The Workshop At Macy’s Participant Manhattan Grey Encourages Consumers To Embrace Gray Hair

Manhattan Grey’s big distribution project of securing placement at the country’s most prominent department stores has begun with a launch on Macy’s’ website.

Two popular products from the haircare brand specializing in gray and graying hair—$33.99 Moisture Pomade and $27.99 Hydration Oil—are slated to be on the site through June 1 as a result of its participation in The Workshop at Macy’s. They’re currently sold out, and Manhattan Grey is in the process of restocking them. The Workshop at Macy’s’ 2024 class contains 26 members that have an opportunity to win $100,000 in a final pitch competition and receive $5,000 grants. Others in the class in the beauty space are Flora & Noor and Swair.

Manhattan Grey founder Kerry Abner’s hair started graying when he was 20 years old, initially a blow to his self-esteem that he hid with hoodies, hats and hair dye. He noticed the messages he was receiving from brands encouraged his hiding by conveying that gray hair should be concealed rather than embraced. Now 37 years old, Abner says, “That was my light-bulb moment of wanting to pursue the idea of putting a healthy product in the marketplace that was more so about moisturizing and keeping gray hair healthy.”

Abner invested $5,000 from his personal savings to launch Manhattan Grey in July 2020 with Moisture Pomade, a lightweight concoction featuring vitamin E, beeswax, and castor, grape seed, olive fruit, avocado, rosemary leaf, sandalwood, coconut and argania spinosa kernel oils. The brand is positioned as unisex, but its customer base is 75% women and 25% men. Black women constitute the bulk of customers, and the age sweet spot is from 45 to 54 years old. Manhattan Grey’s $59.99 Moisture Essentials Kit with Moisture Pomade and Hydration Oil is its bestseller, and the brand expects sales to increase 10% this year.

A follow-up to Moisture Pomade, Hydration Oil was released in March 2021. It has olive, castor, sunflower and almond oils along with frankincense, sandalwood and tocopherol. Manhattan Grey later released a petroleum-free version of the pomade and an apricot scalp serum, which has since been discontinued. “I was doing too much too fast,” admits Abner. “I decided to focus on building a brand around my two bestselling, complementary products rather than offering so many SKUs and spreading my attention, inventory and messaging thin.”

Manhattan Grey’s products zero in on the primary challenges Abner has identified as coming with gray hair such as unruliness, dullness, itching, dryness, breakage and brittleness. “I wasn’t trying to solve all everything at once,” he says. “I just wanted to focus on those three to five core challenges and create, as close as I can get it, clean hair moisturizing products so that we can bring our gray hair back to life.”

Prior to developing Manhattan Grey, Abner worked in global marketing for a major record label. He says that marketing tactics from the music industry are transferable to the beauty industry. He views word of mouth as the strongest form of marketing. “People trust their friends and people that they love and respect or admire,” says Abner, noting that Manhattan Grey is partnering with influencers.

In advance of Manhattan Grey hitting the market, Abner introduced the Instagram and Facebook accounts Black Gray Hair. The former has over 11,000 followers. In addition, Abner produces gray hair educational videos on his own YouTube channels. He covers the ingredients that are effective (and not) for gray hair and what causes it. Abner says, “I’m creating this ecosystem of educating people about the different aspects of haircare and then giving it the blanket of the gray hair lens.”

Abner applied to The Workshop at Macy’s because he says he “thought it was a good opportunity for me not to only introduce the product to people in the industry from a retail buyer perspective, but also educate myself on how to be a partner to retailers, educate myself on the beauty industry as a whole and gain mentorship.” He previously took part in Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator.

Manhattan Grey is available on Amazon, but Abner’s main distribution targets are higher end retailers such as Macy’s, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s and Saks Fifth Avenue. The Workshop at Macy’s doesn’t guarantee brand participants prolonged placement at Macy’s. Abner points out that Manhattan Grey’s design—its formulas are housed in amber glass jars—was crafted to suit retailers carrying prestige beauty brands.

In the not too distant future, Abner’s goal is to enlarge Manhattan Grey’s team to support growth. At the moment, it has one employee, a business manager and a virtual assistant. “There’s going to be a lot of work for me to do to really build it out fully to where it’s an organization, so to speak,” he says. “My long-term vision is to have a major brand come and feel passionate about it enough to take it to the next level, further than I can take it by myself.”