“I did not wake up like this!” said the three-time Emmy nominated actress Tracee Ellis Ross in an article by Refinery29. The Blackish star is speaking to the lengthy regimen she uses daily to achieve the bouncy curls that sit atop her head. This candid statement, however, is equally reminiscent of the hair journey that has led her to pioneer her very first haircare brand: Pattern Beauty.
On Sep. 3, Ross announced this project to her seven million followers on Instagram. Famously known for her roles in television series Girlfriends and Blackish, Ross explains how her experiences in the acting world opened up doors of opportunity and personal liberation in the beauty industry.
Courtesy: Instagram
Ross first thought of Patten Beauty two decades ago while working on Girlfriends. Though the cast and crew of the show were predominately Black, the hairstylists were not experienced with working with natural hair. “They knew how to put heat on it,” Ross told Refinery29. Seeing the physical damage that her hair endured from blow driers and flat irons, Ross was more compelled than ever to nurture her hair back to life.
Being able to finally pioneer a hair product brand of her own has been “one of the most exciting moments” of Ross’s life. As the daughter of music and hair icon, Diana Ross, it was still a challenge to channel confidence through her hair in a time where not many people wore their hair natural. She told Refinery29, “As a teenager, you don’t look to your mom to see what’s cool. You look to music, entertainment, magazines, and the people that the world is saying are cool.” Reflecting on these impressionable years, she concedes that the compulsive need to conform to society’s standards of beauty is what slowly began to damage her curls.
Courtesy: Marie Claire
Today, Ross sees her hair as a symbol of strength and perseverance, by which she finds her greatest confidence. Ross explained, “It’s such a huge part of my being-ness, of who I am and how I dress myself. Now I have a name for it.”
As founder and CEO of Pattern Beauty, Ross admits that this debut was quite long overdue. For her, the recognition of a lost market for products that catered to girls with curls and coils was realized early on, but it took the rest of the beauty industry over a decade to catch up. Ross said, “Originally the response to [my brand pitch] was, ‘what was my credibility?’ I needed to partner with a professional.’ As I explained, but was not listened to, for most of us curly girls, we are our best experts. We know our hair better than anyone else.” Ten years later, Ross is still her own ‘professional,’ and has now taken matters into her own hands…quite literally.
Courtesy: Pattern Beauty
Over the last four years, Ross has partnered with chemists to create and perfect the right hair products that now comprise the starting line-up for phase one of Pattern Beauty. The arrangement of products includes one shampoo, three conditioners with varying slip, a leave-in conditioner, two serums, a large strong-hold hair clip, a shower brush, and a microfiber towel.
For Ross, maintaining the authenticity of her stylistic appearance is about more than just proudly carrying her hair, but inspiring other females with similar textures and varying patterns to do the same. She believes that embracing natural beauty is a form of activism. That is why the mission of the Pattern Beauty is two-fold: to “fulfill the unmet beauty needs of the curly, coily, and tightly textured community” and “celebrate, empower and embrace our true patterns.”
Courtesy: Essence Magazine
As Ross puts it, Pattern Beauty products are “for those of us who need more than a quarter size of product.” She champions that the sizing of Pattern’s products is what makes them competitive in the beauty market. Products range from $9 to $42 and are now available at Pattern Beauty and will be available in all Ulta stores Sep. 22.