The Story of YOA
Hello! I'm Barbara
Founder YOA - Seamstress & Diver Entrepreneur
I decided to create dive headbands to protect the hair of women who, like me, have long hair and often feel forgotten and underrepresented in the diving and freediving community.
Because yes, more and more of us are diving, freediving, and sailing. And yet, the equipment is still designed by and for a very masculine world: wetsuits cut for body types that aren't ours, accessories that ignore our needs... and above all, this question that is never asked in dive shops: what about our hair in all of this?
I damaged my long hair dive after dive. Twenty minutes of painful detangling every time I got out of the water, impossible knots to undo without losing entire strands, split ends, and increasingly fragile hair season after season. And most importantly: zero solutions. Nothing in all the existing diving equipment had been designed for this problem, yet it was shared by thousands of women like me.
So, I decided to create YOA.
Because I was tired of sacrificing my hair to live my passion. YOA is a brand created by a woman, for women: those who refuse to choose between taking care of themselves and fully enjoying the water.
YOA stands for:
a custom design
A design created by a diver for divers
As soon as I learned to dive, I looked for a solution to protect my long hair from mask friction and tangles. Nothing existed, so I decided to create it myself. A seamstress by trade and an entrepreneur, I then launched YOA to allow all women to dive without worrying about their hair.
One goal
Fewer knots and less breakage
The idea is simple: protect your hair with a diving headband. This prevents it from getting tangled or caught in your equipment. And fewer knots means less breakage. You won't have to go to the hairdresser as often as I did...
From design to manufacturing
Made in France
My studio is located in the south-west of France, in Toulouse. I work there with my seamstress to create and send all your headbands.
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