Ulta Beauty is on a hair-growth journey. On Monday, the beauty giant will launch the scalp-focused hair-care brand Nutrire on Ulta.com, followed by a rollout to 250 doors on August 23.
“[Ulta] is always scouting for what’s next,” said Kristen Chase, gm at Nutrire. “They didn’t see [scalp care] as a trend; they’re seeing it as a shift, which it truly is.”
Nutrire was launched in 2025 by the incubation arm of Chicago’s Tricoci Salon & Spa, which has also launched Tricoci Haircare and Tricoci Skincare. Nutrire’s proprietary Complex8 ingredient claims to block the DHT hormone, which contributes to shrinking hair follicles. Ulta will carry all nine of its SKUs as the brand’s first retail partner.
Hair-care products made up 18% of Ulta’s $3.2 billion sales in the first quarter of 2026, according to the retailer’s most recent earnings report. Salon giants Redken, Olaplex and Pureology are Ulta’s top-selling hair-care brands, according to Q1 data from market research company Jump Accelerator. The company also found that Ulta’s top-selling hair products range from $6.50-$36.
Nutrire’s products, meanwhile, range in price from $36 for its shampoos and conditioners to $68 for its scalp serums. But Chase is confident the Ulta consumer is willing to pay top dollar for premium hair care.
“When you look at the [hair-care] category overall, I think people have been really trading up as they realize that purchasing efficacious products with clinically proven ingredients truly deliver value,” said Chase.
According to Circana’s Q1 2026 report on U.S. beauty sales, hair is the one category where prestige growth is outpacing mass; from January 2026 to March 2026, prestige hair-care sales grew 10% compared to the same period a year prior, while sales in the mass hair category grew 6%.
Chase believes that Nutrire, which will sit in Ulta’s “Sparked” program for new and emerging brands, will appeal to the retailer’s “Diamond” tier consumer — consumers can achieve Diamond status by spending $1,200 on qualifying products in a calendar year.
“I know, too, that [Ulta] is looking to get further into more higher-end beauty tiers, and they’ve got such a great way of blending mass, masstige, prestige and luxury all together in one store,” she said. “[Nutrire] is one of those brands where you could invest in a $68 serum, and then buy a $5 lip balm.”
Nutrire joins an evolving hair category at Ulta. In April, the retailer welcomed Hairstory, known for its detergent-free New Wash. The beauty giant also added six Korean hair brands to store shelves in the spring, including the collagen-boosting Growus and recovery-oriented brand Refilled. In 2025, it added Shakira’s Isima brand to its existing lineup of celebrity brands like Beyoncé’s hair-care line Cécred.
Ulta is not alone in seeing the opportunity in a new generation of hair care: Rival beauty retailer Sephora is boosting its hair assortment with a lineup of K-beauty brands. Skin-care brands are also increasingly launching hair lines, ranging from mass market lines like E.l.f., which debuted an under-$10 line of hair products in June, to luxury brands like Kat Burki, which launched a $90 hair and scalp treatment in 2025.
That means there is also ample competition for the hair-care consumer willing to upgrade from the drugstore standbys. But as skin-care behavior spreads to hair, that consumer is also likely stacking their cart with more than just the standard shampoo-and-conditioner combo.
“I feel like this is like the most exciting and disruptive time in hair that I’ve experienced,” said Chase, who spent over a decade at L’Oréal prior to joining Nutrire. “You have the skinification of hair; you have people who are now creating customized scalp routines that can act with the same precision and the same results as a skin-care routine.”
