The Affrenchys
These are the women who decided to keep their hair the way it grows. The ones still hesitating. The ones halfway through, with ten centimetres of roots and a great many questions.
If you recognise yourself anywhere in there, you are already one of us.
"My first white hairs
came at 28"
Twenty‑eight. I was a young doctor, and I saw them arrive well before my friends did. So I did what everyone around me did: I coloured. And I started again the moment the roots reappeared. For ten years.
Ten years of watching the calendar. Ten years of putting off an evening out because the roots showed too much. And above all, ten years during which I knew, as a dermatologist, exactly what each colouring cost my hair. I was methodically weakening my fibre to hide something that grew naturally.
One day, I stopped. Quite simply: I let it grow.
Two years
That is how long it took me. Two years of wearing two colours at once, of learning to look at myself differently, of hearing things.
Patients told me I had aged ten years. Another said she would barely have recognised me. Other remarks of the same kind, from women who sincerely believed they were helping.
I understand them. They were repeating what they had been taught, and what all of us have been taught: that a white root signals someone letting herself go. That is exactly what I want to help undo.
What kept me going
My daughter told me she wanted to be like me. That she wanted to be authentic, as I was. At that moment I understood I was passing on something far larger than a hair colour.
And then there was something simpler. I began to love what I saw. My hair is beautiful this way. It catches the light in a way colouring used to erase. And for the first time in ten years, I felt I was caring for it rather than harming it.
What counts is how you feel. Long before the way others look at you.
What made me anxious
I knew, professionally, that my new fibre called for suitable care. A depigmented fibre has lost the protection pigment gave it: it becomes more porous, more sensitive to light, quicker to take on warm reflections.
So I searched. I tried everything, genuinely everything, and here is what I found.
- Purple treatments that stain your hands, stain the scalp, and leave the hair over‑pigmented with frankly violet reflections.
- Treatments announced for grey and white hair that dry the fibre instead of feeding it, and leave it dull.
- Treatments designed for bleached blondes, offered to us for want of anything better, formulated for an entirely different fibre.
Eventually I accepted the obvious: what I was looking for was still to be made. So I am making it. We begin with the mask, the one I needed during those two years. The rest will follow.
Every stage has its questions
The transition takes between eighteen months and three years depending on your length. Tell us where you are, and we will take you to what serves you now.
Where are you today?
You are entitled to take your time
Many women stay at this stage for years, and that is perfectly normal. What helps most here is understanding what is genuinely happening in your fibre. Fear recedes as knowledge grows.
Maritza hesitated for ten years. She coloured every month throughout, knowing exactly what it cost her hair. Her account above tells that moment precisely.
The first six months
This is the period of checking your roots every morning. Good news: your fibre is already repairing itself from what the colouring was doing to it. What you can do right now plays out mainly on the terrain, meaning your scalp, and on what you eat.
One tip from Maritza: talk about your transition with your hairdresser at the very first cut. A cut designed to carry two colours changes the whole crossing.
The stage where you hold on
Two colours, a visible line, and the remarks that arrive. Statistically this is the moment most women go back to colouring. It is also the moment your community serves you most.
Practically speaking, your lengths and ends remain coloured, and therefore weakened, while your silver roots already ask for different care. Two fibres, two sets of needs, on the same head.
Welcome to the other side
Your hair is entirely your own. What remains is caring for it, and that is another science: light, hard water, heat and hormones work continuously on a fibre that has left behind its pigment protection.
This stage is exactly what Maritza is formulating The Ritual for. And this is also where your story becomes precious to the women still at stage one.
The Affrenchy wall
These women are patients at Maritza's practice in Medellín. They have known her work for years, and this is what they wrote to us.
As a patient of Dr Maritza in Medellín, I already use her dermatological line and my hair owes everything to her. When she announced this new project developed in France, I joined the waiting list that very minute! It is the perfect union of a trichologist's science and French cosmetic excellence. I am so eager!
At last, a hair brand imagined by a genuine dermatologist and trichologist! As a patient, I know how demanding Dr Maritza is about formula safety. The fact that this treatment is made in France is an enormous mark of quality. Bravo to Maritza and Juliana for this magnificent brand, I am counting the days until launch!
Finding a hair brand that genuinely understands scalp health and the diversity of hair textures is so rare. I already admired Dr Maritza Flórez's work in consultation, and this adventure created with her daughter Juliana is a wonder. I am on the waiting list to be among the very first to try it!
As a patient, I place absolute trust in Dr Maritza for my hair care. Knowing she is launching this long-awaited formula, produced in France with Juliana, makes it the beauty event of the year. Thank you for thinking of us and for creating a brand made to measure for our hair!
Your voice belongs here. Tell us your stage, your decision, what people said to you, and what you answer now. Post with #Affrenchy and tag us: we share it, and other women answer you.
Send my storyYou are living it,
we are living it with you
Maritza walked this path. She knows the six months of doubt, the question of the haircut, the remark that goes too far, and the morning you finally find yourself beautiful. She shares all of it with you, with a great deal of affection.
Ask your questions
Every Monday, Maritza answers the questions left in the comments during the week. Your question about your roots, your lengths, your reflections, your scalp: she will answer it, and call you by your first name.
Tell your transition
Your before, your during, your after. The moment you decided. What people said. Post it with the hashtag #Affrenchy and tag us: we share it, and other women answer you.
Become someone's mirror
Somewhere, a woman has been hesitating for months. Your story will be worth every argument in the world. That is exactly how this movement grows.
Hear it before
anyone else
Maritza's mask is being formulated right now, in a French laboratory. Leave your first name: you will know before the others, and in the meantime you will receive the most useful of what we learn.