With National TV Ads And A Spotlight On Salons, Mayvenn Aims To Be Much More Than A Hair Extensions Brand

Mayvenn has a new style, and it’s not shy about flaunting it.

Founded by Diishan Imira, the company has been selling human hair wigs and extensions via professional hairstylists and its website since 2014. Now, he’s shifting its focus beyond simply hawking hair products to showcasing the magic that happens in the salon chair.

“What we realized is that the products we sell are really only half of the experience,” says Imira, noting that the other half is the service required to install the product on people’s heads. “In addition to just offering really great hair products, we also want to help our customers find really great stylists to do all of the services they need. From that perspective, we really wanted to shifting our brand image and our story around all of the services provided in the salon, not just hair extensions.”

With the input of agency Red Antler, which counts Casper, Burrow, Allbirts and Prose on its client roster, Mayvenn is pursuing a major branding effort that includes a website overhaul, national television advertising and free wig customization salon services.

With the input of agency Red Antler, which counts Casper, Burrow, Allbirts and Prose on its client roster, Mayvenn has undergone an overhaul armed with a multistep plan. The initial step was a revamped website featuring updated imagery and brighter colors along with a fresh logo. The second step is a series of national television commercials, the only large-scale TV commercials Imira knows of tied to a hair extensions brand. Mayvenn’s take-command television spot entitled “All Hail Your Hair” kicks off with the directive, “It’s time for the world to bow down to your hair.”

“We have a lot of indicators from our other marketing channels that television is a really engaging place for a lot of our customers and are finding out about new things,” says Imira. “We’ll see how it’s received from a marketing perspective and how well it does.”

“In addition to just offering really great hair products, we also want to help our customers find really great stylists to do all of the services they need.”

The final aspect of Mayvenn’s rebrand involves free wig customization services for customers buying its wigs. “We get a lot of requests for wigs, but what we would hear from clients is that they’re asking questions about, ‘Is the lace already cut? Are the baby hairs already fluffed? Are the knots already bleached?’ These are things that they have to do after purchasing the product,” says Imira. “We wanted to say, ‘Hey, we can do that for you, and we can do that in a really easy, simple and affordable way that’s not going to cost you an arm and a leg.’”

A wig service estimated to usually cost from $75 to $200 is provided at no charge when wigs are installed by a Mayvenn-certified stylist. The wig add-on is an amplification of no-cost installation services the company has been facilitating for its bundle sets. Customers purchasing the products receive a pre-paid voucher that the stylist scans prior to installing them. Mayvenn sells more bundles and hair extensions than other products. However, with the introduction of the free wig installation service, Imira expects the wig segment of the business to pick up fast.

Mayvenn founder Diishan Imira
Mayvenn founder Diishan Imira

Imira emphasizes Mayvenn-certified stylists have to meet a strict stringent set of criteria. The stylists have to be licensed, work in salons, and post Yelp or Style Suite profiles for Mayvenn to examine reviews and ratings. Once the company selects stylists, it monitors their customer satisfaction to ensure its up to snuff. In the past five years, it has amassed a 50,000-member network of independent hairstylists and beauty professional.

Imira asserts Mayvenn’s close connections with hairstylists and salon services separates it from competitors. “Our success has really been reliant on and directly correlated to our ability to attract really great beauty professionals across the country and grow that way,” he says. “I think we’re the only company that distributes hair extensions through hairstylists, and that’s a really big value-add to both the stylist and to customers.”

“We’re the only company that distributes hair extensions through hairstylists, and that’s a really big value-add to both the stylist and to customers.”

In 2013, Mayvenn became the first venture-backed human hair extension company. It’s raised a total of $40 million in funding over five years, including from investors Cross Culture Ventures, Jimmy Iovine, Serena Willams and Essence Ventures. According to Forbes article that ran last year, the company generated $30 million in 2018 sales and reached a valuation of $100 million. This year, Imira says Mayvenn is on track to increase revenues by 80%.

As the company matures, Imira plans to continue to broaden its presence outside of hair extensions. By May, it will allow customers to book services through Mayvenn-certified stylists on their own without having to buy products prior to booking. “You can also just book a blowout if you want to, and you can just book a haircut or a trim or a wash,” he says. Imira mentions services will be priced at 30% to 40% lower than normally.

Mayvenn
According to Forbes article that ran last year, Mayvenn generated $30 million in 2018 sales and reached a valuation of $100 million. This year, Mayvenn is on track to increase revenues by 80%.

Previously, stylists received a commission and 15% of each Mayvenn hair sale, but that’s changed. Imira explains, “Stylists don’t sell our products anymore. we now bring stylists new customers. Our goal has always been to help stylists grow their business and make more money. Our old model was not as helpful to doing that as our new one because stylists expertise is doing hair, not selling it. Now, we are bringing stylists new customers and getting more clients in their chair. We no longer run a direct-selling company, but a product and services company.” The shift doesn’t mean Mayvenn is giving up on its bread and butter. The brand’s site remains a destination for human hair products.

Imira built his company catering to black women, a demographic traditionally underserved by the beauty industry, but he recognizes extensions aren’t bought solely by women of color. “Everybody’s wearing hair extensions. Everybody’s doing wigs now,” Imira says. “As that market grows—and I think it’s growing really, really fast—the hope is that more people even outside of the demographic we serve today will come toward the brand.” What’s his ultimate objective? Like Mayvenn’s commercials about its hair extensions and wigs, he isn’t afraid to be bold about it. Imira says the objective is “to be the largest hair salon in the world, but we won’t own any salons.”