The Red Yao tribe has lived in the mountains of Longsheng for nearly 2,000 years. While wandering through these ancient villages of Longsheng, the founders of Viori discovered that nearly every woman of the Red Yao tribe had long, jet-black, beautiful hair without any signs of greying. Astonished, the founders asked the Red Yao what the secret was to their immaculate hair. Smiling, the Red Yao women explained that ever since they were little girls, their mothers would set aside the water they washed rice with each day. After letting the water sit for a time, and preparing it in a ritual passed down mother-to-daughter for centuries, they would then take the water and wash their hair with it. That was it.

As the founders continued to talk with the Red Yao women they explained that because of economic pressures, their tribe had been reduced to only 300 remaining in the mountains. Unable to provide for themselves, their families were leaving for large cities to support themselves. This had left them and their hair rituals vulnerable to extinction within a generation. That day Viori and its mission were born.