Carol’s Daughter was a forerunner in the market for natural products for textured hair, before other popular brands such as Melanin, Pattern, and Mielle Organics. The brand was born in 1993 in Brooklyn, in the kitchen of its founder Lisa Price, where she started out making fragrances on weekends before focusing her attention toward body care products. Encouraged by her mother Carol and by the success of her first creations sold at the church flea market, she quickly understood that there was a strong demand for effective, non-aggressive natural products suitable for textured hair.
"I was credited with starting the natural movement in haircare, but actually this was due to the fact that I started formulating in my kitchen, so I searched simple things matching with what my customers wanted," said Lisa Price during a press conference in Paris last week.
Carol’s Daughter experienced rapid development in the early 2000s, before being acquired by L’Oréal in 2014. An operation that sparked backlash from consumers, worrying about the fact the brand would struggle to hold on to the authenticity and DNA.
"In the US, Black people did not have a history of doing things with White-owned companies. We have bad stories of Black entrepreneurs having been stolen by big corporations and I think that’s why the conversation was not good at the time of the acquisition. But now, things are different and we have proven that with L’Oréal, we were able to do things even better for our customers," explained Lisa Price.
By joining L’Oréal, Carol’s Daughter was able to expand their footprint in the United States and selling their body, skin and hair care products with the main retailers throughout the country, until their entry at Target in 2021. An important issue since, even in the United States, the distribution of products adapted to afro-textured hair and skin is insufficient, showed McKinsey in a recent report [1].
In Europe, things are certainly no better. Even when they manage to find a store that offers products that suit their needs, consumers are often disappointed with the quality or quantity of what’s available.
It is to meet these expectations that Carol’s Daughter now takes its first steps on the French market, a few months after its launch in the United Kingdom and before rolling out accross the rest of Europe.
Four product ranges - Goddess Strength, Black Vanilla, Coco Creme and Wash Day Delight - covering most of the needs of curly and frizzy hair will be available from March, in 150 specialized sales points and on Amazon, at recommended selling prices ranging from 8 to 15 euros.
