The Glossy 50 honors the year’s biggest changemakers across fashion and beauty. More from the series →
In 2013, Gail Federici founded Color Wow at the age of 64. Starting a new hair-care business was not part of the entrepreneur’s plan — as co-founder and CEO, she had sold John Frieda to Kao Corporation in 2002. This June, the hair mogul achieved her second exit: L’Oréal acquired Color Wow for an estimated $1 billion.
The idea for Color Wow came to Federici organically, she said. Her sister needed a better way to cover her grays — something that actually looked natural. Women looking to cover grays made up a particularly underserved market, Federici realized. “It’s such a pain point for women, and [my] motto always has been, ‘If you make something that matters, you make money.’ And I knew this mattered, and I knew it was a real step up from what was available at the time.”
During the pandemic, the brand expanded into Sephora and saw massive social media traction as people looked for alternatives to their hair-color appointments. “Winston Churchill once said, ‘Never waste a good crisis.’ A third of our business had been in salons, and they were closed. So, I said: ‘We have got to be all over the internet during this period.'” It worked, and the brand quickly became overwhelmed by its own growth. “We blew up online because our products lend themselves to before-and-afters, and they work very quickly. We’re a problem-solution company. … We were going viral [constantly],” Federici said. Sales of the brand’s hero Root Cover Up ballooned by 1,469% year over year between March 2020 and May 2020. Over the next five years, the brand grew from $30 million in annual revenue to $300 million.
Federici said she knew the brand had global potential, but her team didn’t have the bandwidth to pursue it. So, she began to meet with potential acquirers. “L’Oréal really understood the brand; it was unbelievable how much they understood our DNA, our culture and our aesthetic. I just didn’t think there was anybody better than L’Oréal to take us [where we need to go], and I was right.”
Though it has only been a couple of months, Federici said Color Wow is already benefiting from the massive scale of L’Oréal’s systems and its tools, including analytics platforms it didn’t have before, as well as the company’s expertise. Now, along with market expansion, the team is also working on an expanded product development pipeline.
“Our people would have to wear five hats to [attempt to do the same work] we’re doing now, and L’Oréal has a full-blown team for every hat one person would wear,” Federici said. “It’s a little bit overwhelming at times, but the benefit is so huge.”
