NEW YORK — The African-American market has just landed a coup with the rollout of Mizani Beyond, a professional permanent hair color fortified with oleo technology, which claims to minimize damage to already relaxed and possibly sensitized hair.
Mizani Beyond offers 20 shades and two intensifiers — one red, the other copper — and is now rolling out to 5,000 salons in the U.S.
While the general market has been enjoying the fruits of permanent hair color, despite the rise of harsh hair straightening treatments such as Japanese Thermal Reconditioning, African-Americans and other ethnic groups — who relax their hair as often as once every four to six weeks — have generally shied away from permanent color.
“African-Americans have been afraid to use permanent color because of the damage it can do to their hair, which has already been damaged through relaxing, but now they are beginning to embrace it,” said James Harris, Mizani master lead artistic consultant. Harris noted that between 30 and 40 percent of African-Americans color their hair — compared with 60 percent of the general market — with most color treatments coming from semipermanent services.
Mizani, which means “balance” in Swahili, is positioned as a high-end, professional-only ethnic hair care brand under the L’Oréal Professional umbrella of brands, and offers salon treatments and at-home products that are sold through a stylist. Mizani moved from the Soft Sheen-Carson division of L’Oréal USA to its current place within the beauty house in 2002.
With the move came several improvements to the brand, such as an intense focus on moisture and protein, and several new products based on technology from L’Oréal’s Ethnic Institute in Chicago. These items include Therma Strength, a strengthening serum, and H20 Intense, a nighttime moisture cream treatment. Packaging has also been upgraded to bronze-colored containers from pewter ones.
Industry sources said Mizani generates as much as $15 million in retail sales; with the entry into color, Mizani’s sales could grow 10 percent over the next year. According to Taydra Mitchell Jackson, vice president of marketing for Mizani, the brand’s sales comprise relaxers (40 percent), hair care (35 percent) and styling products (25 percent). Color is expected to make up 20 percent of sales in the next year.
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Mizani would not discuss details of an ad budget to promote the line but asserted, “We plan to fund marketing with investments in advertising in magazines such as Essence, a Web site, extensive education, such as color symposiums to educate stylists on how to use color, and a wealth of collateral materials for point-of-sale efforts and distributor sell-in.”
Jackson added that the brand is considering entering the semipermanent color business in 2006.