Behind the Sun Catcher Family with Ashley Streicher
The Sun Catcher family wasn't dreamed up in a boardroom. It was built by stylist Ashley Streicher, one sample at a time, around a simple philosophy: treat your hair like you treat your skin. Here's the story behind the collection, the making of the new Power C Styling Butter, and exactly how Ashley layers all three products.
Some products get made in a lab and handed a story later. The Sun Catcher family happened the other way around. It started in salon chairs, in conversations between a stylist and her clients, and it grew from a simple idea that Ashley Streicher keeps coming back to: "It is like skincare for your hair. I like to treat my hair like I treat my skin."
Ashley is the stylist behind the collection, and Sun Catcher was the first product she ever created with R+Co. In her words, "it still serves tenfold every day." Spend two minutes listening to her talk about hair and you understand why the line feels the way it does.
The Look She's Always Chasing
Ask Ashley what she's going for and she doesn't give you a technical answer. She gives you a feeling. "I love hair that looks like you've been at the beach, but not necessarily beach hair."
You know exactly the look she means. A full day outside, wind in your hair, salt doing its thing, that beautiful natural texture you can't quite recreate on purpose. The problem is that real beach hair comes with baggage, and she names it without hesitation: all of that texture, "minus the frizz, minus the flyaways, minus the humidity."
A Year and a Half, Twelve Samples, One Butter
The newest piece of the family, the SUN CATCHER Power C Styling Butter, didn't start with a formula. It started with listening. Ashley's first conversation with the development team was about "what are salons telling them, what are clients telling me," and the answer kept pointing to the same gap. The line needed a heavier hydration butter. Something richer than a cream or a serum for medium-to-coarse, curly, genuinely thirsty hair.
Then came the part nobody sees. "Sometimes it takes 12 samples or more," Ashley says, and she means it. She tested every sample on as many hair types as possible, feeling for what's missing, then saved each labeled little bottle so the team can retrace their steps. The fragrance took even longer. Stars Align, the scent the whole collection now wears, went through two years of back and forth because for Ashley, the smell of a product as you work it through your hair is the first impression that matters.
Even the bottle earned its keep. The wide pump works from any grip, and because it's airless, you get the same dose every time and use every last bit.
How Ashley Layers the Family
All three products are multi-use, and they're made to work together. This is her order of operations.
First, the Power C Spray. The lightest of the three, a fine vitamin C mist with heat protection that revives and plumps curl whether your hair is freshly washed or on day two.
Next, the Vitamin C Leave-In Conditioner, her "one and done if you're a minimalist." Her favorite trick is using it as an air-dry cream: four pumps squeezed into wet hair, left alone to dry into soft texture and separation, then a couple more pumps at the end to finish. It's her day-two and day-three refresh too.
Last, the Power C Styling Butter, the heaviest of the family and the one thirsty hair has been waiting for. It deeply nourishes, protects against heat, and delivers 74% less breakage*. Work it into wet hair and air dry or blow dry, add a touch to finish, or go all in and wear it overnight like a mask. Her universal advice for any new product: try it on dry hair first, "that way you know how much your hair can tolerate."
Three products. One philosophy. A stylist who sweats every sample until it's right.
*Based on a test comparing hair treated with product vs. untreated extremely damaged hair.