This Startup Is Working To Transform The Daily Shower: More Eco-Friendly And More Relaxing

Leah Stigle moved every year in her 20s from apartment to apartment. It was an experience that taught her to cherish the simple things, like a good hot shower.

As an entrepreneur who was looking to build eco-minded businesses from the ground up, Stigle was an early employee at TOMS shoes, and then, at a fashion brand experimenting with on-demand manufacturing. Now, she’s tackling a different problem: how to have the ultimate shower that’s not wasteful but also relaxing.

Partnering with Leonard Brody who developed Caravan, an offshoot of CAA, Stigle is the co-founder of hai, a smart shower company that offers data, water conservation, and hydrotherapy. Aside from just tracking your water usage, hai sells infusions — vegan, clean, cruelty-free tablets that can transform a shower into a spa.

“As a mom now of two little kids, that time in the shower is a time for me to reset, and relax. Plus we spend around 90,000 minutes of our lives in the shower, that’s too much time to just settle for a mediocre experience that wastes water,” says Stigle.

The infusions come in three varieties: energy boost (with a multivitamin and caffeine); relax (with lavender and B12); and repair (with eucalyptus and Vitamin D3). Stigle says she’s a big fan of repair, particularly post-workouts.

Each infusion is packed in compostable packaging: the paper itself can be thrown in your shower drain, Stigle says, or if you prefer, the dust bin. There is no plastic in the packaging, even that for the shower head itself. Rather it’s all made with recycled materials that can then be recycled themselves. “This was very important to me,” she notes.

The infusions are not simply for their scents, but have vitamins in them that, Brody, a self-confessed “shower nerd,” says can be better absorbed in the shower when your pores are open. Plus, they improve the overall experience of the shower, helping break down some of that hard water. hai Infusions, he adds, are actually formulated to not only provide your skin and hair with vitamin-enriching health benefits, but also help to maintain the overall cleanliness and health of your shower and water.

Each of the tablets contain sodium bicarbonate and citric acid; alongside their benefits to the skin (such as cell regeneration and exfoliation), these ingredients act as natural cleaning agents for the shower itself, effectively dissolving dirt and grease in your water, he says. Additionally, both ingredients help to remove excess soap scum, calcium deposits, and softens hard water, which is an effect you can feel on your skin. (Note, the infusions are available to purchase in January 2023.)

And over time, you’re likely to see the benefits of these added vitamins, he adds.

hai, which is short for “hiatus” (though the founders do acknowledge that the spelling is different) has another added bonus: an app that tracks your water usage, which in a drought state like California can be a helpful tool to ensure that you’re not going overboard. Plus, a LED light in the shower head will alert you mid-shower, if you have exceeded your “recommended” water usage for the day, encouraging you to wrap it up.

It’s a clever tool, Stigle says. “By empowering people with the tools to change their water habits, we are creating a movement to better understand our environmental impact like never before. Our aim is to meld personal care and sustainability with groundbreaking technology.”

The shower heads are currently available to purchase in retail stores such as Bed Bath & Beyond, but also on their website, with the infusions debuting next month.

Brody points out that impact has been at the core of the company since the beginning. Not only is the shower head designed to monitor the water used, it’s also made of stainless steel, as opposed to chrome plated plastic, which he says, “is terrible for the environment.” In fact, there have been concerned about the effect of chrome plated plastics in manufacturing for years; yet companies turn to it, because it’s a cheaper option.

But Stigle and Brody are not afraid to push manufacturers to drive their innovation. “This is not my first rodeo of going to a manufacturer and asking them to do something different,” Stigle says.

Last year, hai raised $6 million to build out this company from Will Smith’s Dreamers VC, A-Rod Corp, The Najafi Companies (owners of the Phoenix Suns and McLaren F1), Amity Supply (Jesse Derris), social media stars Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson and Noah Beck’s Animal Capital (Marshall Sandman), former board member and early investor in Peloton, Howard Draft & Local Globe.

“Showers are a massive category representing one of the most important self care rituals in the home. We felt we could build the hero product of the space by catering to customer’s needs to uplevel their current experience while honoring their commitment to the planet,” says Brody.