On a recent spring afternoon, Marcella Roberts and Brooke Council were sitting in a salon discussing how much they liked their hair. Two black women were discussing a new cream they use to style and moisturize their curly hairstyles.
“This is amazing,” says Roberts. She says that her curls dry out quickly because she works outdoors every day as a meter reader. “It lasts for several days.”
“Even my colleagues said that my hair was very soft,” she added.
The women said the cream didn’t leave the distracting little flakes on their scalp that sometimes happens with other products. The council also said that when the cream was first applied it had a pungent tropical scent, but as the days went on, everyone agreed that it “melted into a pleasant scent”.
And despite that initial smell, Roberts couldn’t stop rubbing the cream all over his scalp. “A little goes a long way,” she said. “But I just wanted to try it. I said, ‘Well, this is a testing center.’
The test center she was referring to was the salon itself, run by Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumer goods conglomerates, which owns brands like Dove, Vaseline and Shea Moisture. The product they were evaluating was her, one of the company’s newest products, and Unilever scientists and stylists listened and took notes on their mobile phones as they voiced their opinions.
Insights gleaned from the salon and those who test its products are just one way Unilever is trying to tap into the long-underappreciated but increasingly important black-hair care market. Black consumers are a group that beauty companies have either underinvested or completely ignored for generations. But with the increasing proportion of people of color in the American population, understanding the millions of consumers with textured hair has become a business imperative for beauty companies.
If Unilever gets it right, it could capture an even bigger share of the $1.8 billion that black Americans spend on hair products annually. Black women tend to use They have twice as many products for hair care and styling as white women. Despite this demand, black consumers are three times more likely than other racial groups to say they are dissatisfied with their hair and skin care options, according to McKinsey research. report Released last year.
“I am amazed not only at the work that has been done so far, but also at the work that we still have to do,” said Peter Schruen, who oversees research and development for Unilever’s dozen North American beauty brands. rice field. “We know a lot about dark-skinned people from India and Africa, but we know relatively little about African-Americans, blacks, browns, and Hispanics from North America. ”
Each week, Unilever brings about 50 men and women to its salon, which it calls the Polycultural Center of Excellence. More than half of the participants are people of color.
They are not told the name of the product being tested or what the company believes it should be used for. Instead, executives focus on how testers interact with the product. This is because it may reveal uses that have not yet been explored.
“It really fills in the gaps in our understanding of biology and what we thought we understood in one or two studies,” said Tiffany Yizer, director of Unilever’s Center for Multicultural Beauty Technology in North America. talk.
Across from the salon is Unilever’s R&D lab, where they test ingredients and formulas designed for curly hair. The salon is where the company is trying to figure out what drives people to buy more of its shampoos, conditioners and lotions from retailers like Target, CVS and Sally Beauty. (Unilever may solicit shoppers to participate in testing in the aisles of these stores.) Products may be sent back to the lab for further work after gathering feedback from those in the salon. I have.
Between the two Unilever buildings, a team of nearly 400 scientists, data analysts and stylists study human biology and consumer feedback to develop products that take 18 months to hit the shelves. doing. Schruen said the scientists come from 40 countries and don’t work for any particular brand. Instead, it’s working to identify ingredients and develop “blockbuster technology” that can be applied across Unilever’s product lines, including hair care brands Axe and Sunsilk.
Unilever’s most recent changes include an improved formulation of its petroleum jelly lotion with 88 percent more moisture, and the rollout of its Dove product line, which includes detangling conditioners and recovery masks infused with honey, jojoba, aloe and coconut oil. included, the company said. In 2020, Unilever launched Mele, a skincare line of gels, serums and sunscreens made for people of color and their melanized skin biological makeup. According to Euromonitor’s 2022 survey, SheaMoisture has launched a scalp care line that focuses on dandruff, the number one problem for black women.
Unilever faces increasing competition from e-commerce startups that have garnered a loyal following on social media, and both Unilever and its giant Procter & Gamble are part of these emerging brands. has acquired But by investing in its own research and development, Unilever is able to understand the science behind hair texture, says former TRI Princeton researcher Jennifer Van Wyck. TRI Princeton conducts cosmetic science research funded by Unilever and other companies.
“Once you understand it, you can innovate solutions to alleviate any problem out there or any benefit people want,” said Van Wyck, who led the nonprofit’s Textured Hair Project. It can be very helpful in terms of finding ,” he said.
Unilever has operated a consumer testing center for five years. But following the 2020 racial justice protests, the company realized it could do more. In 2021, management will pledged Double the funding for research and development of products for melanin-rich skin and textured hair by this year.
Over the years, some of Unilever’s brands have come under fire for how they treat women of color in their marketing. A 2017 Dove soap ad showed a black woman stripping off her skin-colored shirt to reveal a white woman in a white shirt. The ad played a racist trope about black people being dirty. Following outcry on social media, Dove apologized and said she “deeply” regrets the “discomfort it has caused.”
For black and brown consumers, purchasing decisions aren’t just about buying products that are scientifically tailored to your skin and hair type. It is also important to feel that a large company like Unilever seeks feedback and seeks to gain trust by fully representing it.
Understanding those customers is one of Isar’s main responsibilities at the company. She advises Unilever on what products may and should hit the market by 2026. Isar, 37, is a Brown University-trained chemical engineer. Because, she said, she was able to put herself in a liberal arts environment while studying. The hard sciences of chemical and biochemical engineering.
“Beauty is a space with very long corridors,” says Isar, an Afro-Latino with her hair tied up. “I grew up in a time when most of the aisles were just for me. So I think what we owe consumers is variety of choices.”
On the day of the focus group, she watched mother and daughter Ayanna and Melissa Williams apply white cream to their curly hair after the stylists washed their hair. While the two were applying cream to their damp hair, Isar learned how to find out about new products (via YouTube, according to Melissa, 22), and what he saw while browsing the store. I asked questions about staying in (bottles) and so on. Castor oil is listed as an ingredient).
Williams, an older man, said he often buys products that smell good, but it’s even better if the scent stays in his hair after he cooks a traditional Caribbean meal. The cream she was trying on her hair that day smelled like a beach drink, she said, and she speculated it might smell like peach and coconut.
But price is also an important factor. “As a mother, I’m always trying to find a deal,” said 41-year-old Williams, who works at an elementary school.
Winning one customer with textured hair doesn’t necessarily mean that the same product will work for the next customer with naturally curly hair.
“The biggest challenge, frankly, is having too much reach,” said Courtney Rominiy, an analyst at Mintel who tracks the hair care industry. “I think one of the biggest failures brands have had is trying to attract all black consumers.”
Isar acknowledged that Unilever needs to get very nuanced and detailed information if it wants to win customer loyalty from large numbers of people of color. And she pointed out that this work will never really stop.
Unilever, for example, has recently focused more on black consumers, but it still has a lot of work to do to understand the habits and needs of Latino buyers. Isar said it could take a decade for the company to truly understand its diverse consumer groups.
“When we do that, there will definitely be another group out there,” she said.
