The Founders

“The Worlds First Sunscreen for Surfing”  

We are Doug & Drew Littlemore, the founder of Headhunter. In 1989, in La Jolla, California, we decided to launch Headhunter Suncare against the odds. Growing up surfers at the beach in La Jolla, traveling throughout Baja and Mainland Mexico as kids we were exposed to enough sun to last a lifetime.

The company started by selling wide-brimmed Lifeguards hats to, you guessed it: Lifeguards. The experience of traveling in Balja gave us the confidence to source straw hats there and bring them across the border. That business flourished as surf shops bought the hats by the dozen. With the expansion into the Garden market and sales to several large national retailers and catalogs, Headhunter had arrived.

Years later we were introduced to Tavarua Island in Fiji, a south pacific island with famous surf breaks. Having been lucky enough to be friends with one of the island's owners, we had the opportunity to spend long periods of time on Tavarua. We worked as Lifeguards / Boatmen and we were spending  every day in the water just getting beat down by the tropical sun.

At the time there was nothing on the market that could protect us from this level of sun exposure. One of the primary reasons was that the big brand sunscreens just would not stay on long enough, resulting in overexposure to the sun's harmful rays.

After many trips to Tavarua and trying literally dozens of sunscreen brands with poor results, we decided to take on this challenge to see if we could make the worlds first “Sunscreen for Surfing”. Despite the odds, we did it.

It took us just over two years of blood, sweat and tears working with chemists, researching and testing to get it just right. It was with solid input from Island Guests, Lifeguards and Professional Surfers visiting the Island that we were able to pull this off.

The “Original” formula featured physical blockers combined with Headhunter’s proprietary “Heavy Water Technology” (HWT) base which helped the formula stay on until you washed it off. That was our goal plain and simple. The formula felt like pudding, and the light brown color made it look like foundation make-up.

This formula was so ahead of its time, that our manufacturers kept asking us if this formula is really what we wanted. The risk was high. If this goop was the thing to provide better sun protection for sun soaked surfers like us, then we had no choice!

Headhunter’s “Original” formula was a huge success! It way went way beyond what we could have wished for, or foreseen. Sometimes you just have to go all in, and this was one of those times. That “Original” formula is still today one of our most popular products.

Thank you to all the people that supported us through thick and thin. It really does take a village.

Check out our entire line of Sun care products, and find something that will get you the protection you're after. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!

See you in the water,

Doug & Drew