TikTok-Favorite Hair Accessories Brand Sleepy Tie Enters Ulta Beauty After Initially Staving Off Retail

After hashtag #sleepytie crossed 200 million TikTok views, Sleepy Tie, the brand behind the viral hair-preserving satin double scrunchie that protects and prolongs blowouts, has made its retail debut at Ulta Beauty.

Sleepy Tie founder Rachael Shtifter had retail as a goal from the beginning of the hair accessories brand, and she had her eye on specific retailers. She says, “Ulta was on the list because they have such a heavy hair focus, but they took a chance on us because Sleepy Tie is a different category for them.”

Even though retailers were offering Sleepy Tie partnerships two years following its 2021 launch, Shtifter declined the opportunities until now, knowing that going the retail route too early on would drown the brand.

Rachael Shtifter says, “I knew we had to build up the direct-to-consumer channels first, which ultimately helped us to get into Ulta, and then move on to the next steps without ever rushing anything.”

Ulta has been careful with its rollout of Sleepy Tie. The brand is in less than half of the beauty specialty chain’s roughly 1,400 stores. Shtifter didn’t question the decision or ask for more. The brand is in Ulta doors that have sizable hair accessory departments.

Shtifter says, “I’m very trust-oriented, and I told the buyers, ‘You know your market best, so tell me what you want.'”

Shtifter always knew she wanted to be a business owner. She studied business in college at Hofstra University and got a job as a makeup artist in a local salon to support herself. Conceived in Shtifter’s dorm room, she opened Boston salon and spa Beauty Parlr in 2010. It became 11,000-square-foot beauty services destination Parlr in 2018. According to Shtifter’s website, the location has 20,000 clients annually. Shtifter operates branding agency Parlr, too.

When the pandemic forced the businesses to pause, she began to ponder products that could extend a blowout. “I needed something to do,” recounts Shtifter. “So, I taught myself how to sew and combine a few items I thought could help make my blowout last overnight, and it worked incredibly well.”

With a patent in hand and a fully designed website, Shtifter used her photography skills, marketing experience and all of her savings on Sleepy Tie’s launch batch, which sold out. She says, “I’m pretty sure that the organic hair market from owning a hair salon that I built up for six years before the launch of Sleepy Tie helped, but people look at the brand and think it’s an overnight success. It’s not.”

Now, Sleepy Tie has gone viral more times than Shtifter can count. At the outset, though, she struggled with social media and building the brand’s community. Once she began posting about her hair invention on her personal TikTok page, showing Sleepy Tie as the last step in a Dyson blowout, fans started clamoring for hair helper.

“People who use our products are proud of their results and continually post about them.”

Instagram was the primary sales driver for Sleepy Tie’s initial year in business, organic sales fueled revenue in year two, then TikTok became a big driver. Shtifter’s social media channels and continually selling out on Amazon helped bolster sales by its third year. Sleepy Tie sells different products on different sales channels, which Shtifter characterizes as complementing each other.

The brand has consistently doubled or tripled its sales annually. It didn’t disclose exact figures, but sales, inventory, price and assortment tracking platform Particl estimates it generated nearly $600,000 in revenues from its e-commerce business last month, selling over 20,000 units.

In addition to the original $29.99 The Sleepy Tie, now available in small, medium (the most popular) and large, there are new product additions such as $34.99 The Shower Cap, a product that doubles as a sleeping cap to protect hair, $26.99 The LuxeBonnet to prolong blowouts and protect curls, $39.99 The Sporty Set featuring a moisture-resistant spandex Sleepy Tie to preserve hair during workouts, and an assortment of brushes, headbands, hairpins, scrunchies and claw clips.

Shtifter credits Sleepy Tie’s success to the gap it fills in the market. “A key to a successful business is creating a product that works. People who use our products are proud of their results and continually post about them,” she says. “I think that the combination of all these things makes us continuously go viral, and because of that, our community wants to go viral themselves, and many do, so they keep posting about Sleepy Tie.”

Shtifter takes her role as CEO very seriously and estimates she spends 40% of her week focused on marketing. “After a video goes viral, I’ll use the statistics and data, but change something about it or say to my team, ‘Let’s do it more like this,’” she says. Talking about her role, she continues, “I’m not a mindless visionary running a business. It’s always about the corporate structure. I run the business with organization and purpose.”

Venturing into liquid products like shampoos and conditioners isn’t on Shtifter’s agenda for Sleepy Tie. “I’ve had so many people tell me to go into liquids, and I don’t want to,” she says. “I’d rather find a partner with them.”

Another partnership with a retailer is in the works for Sleepy Tie, and the brand expects to launch there later this year. There are also plans to expand internationally, and another patent is being developed for an invention that will revolutionize heatless curls.

“It pairs nicely with the existing Sleepy Tie portfolio,” says Shtifter. “We continue to focus on supporting these core launches and giving consumers what they want. I never want to be a brand that makes copies of other products. I always want my spin on everything we do.”