Southern Charm: These Reality TV Sisters Are Taking The Drama Out Of Natural Hair Care

Sisters Ione Rucker Jamison and Dr. Ellen Rucker Sellers first gained national attention as reality tv stars on WE tv’s 2015 Love Thy Sister. Now they are bringing their love for natural hair care to the world with their Rucker Roots hair care line.

Ellen and Ione have been into hair care since they were young girls — getting their hair done every week by their mother who made concoctions with ingredients pulled straight from their South Carolina farm. But, their inspiration to launch their own line came from their daughters (who are the same age) who reignited their passion for hair.

Ione said they wanted to be able to style their daughters’ natural hair in the same loving way their mother did for them, while still giving them the versatility to rock straight styles. That meant leaving their professional lives — Ellen had her own private chiropractic business and Ione has a Master’s degree in elementary education — to master the beauty game.

“Neither one of us are beauticians, but we’ve always been into natural, healthy hair,” said Ione. “So we were like, ‘:et’s find a chemist to help us find a good formula and let’s bottle this up.’ Here we are now, four years later and it’s finally started to take off.”

We caught up with the beauty bosses to chat it up about their straight-from-the-garden haircare system, influences, and loving their natural hair.

— Stephenetta (isis) Harmon

SADIAA: You have a special Rucker Roots Smoothing System that’s been getting a lot of buzz. Can you tell us a bit about it?
IONE: The four-step system is really healthy organic products, [including a shampoo and detangling conditioner]. The Therapy Heat Protectant is water-based and the Anti-Frizz Growth Serum is oil-based. The four steps work together to give you a great blowout and, as soon as you wash your hair, it goes back to its natural state.

SBBG: What makes it a standout?
IONE: We have what we call the Rucker Roots complex in our products. It’s [made of] carrot, turnip root and ginger root oils. They all go hand in hand with helping your hair maintain its natural curl pattern, as well as to help it grow and shine.

ELLEN: We like those three root vegetables because those are the three things that we grew up eating out of the garden. After doing a lot of research, we found they were really good for the health of the hair as well. The ginger is good for stimulating the scalp to increase growth; the turnip root is really good for the elasticity of the hair, so you don’t have breakage; and, the carrot really works on the ends of the hair [to] mend split ends and helps retain that growth.

We definitely use other ingredients, but these are what set us apart. You don’t see them a lot in other brands. We also use shea butter, avocado oil. We also have hydrolyzed quinoa and other amazing elements in our products, as well.