Originally from Washington State, Cloes, who earned a degree in psychology from the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa in 2018, said creating a low-waste brand wasn\u2019t always the plan.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_205316\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-205316\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/uh-foundation-alumni-cloes-sarah.jpg\" alt=\"U H grad holding degree\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-full wp-image-205316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/uh-foundation-alumni-cloes-sarah.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/uh-foundation-alumni-cloes-sarah-130x130.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-205316\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarah Cloes at 2018 <abbr>UH<\/abbr> graduation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;During my time at <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr>, I really got to see the true impact face-to-face of the plastic crisis with microplastics littering the beautiful beaches,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I really think the biggest thing I took was Hawaiian culture in general, like the respect of the land and connection to the earth, and using natural resources.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>This sparked Cloes to go on a journey to find a sustainable hair care option, but she soon discovered there was nothing on the market comparable to salon quality products. That\u2019s when she decided to create her own.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I felt like in order to make a bigger impact on the plastic crisis, we needed something that people would actually want to reach for,&rdquo; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Cloes spent the next few years learning about hair care, creating test products on her stove, and figuring out what would get people to switch to a sustainable product. She started selling products on a table on the sidewalk in her neighborhood in San Diego, then started selling at a farmers market, and then Flora Flora Co &ldquo;blew up.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>She said, &ldquo;I\u2019m just so grateful for my time at <abbr>UH<\/abbr>. It was so impactful to my life.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/uhalumni.org\/news\/profiles\">Learn more about other outstanding <abbr>UH<\/abbr> alumni.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Time at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> inspired the entrepreneur to develop a sustainable hair care option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[90,301,637,271,319,9],"class_list":["post-205310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-psychology","tag-uh-alumni-association","tag-uh-foundation","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205310"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205321,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205310\/revisions\/205321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}