In early January, hair-care brand Amika kicked off its latest initiative focused on the professional channel called “Stylist Collective.”
Stylist Collective is tasked with helping Amika’s in-house education team develop an education curriculum distributed to professional salons, as well as headlining both educational events and large-scale brand-sponsored events.
The Collective is made up of five members, including hair salon owner Eric Vaughn (549,000 Instagram followers); stylist Sal Salcedo (206,000 Instagram followers); salon owner Yene Damtew (137,000 Instagram followers); stylist and advocate Pekela Riley (103,000 Instagram followers); and, queer color specialist Jes Jewel (60,000 Instagram followers). Chelsea Riggs, CEO of Amika, said more people may be added to the Collective after the inaugural year. Stylist Collective members, who are compensated, chosen based on whether they are aligned with brand values, well-versed in working on all hair types and textures, influential within the pro hair community, and media savvy.
In May 2022, private equity firm Bansk Group purchased Amika, alongside fellow hair-care brand Eva NYC, for an undisclosed sum. BeautyMatter estimated in May 2023 that Amika’s 2023 full-year expected revenue would be between $175 million and $200 million. Riggs told Glossy the brand is “close to” 100% revenue growth since the acquisition. She previously told Glossy in July 2023 that professional hair-care sales make up 40% of the company’s revenue. Amika’s core demographic is millennials, but it’s also gaining traction with 18- to 24-year-olds, she said.
“We have a lot of really exciting [initiatives] coming out, and the Stylist Collective is the crown jewel which is going to drive our education curriculum and events,” said Riggs. “Amika was created and has evolved from a collective of diverse perspectives, like hairdressers, chemists, creatives and beauty lovers, in general. We wanted to curate a collective of stylists with unique artistic specialties and points of view versus [the industry standard of] one artistic leader.”
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Education will be the primary focus of the Stylist Collective, as Riggs explained that stylists and salons often evaluate the quality of a brand’s curriculum to inform whether they want to use and sell the brand’s product in-salon. Amika offers approximately 10 different types of professional stylist education modules, with multiple classes and localized content within each. Aside from living on the professional portal of Amika’s e-commerce website, content is also distributed through Amika’s Instagram account @AmikaPro (113,000 Instagram followers), which focuses on professionals. The Amika team will look at resulting engagement from professionals, class viewership, event attendance and feedback from the Collective stylists to evaluate the program’s success.
“We believe strongly in investing back into our customers. And from a business perspective, the Collective reiterates that they’re important to your brand. It can also encourage a sense of loyalty, plus it’s an investment in the industry’s future,” said Riggs.
Amika’s Stylist Collective comes amid a period of renewed industry and consumer appreciation for beauty expert guidance and recommendations in the form of stylists, dermatologists and makeup artists. In recent partnerships and campaigns, Cetaphil and makeup brand Laura Mercier have sought to elevate the makeup-artist-as-expert. Additionally, more indie hair care brands have begun expanding into the professional space, ensuring a new class of disruptive brands within salons. Tracee Ellis Ross’s hair-care brand, Pattern, began professional distribution in Aug. 2023, while Briogeo expanded to the professional channel in June 2023. Pattern is known for its textured hair products, while Briogeo has a mix of clean beauty formulas and unique ingredients like charcoal and avocado. Amika, which stands for “friend” in the universal language Esperanto, has long positioned itself as inclusive, innovative and fun.
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“The biggest change we’ve seen over the last few years [in hair care] is that people look for brands they can see themselves in; they’re not just looking for a hair-care brand with cool products,” said Vaughn.
