Led by a handful of industry innovators with deep pockets for advanced R&D, the hair-care space is on the brink of a philosophical shift around how consumers should care for their hair. “Over the last two years, consumers are thinking about resilience in literally every way,” Suveen Sahib, CEO and co-founder of hair-care brand K18, told Glossy. “It’s becoming mainstream today for consumers to ask, ‘How do I preserve my biology?’ ‘How do I preserve my skin or my hair and not just try to react to damage?’ That’s a larger mindset and consciousness that’s driving this conversation, and hair has been one of the last things to hit that conversation. Our goal is to accelerate that.”
K18 launched in 2020 with its now-hero product, Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask. By leveraging its biotechnology-powered origin story with viral social media campaigns and professional hairstylists, Sahib and his co-founder and wife, Britta Cox, became near-instant disrupters with a product said to repair hair damage in just four minutes.
K18 experienced hockey-stick growth, reportedly surpassing $300 million in annual revenue, before being acquired by Unilever in 2023 with only six products in its portfolio.
