When The Refig founder Tanya Perkins started making haircare eight years ago, she wanted clean products that saved time while not exacerbating her autoimmune condition.
“A lot of the brands out there will tell you you’ve got to do five incantations, stand on your head and take your entire Sunday and wash your hair just once a week,” she says. “I was always that girl who was participating in sports, and I wore a ponytail a good portion of my teens and my 20s. I was just like, this is not happening anymore, I’m an adult. I deserve to have haircare that’s going to let me get ready in minutes. So, I really decided to formulate that way.”
The Refig, which launched last year, has Reviving Shampoo Bar, Rehydrating Conditioner Bar, Redefining Conditioner Bar and Restyling Gel in its curly haircare assortment. The products are priced at $34 each. The brand’s bars are packaged in compostable bags constructed from plant resin and placed in paper pouches with compostable lining. For the holidays, The Refig created a kit with a conditioner bar, shampoo bar and bar tray. A kit is sent to a child in foster care with every purchase.
“We did that because we realized that a lot of kids go into the system without necessarily having the products that work for them,” says Perkins. “There’s actually a lot of work in the foster care scene around educating parents about how to not only be culturally sensitive, but also how to care for children who want something a little bit different than what their go-to care plan is and that’s haircare included.”
Restyling Gel is The Refig’s bestseller. Customers gravitate to its concentrated plant-based powder-to-gel formula, hold and detangling abilities. Flax seed, coconut oil and vitamin E are key ingredients in the formula. “You don’t have 79% of water just swimming around there doing nothing for your hair,” says Perkins, noting Restyling Gel’s format means it can require a bit of a learning curve for consumers. The Refig has produced quick videos for Instagram Reels showing how to apply Restyling Gel and its results that have been successful for it.
Featuring blue tansy, Rehydrating Conditioner Bar runs a close second in terms of popularity. Perkins estimates the bar is the equivalent of two 18.5-oz. bottles of liquid conditioner. While it’s formulated with curly hair in mind, all hair types can use it.
“The target audience really is people who are looking for an easier routine,” says Perkins. “It’s a no BS haircare line. We’re cutting out the bullshit when it comes to the long routines, the icky ingredients and the icky packaging. We just want to make your haircare easy, you’re not supposed to obsess about it. You’re supposed to shower, get ready, and go live your life.”
Perkins, who has a professional background in technology and finance, was uncomfortable vocally promoting The Refig in its early days. She says, “It’s really easy for me to go do business in my day job and to talk about other people’s businesses, but, when it’s mine, it’s almost that little bit of embarrassment of like, hi, I’m asking you to buy some haircare or pay attention to what I’m doing.”
That changed one day when she and a friend went around talking to people at stores. A conversation she struck up led to a connection with Urban Outfitters. The chain now stocks The Refig’s Restyling Gel on its website. Urban Outfitters’ interest altered Perkins’ approach to it. She previously had much smaller ambitions for the brand as a local, fun project.
With a bolder vision, Perkins was motivated to apply to Ulta Beauty’s Muse Accelerate Program. The Refig is a member of the program’s inaugural cohort along with BIPOC-led brands Pound Cake, Squigs, Ourside, Bonita Fierce Candles, Sade Baron, Yina and Dehiya Beauty.
Going forward, Perkins hopes to spread the gospel about the importance of plastic-free haircare. “I would definitely love to really educate the world about a lot of these alternative formats,” she says. “I’m out here doing this, not just because I have something that I think the world wants, but I really think that, if we were all more mindful about the ingredients that we’re using as well as the formats that we’re using, we can really make a big impact.”
The haircare bar segment is niche, but growing. According to market research firm Grand View Research, the global shampoo bar market is expected to advance at a compound annual growth rate of 7.6% to hit $17 million in 2025. In 2015, it stood at just $5 million. Retailers like Sephora and Walmart have picked up on the haircare bar momentum. Sephora carries haircare bar brands Viori and Superzero. Walmart’s site has haircare bars from Faith in Nature, Garnier, Love Beauty and Planet, and Shower Candy, among various brands, available for purchase.
In the future, Perkins aims to place The Refig in several big retailers. She says, “I would love to be in the bag of every curly-hair person who’s going to catch a flight or go to the gym and know that they have, in a very small space in their bag with no fear of leakage, everything they need to get ready and look great in minutes.”
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