Draxler and Mostafa founded Haarwald in 2021. After years of development and testing with professional footballers like Messi and Neymar, the product is now on sale.
Julian Draxler is sitting in Qatar, his co-founder Mustafa Mostafa in Essen, when Gründerszene speaks to them. Draxler currently plays as a professional footballer for the Qatari club Al-Ahli SC and is speaking from home. Mostafa has been working as a self-employed hairdresser in Essen since 2012 and runs his own business at the same time. Together they founded Haarwald, a hair care and styling brand, in 2021.
Although Draxler is seen in the interview with a short haircut, he says that he uses the product regularly, even if it doesn’t look like elaborate styling.
From hairdresser appointment to founding a company
According to their own statements, the two founders have known each other for a long time. Draxler was a regular customer at Mostafa in 2017 and had his hair cut there regularly. The footballer often came from training with sweaty and wet hair. Mostafa then jokingly said to Draxler: “I don’t know how you always do your hair, but you always look like the ultimate idiot.” Draxler responded: “If you know everything better, then do it yourself.” What was initially said loosely then developed into a shared business idea.
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How did the two of them then develop the product? Although they come from different worlds, Mostafa says they complement each other well. Mostafa is the “doer”: creative, impulsive, and always with the product in his hand. He says he had this developed and tested through his hairdresser and producer network.
Draxler, on the other hand, sometimes had to slow him down a bit given his great enthusiasm, they both believe. As a professional footballer, he thinks strategically – and prefers to test their product under extreme conditions such as sweat, rain and camera attention. Mostafa would then always bring the revised products to the barbershop, also with feedback and support from his salon network. “Every feedback helps, no matter whether it’s good or bad,” emphasizes Mostafa and adds: “We just did it, it was a lot of trial and error.”
Advertising with Neymar, Messi and Co.
Draxler also used the feedback from his prominent teammates. He generously distributed the products in the dressing room at his former football club, Paris St. Germain. This is how football greats like Messi, Neymar and Sergio Ramos were allowed to test and use the hair product. What did they think about that? “They celebrated and used it, the floor in the cabin was empty pretty quickly,” says Julian Draxler in an interview with Gründerszene.
And since, according to his own statement, he wasn’t the most unpopular person in the dressing room, a few players even agreed to take spontaneous advertising photos with the product. Draxler then sent this to Mostafa, starting the first advertising campaign for her brand. “That certainly helped us in the beginning to generate a bit of awareness,” says Draxler in an interview.
But someone else would have caused a server failure: Elias Nerlich. The well-known German streamer, along with other creators, has already promoted the product and briefly paralyzed the servers with his advertising. Draxler: “We weren’t prepared for that and it was exciting to see the power behind it. The combination will probably do it in the end.”
Years of tinkering until everything fit
From the idea in 2017 to the final product, it took a lot of rehearsals and around four years until both of them were really satisfied. According to their own statements, they carried out thousands of tests and Mostafa failed in production at five German factories – it was not possible to achieve sufficient quality. They refined the smell, texture and hold – with the aim of developing a product that works just as well in everyday life as it does under extreme conditions in professional sports.
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The target group is deliberately intended to be broad: from normal everyday life to sporting stress. “How does it hold up? Does it smell right?” Mostafa Draxler kept asking. At some point both of them no longer saw any potential for improvement.
Drugstore struggle and big dreams
After online sales got off to a good start, the large drugstore chains initially hesitated. From their point of view, the packaging and formula were not right. Haarwald is now on the shelves of all major drugstores across Germany. Mostafa says: “90 percent of people buy our product again when they try it. We deliver real hairdressing quality for the drugstore markets.”
The startup also took a consistent approach to product development. During the founding phase, they produced as cheaply as possible because costs rose sharply during the pandemic. The packaging, feel and formulas were later improved, including vegan and dermatologically tested products. Given the small order quantities, this was around three times more expensive and put pressure on the margin, but it was financed from our own sales. Draxler emphasizes: “It’s all bootstrapped!”
Haarwald now expects sales in the high six-figure range for the initial stocking in drugstores. The company wants to secure market share with good sales and reach seven-figure sales as quickly as possible.
We asked Mostafa what it was like to start a business together with a professional footballer. “Well, we learned from each other,” he says. Friendship forms the basis of cooperation. Draxler has become more open as a result of the joint project, while Mostafa has learned patience above all, he says. But it is a bit annoying that Draxler is often difficult to reach due to training and travel. He counters dryly: “Being an entrepreneur is more strenuous than being a professional footballer. Meetings in the office are more challenging for me than training on the pitch.”
