Q] Traya was born out of a personal journey. Please share how the idea came about and what were some early challenges while building it?
Traya was born out of a personal journey. My husband and co-founder was dealing with chronic health issues like thyroid and hair loss, and we soon realized how limited allopathy is in treating such conditions, offering only lifelong medication, especially for thyroid. This pushed us to explore holistic alternatives like Ayurveda, naturopathy, and using food as medicine. That exploration became the foundation for Traya’s integrated approach, combining Ayurveda, allopathy, and nutrition. In fact, Traya means three sciences in Sanskrit. As we focused on improving his overall health, Altaf began to regrow his hair, showing us that when your body, gut, nutrition, hormones, and doshas are in balance, your hair reflects it. But when hair loss accelerates like balding at 25 instead of 70, it signals something deeper is wrong.
This insight exposed a major gap in how hair care is typically addressed. Traya was created to fill that gap. Unlike typical haircare brands, we don’t sell standalone products. We start with a Hair Test, build a doctor-approved customized regimen that includes Ayurveda, allopathy, and diet essentially giving users access to three experts from the comfort of their homes. Early on, it was tough to convince people why they needed more than just shampoo or oil. But we stayed focused on efficacy over convenience, aiming for real hair regrowth. One of our biggest challenges has been educating consumers helping them unlearn haircare myths and embrace a truly holistic solution.
Q] You’ve gone from being an engineer and MBA grad to a mompreneur leading a fast-growing health-tech brand. What have been some of the biggest lessons for you on this journey?
First, if I can do it, anyone can. It all starts with believing in yourself and being more ambitious. I’ve learned to dream big, I no longer aim small, and that shift in mindset has been one of the most transformative changes for me. Second, there are certain personality traits like the ability to take risks or be fearless that we often underestimate. As an entrepreneur, I’ve realized these qualities are often more critical than intelligence or IQ. It’s traits like resilience and fearlessness that truly equip you to tackle any challenge that comes your way. That’s been another major learning for me.
Q] Minoxidil has been the go-to treatment for hair loss for years. How is Traya changing the way people think about what actually works for hair loss?
What Traya has done is a significant step forward in the hair care industry. Since the 1980s, doctors around the world have primarily relied on Minoxidil as the go-to molecule for hair loss treatment. While Traya does include Minoxidil in its regimen, we don’t rely on it alone. Our philosophy is rooted in the combination of sciences. Alongside Minoxidil, we incorporate Ayurveda, nutraceuticals, hair vitamins, and herbs that target the internal root causes of hair loss.
As a result, the efficacy of our approach has been validated through a clinical study, which shows that the Traya kit delivers 3x better hair growth results than Minoxidil alone. This is especially compelling because it uses data and clinical evidence to prove a belief, we’ve always held that a multi-science, holistic approach works better than relying on a single solution.
Q] Tell us about your ‘Question the Claim’ campaign? How do you think it’s helping build trust in a space where people are often skeptical?
I may not know about trust, but I’m deeply passionate about this campaign. Coming from a completely different background, I was shocked by how shallow and misleading the hair care industry can be. Working with top R&D experts across Ayurveda and allopathy, I saw firsthand how brands use legal loopholes to make exaggerated claims like ‘99% hair fall reduction in 4 washes’. While technically allowed, these claims are often ethically questionable.
That’s why we built Traya, a brand focused on honesty, research, and clinically-backed results. But over the years, I’ve realized that building a credible brand isn’t enough. There’s a huge need to educate consumers on how to read labels, spot gimmicks, and understand what they’re really buying. I’m excited to share my learnings to help people make more informed, conscious choices for their hair and health.
Q] Traya combines Ayurveda, Nutrition, and Dermatology, but it’s also deeply data-driven. How do you use customer data to build personalized treatment plans?
At Traya, everything from diagnosis to prescription is powered by data and technology. Our ability to scale and offer access to Ayurvedic practitioners and dermatologists is possible only because of the strong tech and data systems we’ve built. We use data at every step, but its biggest impact lies in one key outcome: ensuring people actually see results. And that depends heavily on adherence and habit building, because hair regrowth takes time typically 5 to 6 months.
Traya’s success isn’t just about formulations or combining three sciences; it’s also about the tech-enabled support system that keeps users consistent. The real challenge is medical adherence people often give up when there’s no instant gratification. That’s why we leverage data across all touchpoints to keep users motivated, accountable, and on track. In fact, the first signs of success aren’t just hair regrowth, but better gut health, sleep, and overall energy. At Traya, it's always health first hair follows, and data plays a vital role in helping users reach the finish line.
Q] Your podcast touches on stories around hair, health, and personal experiences. What made you want to start it, and how does it align with Traya’s larger mission?
As a brand, Traya has always focused on busting myths and promoting honest, efficacy-driven conversations in the hair care space calling out misleading ingredient marketing and misinformation. Over time, we realized our purpose went beyond just hair. Since hair is deeply connected to overall health hormones, sleep, stress, gut, we wanted to extend our message to the broader health and wellness space. That’s how What the Health? was born. It’s a platform where we bring in credible doctors and experts to share authentic, expert-backed health content. In a world flooded with conflicting advice like whether juice is good or bad in the morning, we aim to provide balanced perspectives from both allopathy and Ayurveda, helping people make informed decisions. The goal is simple: to become a trusted source of reliable health information in a noisy, confusing landscape.
Q] Traya has been growing steadily, what’s next for the brand? Are there any new health or wellness issues you’re planning to address?
There’s a lot of R&D underway at Traya across other health issues, and we’ll launch new solutions in due time. But two developments I’m especially excited about: First, Traya has gone international, allowing us to take the power of Ayurveda, one of our core pillars to a global audience. Second, we’ve launched offline clinics, starting with five in Pune, and plan to expand further. These clinics offer a unique, holistic hair care experience, not quick fixes like PRP or transplants, but inside-out treatments that improve overall health and regrow hair naturally. What we’ve done online, we’re now bringing offline giving people access to our team of doctors and hair coaches for in-person consultations and support.
Q] Going forward, what will be your marketing approach for the brand?
Our focus has always been customer first. We’re not here just to sell or make money, we’re here to genuinely help the consumer. That commitment continues as we keep working on improving efficacy and, at the same time, delivering the best possible customer experience where every individual feels supported and cared for throughout their hair regrowth journey.
