You can love your life completely and still feel lost inside it.
It’s a feeling many women know intimately but rarely talk about. Life looks good from the outside. The family is thriving. The responsibilities are being handled. The smile is still there.
But somewhere along the way, you stop recognising yourself.
For Kelsey Huddleston, founder of Elevana, that realisation arrived after the birth of her second daughter.
“My life looked beautiful,” she says. “I had two gorgeous girls, amazing support around me, and every reason to be happy. But internally, I felt like I’d disappeared.”
Like many mothers, Kelsey had spent years putting everyone else first. After her first baby, she accepted that her own needs would temporarily take a back seat.
“Honestly, I was okay with that. Baby comes first. That felt right.”
The second time around was different.
Her body was exhausted. Anxiety crept in. The mental load became relentless. And then there was the postpartum hair loss.
While completely normal, it became symbolic of something much bigger.
“When you already feel like you’ve lost yourself, losing your hair stops being about hair. It feels like another piece of your identity being taken away.”
The Quiet Struggle Nobody Sees
Depression doesn’t always look the way people expect it to.
Sometimes it looks like a woman smiling while quietly struggling beneath the surface.
Kelsey found herself pushing through exhaustion because she believed that’s what good mothers did.
“Stopping felt selfish. I just kept going.”
Yet instead of wanting to return to who she was before children, she found herself longing for something different.
“I didn’t want to bounce back. I wanted to bounce forward.”
That simple shift in thinking would eventually change everything.
Rather than chasing her old identity, she began searching for the woman she was becoming.
The journey started with something surprisingly small: ten minutes a day dedicated entirely to herself.
A ritual.
A moment of care.
A reminder that she mattered too.
What began as a tiny act of self-preservation eventually became the foundation for an entirely new business.
That business would become Elevana, a wellness and haircare brand designed to support women through life’s most demanding seasons. While the products focus on hair health and regrowth, Kelsey says the mission has always been much bigger than hair itself.
“Hair was simply the thing that got my attention,” she says. “What I was really struggling with was feeling disconnected from myself.”
Today, Elevana’s products are used by women experiencing postpartum hair loss, stress-related thinning, hormonal changes, perimenopause and other life transitions that can impact both confidence and wellbeing.
Building a Brand from a Spare Room in Napier
What began as a deeply personal journey is now reaching women across New Zealand, but Elevana’s beginnings were far more humble.
Kelsey runs the business from Napier, where she was raised and still lives with her family.
“People are often shocked to learn that Elevana is being built from a spare room in my home,” she laughs.
In a world where success is often associated with big cities, large teams and endless resources, Kelsey is proving otherwise.
“I love building a national brand from a small coastal city. It’s a reminder that you don’t need to be in the ‘right’ place to create something meaningful.”
Before launching Elevana, Kelsey spent years working in digital marketing, specialising in SEO, paid advertising, conversion design and community building.
She still takes on freelance marketing projects today, but Elevana represents something different.
“It’s me finally pointing all those years of knowledge and energy towards something that’s entirely my own.”
Her marketing background has become one of her greatest strengths.
“The big beauty brands win by outspending everyone. I can’t do that. What I can do is out-care and out-connect them.”
Why Elevana Feels Different
From the beginning, Kelsey never wanted Elevana to feel like a traditional beauty brand.
In fact, she didn’t even want it to feel like a brand at all.
“When I was looking for a name, I wanted it to feel like a friend.”
The name combines the idea of elevating women with a softer, feminine energy.
“Elevana is the friend who reminds you that you’re allowed to take up space. You’re allowed to care for yourself. You’re allowed to grow through difficult seasons.”
That philosophy sits at the heart of everything she creates.
In an industry often driven by perfection, polished images and unrealistic beauty standards, Kelsey is deliberately choosing a different path.
“I don’t need Elevana to be perfect. The beauty industry spends so much time focusing on the end result and not enough time talking about the messy middle. That’s where most women actually live.”
Instead of selling perfection, Elevana celebrates progress.
The hard days.
The growth nobody sees.
The woman behind the mirror.
Trust, Doubt and Doing It Anyway
Like many founders, Kelsey admits there have been moments of self-doubt.
“Constantly,” she says. “I think anyone who says otherwise isn’t being honest.”
There were nights when she questioned whether she was qualified to build a beauty brand at all. What kept her going was remembering who she created it for.
“I built Elevana for the woman I was in my hardest season. She still needed it whether I felt confident that day or not.”
She also learned that confidence isn’t the thing you need before you start, it’s the thing you build by starting.
“Almost nobody feels ready. You take one small step before you feel qualified, and the qualification comes from doing.”
It’s advice she now shares with other women considering their own business ventures.
“Don’t wait until you feel ready. Start, and let the readiness catch up.”
The Messages That Make It All Worthwhile
Despite the long hours, Kelsey says the most rewarding part of the journey isn’t sales, growth or business milestones.
It’s the messages. The women who tell her they finally feel like themselves again. “The first time it happened, I cried,” she admits. “Actually, I’ve cried quite a few times.”
Every message reinforces what she suspected from the beginning: this was never really about hair.
It was about identity.
Confidence.
Self-worth.
Connection.
“I’m proud that I’ve built something real. Something women trust.”
More Than Products
Ask Kelsey where she hopes Elevana will be in five years and the answer isn’t focused on becoming the biggest beauty company in the country.
Instead, she talks about trust. Community. Connection.
“I want Elevana to become known as the honest brand that stands beside women through their messiest seasons.”
Of course, there are new ideas already filling her notebook.
New products. New rituals. New ways to support women.
But growth will never come at the expense of purpose.
“Everything has to earn its place. If it helps women grow stronger, feel softer and shine brighter, then I’m interested.”
A Message for Every Woman
If Kelsey could go back and speak to the exhausted version of herself sitting in the middle of postpartum overwhelm, she knows exactly what she would say.
“This season isn’t forever. You aren’t failing. The woman you’re missing isn’t gone. She’s just buried underneath all the love and exhaustion.”
It’s a message she believes every woman needs to hear.
Because the truth is, we all move through difficult seasons.
Motherhood.
Burnout.
Perimenopause.
Recovery.
Grief.
Change.
And while each journey looks different, the lesson remains the same. You don’t have to bounce back.
You don’t have to become who you were.
You can become someone new.
“Your messy season isn’t the end of your story,” says Kelsey.
“It might just be the beginning of your best one.”