haircare
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FEKKAI bought back its name. Then it brought back the cream.
A salon built a haircare business on the promise of good taste. Its second act reveals the awkward art of changing a brand without changing what customers love.
Fellow Barber found a business between $12 and $90
Sam Buffa put a $40 haircut in the gap between the corner barbershop and the salon. The harder trick was turning a good cut into a business that could travel.
Caldera + Lab sells the $110 serum men buy for themselves
A dry face in Jackson Hole became a business built around an overlooked customer: the older man shopping for his own skin. Now Caldera + Lab is taking that proposition from the browser to the beauty counter.
IncNut turned beauty advice into a ₹321 crore deal
The company behind SkinKraft and Vedix learned to sell by listening to readers. Now Emami owns 60%, and the next test is turning personalized beauty into renewed growth.
The Beauty Roll-Up Betting the Next Category King Is Hiding in Plain Sight
Performance Beauty Group has assembled a portfolio around the eye - then built the factories, data loops and retail relationships to make small brands travel. Its wager is that discipline, not endless launches, can turn founder energy into durable category authority.
How a Suburban Beauty Store Became the Place 46 Million People Shop
Ulta built a beauty empire by refusing to choose - drugstore mascara and prestige serums on the same shelf, a hair salon in the back, and a rewards program that now knows what nearly 47 million people put on their faces.
L’Oréal Is Building the Operating System Behind Your Bathroom Shelf
The French group does not simply sell lipstick, serum and shampoo. It runs a four-division machine that turns laboratory research, local taste and brand mythology into products for 1.3 billion consumers.
Regis Corporation
The company that quietly cuts millions of heads of hair a year runs almost no salons of its own. Here is how a 100-year-old chain rebuilt itself around franchisees, royalties and the corner-strip haircut.
Memebox Corp (YC W14)
Memebox Corp (operating as MBX) is a global multi-brand K-beauty and personal care company founded in Seoul in 2012 by Hyungseok 'Dino' Ha. Now headquartered in Los Angeles, it builds and scales its own portfolio of Korean-made beauty brands - I Dew Care, Kaja, Pony Effect, I'm Meme and nooni - using data-driven product development and partnerships with retailers like Sephora, Ulta and Amazon. It was the first Korean company accepted into Y Combinator (W14) and has raised over $200M in venture funding.
SEEN Haircare
SEEN Haircare is a dermatologist-developed hair and scalp care brand built on the idea that 'haircare is skincare.' Founded by Harvard-trained dermatologist Dr. Iris Rubin after her own haircare products caused facial breakouts, SEEN makes shampoos, conditioners, serums, masks and styling products clinically proven to be non-comedogenic (won't clog pores) and safe for sensitive skin. The brand is sold direct-to-consumer and at more than 700 Ulta Beauty doors, and closed a $9 million Series A in September 2024.
Monica Belsito
Monica Belsito is the CEO of Function of Beauty, the made-to-order personal care company that turns an online quiz into a custom bottle of shampoo. She took the top job in July 2025 after a career spent building consumer brands that get acquired: founding CMO at feminine-care brand LOLA, CMO at hummus maker Sabra (bought by PepsiCo in 2024), and senior brand manager at Dollar Shave Club before its $1 billion sale to Unilever. A Georgetown grad and Harvard MBA who started in crisis PR and Colgate's management program, she now steers Function of Beauty's push from DTC into shelves at Target, Sephora, Walmart, and Amazon.
Kendo Brands, Inc.
Kendo Brands is a San Francisco-based beauty brand incubator and operator owned by LVMH. Named as a play on the phrase 'can do,' Kendo creates and acquires beauty brands and scales them into global businesses, blending startup energy with the backing of the world's largest luxury group. Its portfolio includes Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin, Fenty Hair and Fenty Fragrance by Rihanna, OLEHENRIKSEN, and Lip Lab, distributed in 60+ countries.