Fog in the mountains
Many people at Creaholic spend their free time in the mountains. They know how fast mountain fog makes you wet. So they asked one question. Can a shower work like fog and use less water?
Fog needs very small drops. The team used a method known from combustion engines. It is called impinging jets. Two jets of water hit each other at high speed. The water breaks into fine droplets. The shape of the nozzle and the speed of the water set the size of the drops. This is how Creaholic describes its own work.
A basement and a goal
The team built a full-size shower prototype in a basement. It tested water use, power use, skin feel and sound. In parallel it ran experiments on droplet size, to check for health risks.
Then the team set a goal for this first prototype: a good shower with 2 litres of water per minute. Creaholic says this is about 3 times less than the best eco-showers of that time. It is about 10 times less than a standard Swiss shower system. This is a goal for the prototype. It is not a salon result.
The first market said no
Creaholic teamed up with a development partner from the home sanitation field. Then the team talked with possible customers. Installation was a bigger hurdle than expected. The project did not gain the traction it needed.
The team went back to the drawing board. It saw that the technology still had a chance in B2B markets.
The turn came from a side effect. The same jets could mix soap into the water stream. Creaholic says this cuts water and shampoo, without hurting results. That started the talks with L’Oréal.
What the buyer was buying
In January 2024, L’Oréal said it had signed an agreement to buy the remaining shares of Gjosa. Its release names the product: the L’Oréal Professionnel Water Saver, a showerhead for hair salons.
L’Oréal says the showerhead cuts water use by up to 69% at the backbar, the hairdresser’s wash station. This is L’Oréal’s figure for the salon product. L’Oréal also says that since 2023 more than 10,000 salons in Europe and the Middle East use it. It reports more than 182 million litres saved. L’Oréal compares this to 72 Olympic swimming pools. Its plan is more than 200,000 salons worldwide in the coming years. A plan is not a result.
Amin Abdulla, who co-founded Gjosa, said in the release: “L’Oréal has been our most important partner.”
Three dates
2021. L’Oréal announced a minority investment in Gjosa through its BOLD venture fund. TIME named the L’Oréal Water Saver one of the 100 best inventions of 2021.
2023. L’Oréal says the rollout to salons started.
January 2024. L’Oréal announced it would acquire all of Gjosa.
Gjosa is one of the companies that started at Creaholic. We do not only invent for clients. We also turn our own work into companies.
Your next market may be a different one
Does your technology work in one market and fail in another? That is where Gjosa started. Tell us what you have.
