After more than two decades building its business through salons, Unite Hair is leaning into specialty retail as the distribution model that underpinned its success continues to evolve.
The professional haircare brand has debuted on Sephora’s website and will enter 300 stores in August, less than a year after expanding to all Ulta Beauty stores nationwide, underscoring its push beyond its salon roots. Unite has delivered double-digit year-over-year growth since its launch in 2003, and this year is shaping up to be its strongest yet, with business up 55% at the six-month mark. The brand is self-funded and hasn’t taken on outside investment, according to founder and hairstylist Andrew Dale.
“The salons that I used to see and we used to work with, a lot of them no longer exist,” says Dale. “Now that we’ve been in that professional arena with hairdressers using our brand and obviously those hairdressers turning the clients onto our brand, I think Sephora’s going to be a brilliant step for us. With us being in there, people will recognize it and see it.”
With haircare the fastest-growing segment of prestige beauty, Sephora has been bringing hair displays closer to the front of its stores and expanding its assortment of professional- and expert-founded brands. Dale believes those moves helped pave the way for Unite’s arrival.
Sephora will carry Unite’s 7Seconds Detangler, 7Seconds Shampoo, 7Seconds Conditioner, 7Seconds Glossing Spray and 7Seconds Masque, along with nine other products from the brand, including Boosta Volumizing Spray, U Oil and Boing Defining Curl Cream. Prices range from $37.50 to $55.50.
Dale began his hairstyling career at 16 as a Vidal Sassoon apprentice. At one point, he owned five salons employing 120 hairstylists. He founded Unite with the vision of developing high-performing products “by hairdressers, for hairdressers.”
“I understand how hair should look and feel and I understand what the consumer is looking for,” says Dale. “Hairdressers have got this cult-like respect for our brand.”
Unite made a name for itself with its 7Seconds Detangler, which launched more than 15 years ago and quickly became a favorite among the brand’s hairstylist fans. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez and Sofia Richie Grainge have talked about the product, too. A bottle is sold every 20 seconds or roughly 1.6 million units per year, according to the brand.
“Hairdressers have got this cult-like respect for our brand.”
Sephora has always been a retailer Dale dreamed of partnering with, but Ulta came knocking first. The strategy for the latter has been taking advantage of the brand’s professional background and working closely with the hairdressers in Ulta. Dale’s goal is for every stylist there to have a 7Seconds Detangler at their station.
Professional haircare isn’t new at Sephora, and Unite joins brands such as Bumble and bumble, Pureology, Redken and Kérastase that built their businesses in the salon channel before expanding to the beauty specialty retailer. Unite’s route to Sephora, however, is unconventional.
It’s among a growing group of brands starting with Ulta and later expanding to Sephora, a trajectory that was virtually unheard of in the past (IT Cosmetics was a rare exception). Recently, MAC Cosmetics and Vacation have followed a similar path. The trend illustrates Ulta’s power while suggesting Sephora’s longtime status as a prestige beauty kingmaker and the perceived need to land an exclusive partnership there before expanding elsewhere are eroding.
Unite releases two products a year, most recently introducing an anti-frizz product as part of its 7Seconds line. The brand isn’t afraid of revamping an existing product with a new ingredient or improving its packaging with, for example, an upgraded sprayer.
More than 20 years in, Dale is intent on Unite not being a brand that sits on its laurels. “Brands can be around a really long time as long as they reinvent themselves and make sure that they’re not sitting back and just saying, ‘Yeah, we’re selling. It’s OK,’” he says. “No, you’ve always got to be on that cutting edge.”
That approach has informed Unite’s retail expansion. Dale hopes to place the brand in Sephora’s more than 500 doors stores across the Americas and has his sights on the retailer’s international network as well. Unite is currently sold in around 15 countries.
“The next step for us is just making sure that we can prove to Sephora that we are a legit brand that people want and get into more stores,” he says. “I’ve always wanted Unite to be the brand that, when somebody thinks about wanting healthy hair, great looking hair, being able to do anything they want with their hair, I want them to think of Unite, and the way that is obviously going to work is being in distribution channels like Sephora.”
