The conversation about diversity and inclusion in beauty is booming—and rightfully so. However, high-end hair care is seen as lagging behind in inclusivity for people of color, and when it does, it often feels gimmicky.
If your foundation doesn’t match, you can wipe it off, but messing up your hair is more risky. So my hair isn’t at risk from a product I don’t know the effects of.
That’s why Oribe’s new Moisturizing and Oil-Control Collection, created specifically for textured hair, is a big step forward in high-end hair care. The company teamed up with celebrity stylist and educator Stacey Ciceron to create the collection.
The four new products, including the Deep Treatment Masque, Priming Lotion Leave-In Conditioning Detangler, Styling Butter Curl Enhancing Créme, and Curl Gelée, are all made for type 4 hair, and each product is designed to nourish and relieve stress.
Ciceron, a hairdresser who counts Quincy Combs and Chanel Iman among her clients, calls herself a “naturalist” and incorporates her own experience with hair care into the product line.
Ciceron has been a long-time fan of the brand and says that when it first launched, she was busy with work and often worked backstage at fashion shows, so the “response was very strong” but she wasn’t sure where she would fit in with the brand.
“It was just a selfish motivation at the time,” she joked, saying she was excited when she was first asked to participate in the development of product formulas. “I also represent a large part of men and women with complex hair textures, and I understand their needs and I have my own unique position.”
In addition to the brand, Ciceron also spent a year testing and developing formulas. Before she came on board, Oribe already had a moisturizing and oil-control range, but she explained that there were some “gaps” that needed to be filled.
“They had products for curly hair, but they were more for loose curls, while the textured curls (type 3, type 4) needed more hydration, more pomade, and something that was easier to manage and less stressful.”
Enriched with avocado oil, the brand’s nourishing pomade complex, as well as coconut oil and the classic Oribe scent — which I can only describe as “Puff Daddy” — the new range delivers a hydrated, luxurious experience for your curls.
The product launch was a great end to the season. Like many black kids, the radiant hairstylist got her first straightener at age 11, and, as is often said, a year later, it nearly destroyed her hair.
Now, not only is she back to her natural hair, but her daughters are too. Cicerone, who frequently consults for haircare brands, says the experience was different this time because they didn’t do such meticulous testing. “They could have thrown it in the office,” she said, “but the office probably already had frizzy hair.”
Ciceron never met Oribe Canales in person, but he said of Canales’ legacy: “You know I would say (Canales) is a mood, OK! He is and was a complete mood.
It’s not just a moment. It’s a manifestation as a hairstylist, to see the evolution, the growth, the options of hair—you can start with this and end up with that.”
Canales’ dream of having a full product line that caters to all hair types was not realized, and while he couldn’t see it come to fruition, Ciceron’s commitment filled the void.