Together, the campaigns position the shower as a space for reflection, intimacy, and ritual. “Our brand is our focal point and our competitive advantage,” Babenzien says. Now, he wants to ride that to take over the rest of your water supply.
Turning the beauty routine on its head
Jolie, named after Babenzien’s wife and the French word for “pretty”, launched in 2022. Before Jolie could build a brand, it had to make the case for the category itself. “I had conviction. I didn’t have certainty, and there’s a difference.”
From the start, Babenzien identified two challenges: educating consumers on why they should filter their shower water and convincing them they could install the product themselves.
To address the first, Jolie licensed publicly available water-quality data and created a free local water report. Users enter their email address and zip code to receive a breakdown of what is in their water, giving the brand a way to explain the potential impact on skin and hair in seconds.
Jolie calls it “step zero”: filtering shower water to reduce chlorine and other contaminants before applying shampoo, conditioner, or skincare. “Beauty and wellness go hand in hand. It’s not one thing; it’s a sequence of things,” Babenzien explains. “It’s what you eat, where you train, what you put in your body, what you put on your body and how you sleep.”
Hair concerns are the biggest initial purchase driver for Jolie, Babenzien says. While hair shedding and thinning can be linked to stress, hormonal changes and postpartum hair loss, the growing use of GLP-1 medications, which have been associated with hair shedding during rapid weight loss, has brought renewed attention to hair health.
Jolie points to clinical testing of its showerhead, reporting that 81% of study participants experienced reduced hair shedding. Skin concerns, including dryness and irritation, are another part of the brand’s appeal. Jolie says clinical testing showed a 50% improvement in skin dryness after four weeks.
