Milbon, Japan’s leading professional hair-care brand based on market share, is targeting U.S. expansion through a unique partnership with esteemed L.A.-based hairstylist Anh Co Tran.
As the company’s new global creative director, Tran is helping the 65-year-old brand develop fresh new products and create a community of global hairstylists through large-scale in-person events.
It’s part of a slow and thoughtful shift to the heritage brand’s business model, Tomoko McCune, Milbon’s head of marketing, told Glossy.
“Historically, our business strategy was so focused on B2B, thinking that if we provide education and speak to the professional stylist, we are doing what we need to do. But we’re starting to understand that it is also very important for us to gain recognition, credibility and trust amongst the consumers,” McCune said. “So we have started to shift our focus of the business to B2B2C.” This shift, as of now, is only focused on education — Milbon has no plans to sell outside of professional salons.
Tran is well known for his cutting and styling prowess and has been a L’Oréal Professional ambassador in the past.
“I wanted to reach the next level of involvement [with this partnership],” Tran told Glossy. “I don’t think people understand how deep [the science and technology] goes with Milbon.”
Tran’s celebrity clientele includes Selena Gomez, Jessica Biel and Anna Sawai. He has more than 400,000 followers on Instagram and has produced dozens of masterclasses across the U.S. for stylists eager to learn his dry, “lived-in” hair-cutting and styling technique.
With his role similar to a fashion industry global creative director, today Tran represents a new type of brand partnership with a new type of beauty professional: one that partners on PD, digital marketing and experiential, on top of education.
Despite the company’s growing desire to appeal to more consumers, Milbon will still be sold only in professional salons to keep control over distribution.
Milbon launched in Osaka, Japan in the early 1960s. Milbon is the Japanese market leader in professional hair care, according to the brand, and can be found in more than 40,000 high-end salons globally. Milbon exclusively sells products through authorized salons, and its bestsellers include shampoos, conditioners and styling products in Smooth, Repair and Anti-Frizz collections. Its biggest competition stateside includes Oribe, Kérastase and Shu Uemura. Milbon Co. reported $357 million in sales for the fiscal year 2024, which was up from $334 million in 2023.
In the works for more than two years, Tran’s first official collection for Milbon is called Monochromatic and consists of three styling products: a texture cream, a styling foam and a finishing paste priced $36-$39 each.
To better understand and analyze the techniques that have made Tran famous and how they may inform a successful product launch, Milbon’s team used a range of audio and video recording equipment, including technology borrowed from the medical community, to capture and analyze his styling sessions.
Milbon is the first company in the world to examine hair, styling and product application through CAT-Scan technology, said Milbon’s McCune.
“We want to understand what they might be doing, because this person may have a very special technique that really brings an exceptional result, whether it’s a blowout, color, styling or cutting,” McCune said. “Then our science team will actually observe what they’re doing and scientifically break down what those successful techniques are.”
For example, many stylists will apply products starting from the bottom sections of hair, while others first massage the product into their hands for a lighter application. Analysis in Milbon’s hair lab allows them to dissect every move in a styling or product application session.
“The process was mind-opening,” Tran told Glossy. “As a stylist, sometimes you do things subconsciously. … It was very insightful, on my end, to understand my process a lot more.”
Since launching the new collection earlier this year, Tran and his team have set out on a global tour of sorts to educate stylists about the new line as the next part of his global CD role.
His blueprint for the new educational programming kicked off in Germany with a hair styling show on April 11. The ticketed event brought more than 400 stylists and salon owners from across Europe to the show to meet Tran and experience the new collection. “I was so humbled by the Germany event,” Tran said.
The event series, which is happening stateside now and will expand globally this year, is produced in partnership with Milbon’s many distributors. Attendees are charged a ticket fee, which varies based on country. For example, tickets for the Germany event sold for $56. Tran and Milbon also hosted a masterclass with 10 hairstylists with large social followings.
Moving forward, Tran plans to create two collections per year for Milbon, as well as educational content to live on both Milbon’s social channels and his own.
The change to Milbon’s strategy also impacts launch cadence: Milbon’s Monochromatic collection marks the first time in more than six decades that the brand has launched a new product globally in unison instead of staggered across markets. It marks a step into a more global, digital world, said McCune.
“Our goal is to become the most reliable partner for salon professionals. … And we believe that, by us basically continuing with this dedication, we will eventually become the most sought-after company by professionals to become the No. 1 professional hair-care company by sales volume,” McCune said. “We want to continue focusing on our partnerships with professional hairstylists. So if you ask us whether or not we’re going to also start making products that are to be sold at drugstores [or Sephora]? Absolutely not.”
