Flaky skin and hair used to be an issue for Reina Blocker and her daughter, Janelle.
Nothing on the market was quenching their locks or skin with the moisture needed, so this Lexington mom decided to create the solution to their issues and share it with the rest of the world. Blocker created Butters by Janelle, a Lexington-based hair and skin care company.
“I began in 2024 with hair butter,” she said. “I wanted something for me and my daughter’s hair. Even if this didn’t work out as a business, we would still have quality products. I was just playing around at first. I’ve had other businesses. None of them worked out. I either didn’t really try or follow through with the other businesses. This one I am working.”
Within a year, she has gone from selling to friends and family to selling at vendor shows and festivals, greatly expanding her product line and adding a website. She also began hustling her products to local stores and boutiques. You can find her line of skin and hair care products in Open Market Collective in downtown Lexington, The Artisan Barn in Mount Ulla and The Mercantile on Market in Concord. She has plans to go into a new store in Gibsonville soon. Additionally, Pig City Books in Lexington sells her Book Nook scented body butter. She’s looking for more locations, as well.
After being laid off from a job in the medical claims field, Blocker threw all her effort into Butters By Janelle. While she began with hair butter, she now also makes body butter, body oil, sugar scrubs and perfume. She has multiple scents, such as Book Nook, Soft Whisper (amber and vanilla fig), peach, orange and more.
“I am always looking for ways to make my scents different,” she said. “My peach has something extra. I do that with all my scents.”
Except for synthetic fragrances, her body and hair butters, oils, and sugar scrubs are made from natural products, such as shea butter and grape seed oil. While she has not done many shows in 2025, she plans to get back into that marketing gig soon.
“It puts me in front of different demographics,” she said. “It helps me with product development because I talk with different people and find out what they like and want. What is popular in Lexington might not do well in other places, and vice versa.”
She said her products are different from other natural, small-batch hair and body products because she uses different emulsifiers, which make her product line softer. Body oils are her No. 1 seller.
“People like a good fragrance and they like to be moisturized, especially after a shower,” she said.
Blocker said anyone who uses mass-produced lotions and oils will immediately notice the difference with her homemade products.
“Those products are made for a large market … for everybody,” she said. “But nothing works for everybody, and there are a lot of chemicals and additives in those products which are counterproductive to moisturizing.”
link
