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What you get
Everything included from day one.
Signature Oil — 50ml · R165
Hair Growth Balm — 200g · R185
Hair Growth Balm — 300g · R250
The Ritual Duo — oil + 200g balm · R295
The Luxury Set — oil + 300g balm, gift-boxed · R299
Balm Pair — two 200g balms · R249
Chebe, black cumin, castor, hemp & more — no synthetics
Ships via Pargo, or free in East London
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The Problem
African hair has its own science, and for generations the products on the shelf weren’t formulated for it — or were sold on promises with no proof. Sanyu Botanicals started in a kitchen in East London on a different premise: real botanicals, real tradition, made in small batches you can trace.
But a beautiful product still needs a way to reach people, take payment, and keep its promises after the sale. So Sanyu is two things at once — a botanical brand, and the software that runs it.
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Under the Hood
Built like it has to last.
For the curious and the technical — the engineering underneath, in plain sight.
6
products & sets
100%
botanical
Live
PayFast checkout
Synced
to JarvisOS
Next.js 14TypeScriptSupabase · Postgres · RLSPayFast (ZAR)Anthropic Claude (hair-care AI)ResendCloudinaryZustand cartPostHog · Sentry
01
A real storefront, properly built
A Next.js commerce app on Supabase with row-level security, a Zustand cart, and a PayFast checkout with MD5-signed IPN verification — real orders, not an Instagram DM.
02
Synced to the JarvisOS Sanyu wing
Stock is kept in step with the internal operating system over HMAC-signed, timing-safe webhooks — the shop and the back office are one organism, not two spreadsheets.
03
An AI that knows the formulations
A Claude-powered hair-care assistant answers questions grounded in the real ingredient lists — guidance, not generated fluff.
04
Traceable batches
Every product carries a batch number; legacy lines are deactivated cleanly, and ingredient changes (like removing neem) propagate through the data, not just the label.
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The Hard Parts, Solved
Where the real work went.
Heritage, formulated
A chebe-and-shea growth balm drawn from the Sahelian Sara women’s centuries-old hair-retention tradition, and a cold-infused oil of black cumin, castor, hemp and olive with fenugreek, hibiscus, clove and rosemary.
Bought the way South Africans buy
PayFast in Rands, Pargo pickup nationwide or free personal delivery in East London, optional gift wrap — built around how people actually shop and receive.
A loyalty layer that costs nothing
Free “Angel” tiers reward orders and ritual streaks — community, not a paywall.
Impact
Sanyu Botanicals is live and selling — small-batch, hand-packed in East London, with a checkout that completes and a brand that can prove what’s in the jar.
It’s the proof that the studio’s engineering doesn’t stop at software: a physical product line, run on the same disciplined systems as everything else.
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution — in Africa
The Fourth Industrial Revolution isn’t only for screens. Sanyu pairs old knowledge — botanicals, infusions, a women’s hair tradition centuries old — with modern systems: AI guidance, traceable batches, automated stock-sync, and real online payments. Heritage and technology, holding hands.
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Ubuntu
Sanyu means joy in Luganda. The brand exists to give African hair what it was always owed — care made for it, by people who understand it — and to keep that care honest, batch after batch. Beauty as dignity. Joy as a practice we share.
Pricing
Starting from
R165/item
Access tier
Sanyu means joy in Luganda. These small-batch formulations are made in East London from African botanicals — cold-infused black cumin, castor, hemp seed and olive oils with fenugreek, hibiscus, clove and rosemary, and a chebe-leaf balm drawn from the Sahelian Sara women's hair-retention tradition. No synthetics. Soul-forward.
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