Tracee Ellis Ross Launches First Heat Tool for Pattern Brand: 'Dream Come True'
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Nadine Ijewere for PATTERN Beauty
Tracee Ellis Ross' latest beauty launch is going to blow you away.
Today the Pattern CEO and founder unveiled the hair care brand's first heat tool: a blow dryer "for curl conscious and textured" consumers, Ross tells PEOPLE exclusively.
And to complement the launch of The Blow Dryer ($189 on patternbeauty.com and rolling out to Ulta in-store and online later this year), Pattern also launched a Heat Protectant (a non-greasy spray that safeguards textured hair) and Shine Spray (a lightweight, frizz-reducing mist) both $20.
Nadine Ijewere for PATTERN Beauty
Since Ross launched Pattern in fall 2019, the brand has grown to nearly three dozen products and tools. However her latest creation was part of her original vision for the brand, she shares.
"Like all of us, I have a relationship with heat that started off as not a good one for my curl pattern, whether it was the physical pain of heat or the emotional pain of losing my curl pattern," Ross says.
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"But when I started to nurse my hair back to health, heat was actually part of the process. Using heat safely so it wasn't damaging and so it allowed me to wear different styles that weren't dependent on my curl pattern was incredibly important."
The experience inspired Ross to want to bring heat tools into the line. However, the entrepreneur learned that piecing together an innovative tool would not be as easy as 1-2-3. The process "took a really long time — about two years," she admits.
courtesy pattern beauty
The dryer has three heat settings, two speeds, a cool shot button and an ion switch to boost smoothness. "It's big enough that you can get the job done, but it's not heavy. It feels comfortable in your hands," Ross says.
Another must: that the tool be intuitive, Ross says. "New technology often looks really exciting, but when it comes to functionality, it can be a pain in the butt. For instance, I like to change settings while I have a blow dryer in my hand, not have to pull it down to see what's what."
So, Ross made the buttons easy to see, feel, reach and toggle between.
courtesy pattern beauty
Ross is "ushering in a new era of curl-conscious heat" not just with the blow dryer but with smart attachments, too. There's a concentrator nozzle, a diffuser, a brush and a wide tooth comb. The result: a heat styler that looks good and performs even better.
The star says the tools have been a game-changer for her routine. "I used to be a person who had to air dry my hair in order to get my best curls. And then by day two, my hair would be big and full of and beautiful."
But thanks to this diffuser, which boasts a vortex shape for controlled air flow, Ross says, "I can wash my hair in the winter and then diffuse it and get out the door."
The star calls that attachment a "big deal" but she also loves the others.
Using the brush or comb, which "mirror our shower brush and wide tooth comb," Ross says, she can "pull through" her hair to get "the stretch" she desires sans breakage. "When I had to hold a brush or a comb and the dryer, things got very complicated. Things would be falling and it was crazy."
The attachment tools can go in either a horizontal or vertical direction. There's also a lock in function so that you can lock the tool in so it doesn't fall off.
In sum, the tool is "innovative and beautiful," Ross says.
Ross shares that while beauty "stuff" is fun, her philosophy is that products and tools should be "used as a vehicle for your agency."
"That was the way I saw beauty used growing up when I watched my mother [Diana Ross]. It was a way that she transformed herself into a different version of herself that was more about 'this is me' than 'look at me.' And so I have always felt that beauty was an expression of your internal self," Ross explains.
"I just recently heard the activist Alok define beauty as, — and I'm going to hack it up a little bit but — the imprint of the soul. That it's something that blossoms. They define it in that way and I, for the first time, heard language that really expressed what I believe beauty to be."
courtesy pattern beauty
She continues, "So I believe beauty is about a holistic experience and self-care and that's what I've brought into Pattern because I feel that hair care is self care. It's one of the ways we actively love ourselves."
"It really is about a form of self-expression and embracing who you are and your legacy. And so that's what I feel about beauty and that's, I think, the reason why as I've gotten older, it hasn't felt like a daunting thing, but actually a very exciting and fun thing to sort of explore what this experience of beauty is."
