Textured hair: Richualist founder plugs 'pain points' with all-in-one tool

For the last five years, attorney-turned-entrepreneur Dawn Myers has been hard at work developing an innovative new option to care for and manage textured hair styles. When she joined the millions of Americans in embracing the natural hair trend, she found herself faced with a veritable dearth of options to help her maintain her hairstyle between work and athletic activities. Like so many others with textured hair, she found that while there were some effective liquid product options, she needed help to better define and maintain her curls - and that help did not exist on the current market. 

Fast forward to February 2023, and Myers' company, The Richualist, has just launched their keystone product offering: The Mint. An innovative form of textured hair styling and maintenance technology in this segment of the hair care space, The Mint features a unique styling pod that can be filled with the user's preferred textured hair care product. Once filled, the pod is gently warmed by the device, which then is used to evenly distribute the product before detangling and styling - and reducing users time spent on their hair by an average of 50%. 

To learn more about the development, practical applications, and launch of The Mint all-in-one textured hair tool, CosmeticsDesign sat down to speak with Myers about her commitment to providing consumers with textured hair the opportunity to revolutionize their hair care experience. 

See a need, fill a need

 “The textured hair space has developed so much over the past 15-20 years,”​​ Myers began. Over that time, dozens, if not hundreds, of different types of liquid product formulations have been developed and released to address textured hair concerns – some of which, like Mielle Organics, have been so successful they are now being brought to the mass market. While the abundance of available liquid textured hair care products is no longer an issue, there has been little movement “to help with the cumbersome logistics around styling and caring for curly hair” ​before the release of The Mint, she said. 

“The other tools on the market are largely focused on straightening our highly textured hair, rather than helping us achieve faster and healthier curly results​,” she explained. As chemically or physically straightened hair continues to fall out of favor with BIPOC consumers, there is a significant need for existing technology to evolve and be better adapted to the unique needs of textured hair care. By identifying “textured hair styling pain points that go unnoticed and unaddressed by major manufacturers, we can solve this problem because we know it so well.” ​

Exceeding expectations and delivering results 

The Mint technology incorporates styling pods into the device, which hold and warm the user’s preferred textured hair care product. Once the product is at optimum temperature and consistency, the device helps the user detangle and style hair more quickly than traditional options. 

The Mint method offers “better product penetration, more slip, faster detangling, and better moisture retention.” ​Achieving the optimum temperature is essential to the product’s success as “gentle warmth offers so much unprecedented value for natural hair and unlocks so much efficacy for consumers dying for a new, easier way,” ​Myers further explained. 

Substantial product testing and refinements have given way to encouraging results. “On average,” ​said Myers, “we are seeing a 50% reduction in the time it takes to detangle and style highly textured hair, which is a massive time savings for women who spend upwards of an hour on this process.” ​The value of time and added convenience to consumers cannot be overstated, and a product that provides “massive time savings, less product waste, and better-defined kinks and curls is exactly what this consumer is looking for: a product that is responsive to their life’s most intimate pain points.” ​

Innovation in textured hair tech

According to recent insights published by NisenIQ Omnishopper, the buying power of African American shoppers in the U.S. is expected to reach $1.8 trillion in 2024, and in 2022 “Hair Care is the top category for Black consumers, with approximately $2.29B in annual sales​.” As the natural hair movement continues to gain momentum on social media and in popular U.S. culture, the consumer demand for products that cater to the unique needs of textured hair types continues to increase dramatically.

For companies in the space looking ahead to 2024, the growing textured hair care market can benefit from continued adaptability and technological advancement. With the launch of The Mint by Richualist this month, it will be intriguing to see consumer interaction and response to the newly developed product and see if other companies in the textured hair care space will also move to invest in textured hair care technology. Considering The Mint offers consumer’s the flexibility to continue to use their textured hair care products of choice, there is also great potential to see partnerships with other textured hair care brands soon.