![]() “I wanted the product to satisfy the mindset and the lifestyle of our customer.” I was not interested in doing what I’ve done in the past,” he says. While it’s pricier to run a clean and sustainable brand, Fekkai hopes that, when the current supply chain crunch abates, the cost of goods will improve as brands increasingly opt for sustainable packaging and ingredients due to demand for products that are better for the planet and people. Our Clean Stylers, they’re at $26…We justify it with what’s in the bottle as well as the science in assembling the product.” “We start with a need and we formulate a solution, and then we go from there. “I can honestly say that we do the opposite,” asserts Wood. Wood estimates the brand’s commitment to sustainability doubles to triples its costs, but Fekkai doesn’t start with a goal price bracket that they back into. ![]() It’s more about the right solution, and then scaling it to get reach. It’s less about finding a price and backing into it. We build the best solution, and then we look at what is fair within the marketplace because we are a startup now. “We don’t necessarily pass those on to the consumer. Wood underscores the brand chooses quality, ethically sourced and eco-certified ingredients to put inside its bottles, and was among the early brands to walk away from virgin plastic for the bottles themselves. The Fekkai 3.0 value proposition rests on effective products that are clean and sustainable. Ten years ago, I don’t think you would see a 55-year-old woman going to work rocking some pink hair, yet today they want to go pinker.” Fekkai founder and celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai Pamela Berkovic “It’s not a surprise that Technician Color continues to be a hero because people are actually expressing themselves even more with hair color. “Now, we basically crowdsource it from the ratings and reviews and comments, not just on our own channels, but following other brands as well,” she says. She points to Technician Color, the first product Fekkai ever created that remains a bestseller to this day. Though the mediums may have changed, COO Crystal Wood, who joined Blue Mistral last year after executive roles at Tarte, Coty and Bobbi Brown, notes Fekkai has always crowdsourced product ideas from customers, particular those in his salon chair. Once we hear from the consumer that there is either a lack of a product or a wish or an issue that they have struggled with for many years, it doesn’t have to be directly correlated to their hair, but somebody could say the water in their area is stripping their hair or something like that, we are coming up with a product that will assist them and regulate the pH of the water, so that the hair will not be affected badly by it.” “What we used to do back then with print is now articulated through TikTok, Instagram, our website, all social media. “Today, we have to listen very carefully to our consumer, to our audience,” says Fekkai. One of the biggest changes that’s happened since Fekkai initially launched products is how much social media-and the direct conversation it facilitates between consumers and brands-informs the product development process. Fekkai’s latest launches priced each at $26-Clean Stylers, Prime Mist, Volume Spray and Straight Balm-debuted exclusively at Ulta last month and will soon roll out elsewhere. There are two luxury salons in New York City, but the heart of Fekkai is its expansive range of shampoos, conditioners, treatments and styling products sold on its e-commerce website, and at salons and retailers, including Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, SpaceNK and Ulta Beauty. Since it returned to his control, Fekkai and his team has been working on what they call Fekkai 3.0, a modern iteration of the fabled haircare player. A group of investors, including the CEOs of Designer Parfums and Luxe Brands, had taken the brand over from P&G three years earlier. His zeal for the beauty business not quenched, Fekkai bought his original haircare brand back in 2018 via Blue Mistral, a holding company he formed with Cornell Capital that houses Bastide and Fekkai. The couple relaunched the business as Bastide, a collection of luxury personal care and home products. ![]() In 2015, he and his wife Shirin Von Wulffen acquired Côté Bastide, a 25-year-old lifestyle brand from his hometown of Aix-en-Provence, France. Seven years later, he launched his haircare line, which Procter & Gamble purchased in 2008. In 1989, he opened his first namesake salon in New York City luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman. In his three decades in the beauty industry, entrepreneur and celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai has been both acquirer and acquiree.
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