Dara first wrote about Breezy Tee's T-Shirt Hair Towel on Substack as her favorite air-drying tool during the warmer months; it's her favorite heat-styling tool, too, because it takes the perfect amount of water out of hair before you style, cutting down on styling time (and associated damage).

As she got to know the team behind Breezy Tee a little better, it became clear that theirs was a story that needed to be told. Find out more about our first brand from Portugal below, and check out the towel they made just for us.

Dara: Yours is obviously a brand with a story! Can you tell us how Breezy Tee started?

JOAO: It all started with my wife, Brie, who has very curly hair: after decades of relaxing her hair, she wanted to go natural. When she cut off her hair, she heard about using t-shirts to dry it more effectively than terrycloth — the material that we all grew up using — which can cause frizz, dryness, and breakage.

After using t-shirts for a while, she thought of making a towel with the material instead.

I’m a designer and this seemed like something we could work on together, so we studied fabrics and found the cotton that we use, which we source from 3-4 small producers in Europe. It’s a double knit, so both sides are equally soft, it’s more elastic, and it’s just the right thickness — lightweight, but thick enough to be more absorbent and have a nicer feel than single jersey fabrics. We sew the towels with a double seam that mimics the sewing of a t-shirt neckline, and it's just the right size for use both as a towel and as a head wrap.

Dara: When did all of this happen?

JOAO: Brie came up with the idea when we were living in Granada, Spain; when we came back to Portugal, where I’m from, we had enough space for a workshop just outside Lisbon and started making the towels here. We still make them all here ourselves.

Dara: I found your towels because I was looking for a non-microfiber hair towel, and it is (strangely) really hard to find. Why do you think that is?

JOAO: Microfiber towels are a lot cheaper to make. And they are very absorbent, but microfiber is the worst of the fabrics in terms of microplastics. I have noticed that if you search for “t-shirt hair towel” online, microfiber is what usually comes up, so you have to dig a little deeper to find non-microfiber options.

And some companies make “organic cotton” hair towels that are actually made of organic cotton with elastane added to it. Ours is 100% cotton, both the fabric and the thread; cotton jersey is naturally somewhat elastic, and the double knit we use helps with this. But t-shirt fabric in general is a difficult one to work with; we had to adapt our sewing machines to make the towels.

Dara: You made these creamy caramel-colored hair towels just for us (thank you!). Can you tell us more about the process of making them?

JOAO: When we first started the business, we thought about outsourcing production. But when it came to the selection of fabrics and thread, at reasonable prices, we found that it was better to do it ourselves. So we try to source fabrics from smaller companies that work in smaller batches, which means you get a better product with less waste. These companies have real pride in what they do.

We have the towel labels made outside, but we order the towel fabric and cut it here, then sew the towels in the two workrooms we have here at home in Portugal. We had to learn everything — how to work with different machines, how to adjust them, all of it. And we still make all the towels ourselves, though sometimes we get help (from some of the models on our website!) during the busy time of year.

Dara: You’re located just outside Lisbon. Tell us what it’s like to have a small business there!

JOAO: Lisbon is really well-positioned in terms of geography; it’s a direct flight from the US, we have access to the EU, and we have good agreements with the UK that keep things simple. It’s a great location for a brand that’s based online. I do sometimes wish we had more access to different types of suppliers; it just takes a little longer to find the right people.

Dara: Anything else you think we should know?

JOAO: We believe in making a good product that answers a need; my wife will speak to that in the videos we made for your Instagram. We’re good partners since she knows more about the need, but I can handle the design and technical part. We just love what we do.

We’re also passionate about “work small, waste small”: we make our towels in smaller batches and only create one wastebasket of excess fabric during the entire year, all of which gets recycled. Plastic is here to stay; it takes thousands of years to go away. So we try to use as little as we can and take it out of our lives a little bit at a time. These towels are a way to do that, and we love making them.

**

We're huge fans! Check out the towel they created just for us, and you can also browse their other products (headbands, scrunchies, beanies) on their own site here.