Drybar founder Alli Webb on her new anti-blowout product line, Messy — plus industry news

“This product line came out of a very organic place of my own personal journey,” Webb told Glossy.  “I had fallen out of love with the blowout and fell more in love with my hair.”

After a $255 million exit from her blow-dry-focused salon and hair-care brand, Drybar, which sold consumers smooth and bouncy looks via in-salon styling appointments and corresponding products, she has launched an at-home product line to help consumers embrace the opposite. 

Called Messy, the product line is meant to create the anti-blowout look and includes styling cream for $32, serum for $34, shampoo and conditioner for $32 each, plus accessories and minis. The line is available DTC now and will hit Sephora shelves on June 24.

Webb, a former hairstylist, launched Drybar in 2010 before selling to Helen of Troy in a 2019 all-cash deal. Messy is backed by Unilever Ventures, which led a $5 million investment round with more than $3 million. 

“It feels like there is this movement that’s starting to emerge into this messier, kind of more undone [hairstyling trend],” Webb said. 

Glossy Pop senior reporter Sara Spruch-Feiner sat down with Webb to learn about the line’s origin story and launch. 

But first, West Coast correspondent Lexy Lebsack is joined by senior reporter Emily Jensen to discuss this week’s news, starting with a buzzy new lawsuit that could impact the future of beauty dupes. They discuss Glow Recipe’s new lawsuit against MCo Beauty for allegedly copying one of its hero products, $36 Watermelon Glow Dew Drops, with MCo’s $11.99 Hydrate & Glow Ultra-Dew Serum.

It’s the latest case in a string of lawsuits that seek to challenge the rapidly growing world of beauty dupes. As previously reported by Glossy, Australian beauty brand MCo Beauty has made waves in the U.S. since its stateside launch in 2024 thanks to its transparent approach to duping top beauty brands like Charlotte Tilbury, Glossier and Sol de Janeiro. 

According to a 2024 study by Mintel market research company, seven in 10 makeup users have purchased a dupe, and more than half of those surveyed actively look for makeup dupes on social media. 

Jensen and Lebsack also discuss L’Oréal Group’s latest acquisition of the British skin-care brand Medik8. Announced this week, the conglomerate acquired a majority stake in the brand, which launched stateside in 2023, to bolster its luxury and dermatological beauty division. The line is omnichannel, doctor-founded and led, results-based, rooted in clinical science, and priced under its competitors — a cocktail of the top attributes many investment firms and conglomerates are looking for today. 

Excerpts from the conversation, below, have been lightly edited for clarity. 

On pitching Sephora

Webb: “When I was thinking about this product, and [my brother and I] were ideating about this, we were figuring out: What does this look like? And really, we thought we would just launch it direct-to-consumer first and build our own site — which we’re doing, too. But then it was like, ‘Well, let’s just see what Sephora thinks.’ I am lucky enough to have built great relationships with Sephora, and I called them up and said, ‘Hey, here’s what I’m thinking. … I have this idea for this product line, and leaning into the messiness of hair, and blah blah blah.’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, I mean, we love it.’” 

On changing the packaging for Sephora

Webb: “We started to develop the brand. And in the early, early days, when Messy was first in its inception period, the product was going to be a very, very different look than what you see today. It was a much more muted, very simple and monochromatic, and Sephora actually really pushed back on us to do more. They’re like, ‘I think it’s not going to stand out that much.’ It was such an ‘aha moment’, because I was like, ‘I completely agree.’”