Scar Care Isn’t Just Cosmetic | Blush & Bloom Podcast | Ep. 15 with Hanna Harkawy, Founder of Ouli

Asele Team
Sep 10
3 min read

Updated: Sep 12

Scar Care Isn’t Just Cosmetic | Blush & Bloom Podcast | Ep. 12 with Hanna Harkawy, Founder of Ouli

When it comes to postpartum recovery, scar care is often framed as something cosmetic — about how the body looks.

But untreated scars can cause pain, adhesions, and long-term health complications.

In this episode of Blush & Bloom, I spoke with Hanna Harkawy, an industrial designer, PhD researcher in biomedical engineering, and founder of Ouli, a femtech startup creating a device that helps women treat scars after caesarean sections and other surgeries.

Hanna shares her journey from wanting to be a doctor to combining design with healthcare, and why she believes scar care deserves the same level of awareness as other areas of women’s health.

In This Episode, We Cover

✨ Why scar therapy goes beyond aesthetics and supports long-term health

✨ How C-section scars can cause pain, adhesions, and functional problems if untreated

✨ The challenges women face accessing physiotherapy postpartum

✨ How Ouli combines hardware and software for at-home scar treatment

✨ Building a femtech startup in Poland and growing a local community

✨ Lessons from taking a medical device from idea to market

✨ Advice for new moms starting their healing journey

Why Scar Health Matters

Scars are more than skin deep. While many women focus on the visual aspects, scars left untreated can cause adhesions — tissue that binds layers of the body together, leading to pain, reduced mobility, and other health issues.

For women recovering from a C-section, these challenges come on top of the demands of caring for a newborn, making it difficult to regularly attend physiotherapy sessions. Hanna explains that this gap inspired her to create Ouli — a device that makes scar therapy accessible at home, while still allowing specialists to monitor progress remotely.

Her mission is simple but powerful: shift the conversation around scar health from appearance to function, and give women better options for healing.

Building Ouli

Ouli is a two-part system:

• Hardware — a small device that supports scar treatment at home

• Software — an app that helps women follow their treatment plan, make adjustments, and share progress with medical specialists

By combining design thinking with biomedical research, Hanna and her team are bridging a gap in postpartum care.

What began as a personal interest in improving health through design has become a femtech innovation recognized across Poland and beyond.

Breaking the Taboo

Like many aspects of women’s health, postpartum recovery is still considered a taboo topic. Hanna points out that while awareness is improving, too often women are left to navigate these challenges alone.

By bringing femtech solutions like Ouli into the conversation, she hopes to normalize scar care and make it part of the broader dialogue around women’s health.

About Our Guest: Hanna Harkawy

Hanna Harkawy is the founder of Ouli, a Polish femtech startup creating a device for scar treatment after surgical procedures such as caesarean sections. With a background in industrial design and a PhD in biomedical engineering, Hanna is passionate about combining design and science to improve women’s health outcomes.