Heritage
A house, in its own words
The story starts at the roots, as the founders like to say. Akash Mehta and his sister Nikita (Niki) Mehta grew up hearing stories from their grandmother, an Ayurvedic haircare ritualist in India. Those childhood tales became the emotional blueprint for what would eventually become Fable & Mane, a brand built on the idea that hair care is ceremony, not routine. The siblings launched Fable & Mane in early 2020, turning family memory into a formulated collection. Akash stepped into the role of CEO, steering growth and digital strategy, while Nikita brought the creative and product direction rooted in the Ayurvedic traditions she had absorbed growing up. The pair positioned the brand as a bridge between Indian heritage and contemporary beauty routines, an angle that resonated quickly with editors, influencers, and consumers tired of one-note haircare. The early years were defined by education. Rather than leaning on synthetic shortcuts, the founders invested time in sourcing traditional Indian botanicals, building the brand's vocabulary around ingredients like amla, bhringraj, shikakai, coconut, and saffron. The products were always positioned as haircare first, but fragrance was never an afterthought. A significant milestone came when the brand expanded into fragrance proper with the launch of the Hair & Body Fragrance Mists, a collection inspired by the scent landscapes of three Indian cities: the lush florals of Kerala, the spice markets of Jaipur, and the temple gardens of Madurai. The mists marked Fable & Mane's first step into territory that overlapped directly with perfumery, layering the brand's herbal and Ayurvedic signature with more complex floral compositions like red champaca and jasmine. Retail expansion followed, with the brand finding a strong home at Sephora, where its story-driven approach found a receptive audience. The founders have continued to tour and host meet-and-greets, treating the brand as a conversation rather than a transaction. Fable & Mane treats fragrance as an extension of ritual. The founders believe that scent and haircare are inseparable in the Indian beauty tradition, where hair oiling is as much about the aromatic moment as the nourishing result. Every product is conceived as a small ceremony, something to be applied with intention rather than rushed through. At the heart of the philosophy is a commitment to clean, conscious formulation. The brand is 100% vegan and cruelty-free, and the founders have been outspoken about avoiding synthetic fragrance in their core haircare formulas, building scents from essential oils and natural extracts instead. This insistence on ingredient transparency runs through the entire range, including the newer fragrance mists. Indian heritage is treated as living culture, not decorative motif. The team draws on Ayurvedic principles, traditional Indian botanicals, and regional scent profiles to inform both product development and storytelling. The result feels specific rather than generic, anchored in places like Madurai and Kerala rather than vaguely "exotic." The brand sees this as an act of preservation, keeping grandmother-era rituals relevant for a new generation of beauty consumers. There is also a deeply personal streak. The Mehta siblings position the brand as a sibling project, a shared creative conversation between two people who grew up with the same stories. That sibling energy shows up in the product lineups, which often arrive in pairs, and in the tone of voice, which reads as warm and familiar rather than corporate.