An increasing number of beauty brands have shifted gears to get involved in motorsports.
Charlotte Tilbury and Wella announced F1 Academy partnerships in 2024 and 2025, respectively, and E.l.f. Cosmetics became the first beauty brand to serve as a primary sponsor at the Indy 500 in 2024. Forbes reported last December that women now comprise 41% of Formula 1’s fan base, with 16- to 24-year-old females its fastest-growing demo. (“F1,” the summer blockbuster starring Brad Pitt that grossed $631 million worldwide this year, may have been a factor.)
Privé revved up racing partnerships before they became trendy. Professional racing driver Sabré Cook posted her first paid videos for the brand back in 2023 and Privé became her official sponsor this year. Shay Hoelscher, Privé’s CEO and founder and a car racer, connected with Cook last year through a motorsports networking women’s group. At the time, Cook was the only woman participating in the competitive Porsche Carrera Cup North America series.
“[Sabré] always tells me, ‘Shay, you just restore my faith in humanity.’ It doesn’t get any better than that, right? I want to lean in more and give her more,” says Hoelscher. “My goal is to make so much money that Sabré doesn’t need other sponsors, I pay for the whole thing.”
Hoelscher’s willingness to invest in Cook before motorsports sponsorships became trendy in beauty mirrors the bold decisions she’s made throughout her tenure at Privé. She acquired full ownership of the brand in 2019 and completely overhauled it.
Privé was originally founded a quarter century ago by hairdresser Laurent DuFourg, a Biarritz-born celebrity stylist who had salons in Los Angeles and New York City. Flash forward to 2018 and the brand was purchased from DuFourg by Digital Hair Partners LLC, a group of haircare industry veterans, including Hoelscher, former CEO of Cezanne Professional products and VP at Alterna and TIGI. In the fall of the next year, she bought out her partners in Privé. She saw the once successful brand as having lost its way and requiring a makeover.
“It is my brand. I own the formulas. When I say ‘bought the assets,’ I mean the name Privé. That was it,” says Hoelscher. “Everything else, with my heart and soul, was rebuilt and repositioned.”
When Hoelscher assumed complete control of Privé, it sold through two salon distributors and on its own website. She decided to cut ties with the distributors, and today the brand has six independent salespeople selling to salons along with its direct-to-consumer distribution.
“In the industry that I used to know, you’d only sell your products through distributors. I was a salesperson for a distributor [in the past]. I went door-to-door to salons and sold my brands,” she says. “I really had to pivot, and I have to tell you, those were probably some of the most challenging and darkest days of my career.”
The distribution pivot has proved auspicious so far. As of June, Privé’s sales were up 30% from 2024. The brand is in the accessible premium tier of the salon market, with full-size shampoos and conditioners priced primarily from $28 to $30, styling products from $23 to $30 and bundles into the $80-plus range. Among the bestsellers are Moisture Rich Shampoo, Shining Weightless Amplifier and Hand & Body Lotion. The brand recently hired hairstylist Chad Cook, founder of Chad Cook Hair in Marina del Rey, Calif., as its creative director.
“I’m investing a lot of money in the company, hiring great people,” says Hoelscher. “It’s taken a couple years after we dusted ourselves off after the pandemic. We kind of took a breath, repivoted and repositioned, but we’re doing extremely well and poised for an incredible 2026 based on where we’re going and what we have in the pipeline.”
At the helm of Privé, Hoelscher has a purpose over profit mentality. The brand has a longstanding partnership with Project Beautyshare. For every dollar Privé makes, it dedicates 1% to support the hygiene needs of women facing hardship.
“It was really about doing what was right, being authentic, being responsible,” says Hoelscher. “It has to be about more than just the product. Who’s behind the company? What are their values? When that bottle is empty, when you’ve used all the Privé, it’s the emotion that remains, the concept of what the company stands for.”
Bootstrapping Privé gives Hoelscher flexibility to lean into those values. “Nobody owns my company. I can do anything I want. I don’t have to listen to a guy telling me what to do and how to do it or private equity, where all they’re looking at is numbers and looking at brands that are highly influenced by all the influencer craziness. I don’t want that,” says Hoelscher. “I want to be authentic. I want to have credibility based on who we are as a brand and the people behind it.”
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