After two decades in the entertainment industry, actress, director and comedian, Tracee Ellis Ross, is taking her talents to the beauty community, with focus on the underserved curly hair community.
“Specifically for curly, coily and tight-textured hair-types,” the actress has launched a new haircare brand, Pattern, in an attempt to promote self-acceptance, particularly in people of color.
In a post on Instagram, Ross detailed her hair journey and opened up about the struggles and insecurities that came with thick, curly hair.
“I can literally chronicle my journey of self-acceptance through my journey with my hair,” Ellis wrote on Instagram, in a post titled, ‘If my hair could talk.’
“Growing up, society told me there was a right way to wear my hair and a right way to look. Those ideals didn’t match what I saw in the mirror, so I tried to beat my curls into submission – putting body lotion in my hair, sleeping in rollers, blowouts, relaxers, texturizers, ponytails so tight they gave me a headache, and I even whipped out an iron (the kind you use for clothes) in an attempt to straighten it that way,” she wrote. “Trying to make my hair look ‘easy and breezy,’ ‘bouncin’ and behavin’ actually had the opposite effect. My hair was broken, damaged, and tired of trying to be something it wasn’t.”
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Ross further explained her hair journey in an interview with WWD, and opened up about the hair discrimination in the entertainment industry. “The future of beauty has been so steeped in patriarchy, racism and sexism for so long,’ she said, as she doubled down on her mission behind the brand.
Though the brand seems long overdue for the actress, whose often recognized by her luscious locks, Pattern “is the result of 20 years of dreaming, 10 years in the making,” Ross explained on Instagram, adding that “(I wrote my first brand pitch in 2008, right when girlfriends finished) and 2 years of working with chemists.”
“Pattern Beauty is for those of us who need more than a quarter size of a product. Large conditioner sizes actually fulfill the unmet needs of our community,” Ellis continued of her brand. “Accessible pricing because everyone should have access to their most beautiful hair in their own shower, and gorgeous packaging that conjures the legacy of our history and makes us all feel like the royalty that we are.”
Pattern hits shelves on September 9. Are you here for Pattern?
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