Popular Black-owned hair care brand Mielle Organics is joining the Proctor and Gamble Beauty family, making them part of one of the biggest personal care brands in the world.
P&G Beauty will work with Mielle Organics to expand access for the brand in the Black community and fund research and innovation in hair care for underserved communities.
“P&G Beauty’s role will be to support the Mielle Organics team with what they need to achieve their vision – including increased access in Black and Brown communities and investing in research and innovation – while enabling the core tenets of their success to continue as they are today,” Lela Coffey, P&G’s vice president of multicultural hair business, said in a statement.
Husband-and-wife duo Monique and Melvin Rodriguez will continue to serve as Mielle’s CEO and COO, respectively, and are thrilled to be joining the P&G family.
“From the moment we stepped into P&G, we saw a diverse team of leaders who share our values and vision for innovation, education, and community empowerment, including several Black leaders who play a key role in the hair care and beauty businesses,” Monique Rodriguez said. “This partnership allows Mielle to serve more textured hair consumers with the great products and formulas our community loves.”
Black hair care is an expanding niche in the beauty industry. Black consumers spend “$473 million in total hair care (a $4.2 billion industry)” as of 2017, per a Nielsen report. Despite the growth, several products have not been made available and explicitly created with natural hair in mind.
Mielle Organics recently became the subject of controversy after a white TikTok creator bragged about how great it was for her hair. Notably, a pinned post on the brand’s Instagram page notes that Rosemary Mint Scalp & Hair Strengthening oil is perfect for all hair types.
Reacting to the viral video, many Black women urged Becky and crew to leave their hair care products alone. Some may ask why the “drama?” But there are genuine concerns from Black consumers about Black brands chasing white dollars.
As Cassius noted in earlier reporting, similar concerns were raised Shea Moisture tried to make its product more appealing to white consumers. But a New Year’s Day post from founder and CEO Michelle Rodriquez made sure loyal consumers knew that she had no intentions of changing the line or marketing.
We’ve been together on this ride for awhile, so you know that my journey with Mielle started from a place of creating the product I wasn’t finding in the marketplace. We remain forever committed to developing quality, efficacious products that address the need states for our customers’ hair types! “ sincerely Queen of Hair.
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