What Mielle Organics' Acquisition Really Means — for Consumers and the Industry

Fashion and beauty experts weigh in on the controversial topic.

When talking about Black founders in the fashion and beauty space, the adage 'with great power comes great responsibility' seems to be a common theme. As seen in the recent discourses around brands like Shea Moisture, Honey Pot Co. and, more recently, Pyer Moss, when you have an entire community supporting your product, there's this unspoken expectation to get everything — for lack of a better word — right. So when it was announced last month that the natural hair-care line Mielle Organics would be acquired by Procter and Gamble (P&G), some feared that the brand was "selling out," while others argued that the brand and its founders were simply acting in the best interest of the future of the company, long-term.

"I think that, as a people, the emotion we feel toward these brands goes deep — we feel incredibly connected," says beauty and fashion expert Blake Newby. "To that point, we have in fact seen that, in some acquisitions, the quality of product has changed, [the] target demographic seems to change and it's not always for the best."

In 2017, Shea Moisture, a beloved brand within the natural hair community, was acquired by Unilever along with other Sundial Brands, and dedicated users of their lines began to notice significant changes in their formulas. The Unilever-backed version of the company also put out a questionable commercial that made it clear there had been a shift in the brand's targeted demographic and that Black people were no longer being considered in the same way they had been before.

View the original article to see embedded media.

This and other past post-acquisition transformations had many consumers fearing the worst for Mielle's sale, particularly because it came shortly after overnight TikTok sensation Alix Earle had stirred up controversy for white-washing the brand — specifically its Rosemary Mint Hair Growth Oil, which many Black consumers rely upon. Like everything the young influencer touches these days, the product began to fly off shelves. This opened the proverbial floodgates of video stitches (the hashtag #miellehairoil is currently sitting at 182.1 million views), tweets, comments and think pieces expressing frustration that the product had become less accessible and questioning why a formula geared toward coily hair would need to be promoted outside of the textured hair community in the first place.

Mielle first entered the market in 2014 when founder Monique Rodriguez's personal hair growth regimen went viral on social media. What started with one product — the brand's Advanced Hair Formula — has since grown into 10 different collections that are available in a host of popular retailers, including Target, Walgreens, CVS and Walmart. But unfortunately, Rodriguez is something of an anomaly in the industry. Her trajectory for success hasn't always been accessible for Black businesses.

View the original article to see embedded media.

"It's said all the time but it bears repeating: Nothing moves without us," says Newby. "[Black people] are the driving force behind trends and innovation. However, due to lack of access to capital, our dynamic ideas and creations are often not able to be fully realized."

(Global shopping and payment services platform Klarna supports these claims in its consumer beauty trend report, which found that hair texture product purchases have increased 840% over the last two weeks. In the last year, shopping for hair oil has increased 42%.)

This is one of the reasons why bridging the gap between culture and capital is so important. "[It means] putting Black entrepreneurs in [a] position not only to interact with the money — be it investors, large conglomerates, etc. — but to also give them the know-how and resources to prepare their brand to be appealing to the larger marketplaces and to those financial institutions," Newby adds. "In short, it's getting us the money we have long deserved."

"I think what people don't know is that for many — I'd even say most — brands, the goal from inception is actually acquisition," she says. "In fact, I recently had a conversation with a young Black founder who emphatically let me know that her brand was being built with acquisition front of mind."

When the majority of consumers think of acquisitions, they may assume that it means founders are signing over the company and washing their hands of it entirely. That's not always true. In the case of Mielle Organics, the brand will operate as an independent subsidiary of P&G beauty, with Rodriguez and her husband maintaining their positions as CEO and COO, respectively – proof that brand owners can continue to have a say and call the shots even after inviting investors in on their business.

"This will give Mielle Organics the opportunity to have an even broader reach, to have a more robust network of production resources and actually helps to level the playing field of a still very unleveled industry," adds Newby. "[It] creates more space and opportunities for Black beauty entrepreneurs coming after them to have access and visibility to possible acquisitions for their own brands."

Fashionista spoke with a handful of Black beauty founders back in 2021 and apart from financial growth, most listed exposure beyond the Black community as a goal — one which their consumers may not consider. "The most common misconception is that Black people only make products for other Black people," said Nyakio Grieco, founder of Thirteen Lune – a beauty e-commerce retailer that gives Black and Brown brands a platform to be discovered by the rest of the world.

"Just like a business from any other race can create a product or service that serves a diverse customer base, so can a Black-owned business," echoed Jacqueline Carrington, founder of nail polish brand People of Color Beauty, in the article. "No one seems to question other races if their product or service can be used by someone else outside of that race, so why is that asked of Black-owned businesses?"

Furthering the point that Black-owned brands aren't only for Black people, many Brown creators, of Latin and Southeast Asian descent primarily, pointed out that while a number of white creators found the Mielle formula to be too harsh for their fine strands (per their own product reviews), using heavy hair oils to stimulate growth was also quite common within their communities. And as one creator put it, the process is almost "ritualistic" as women would sit together and massage oil into their scalps together.

But for these Black-owned brands, sometimes, expanding your clientele comes at a cost — both monetary and with the risk of losing consumers. For those beauty and fashion entrepreneurs that find (or will find themselves) in this position, Newby has a few words of advice: "Do what's best for you, but understand that there is a community of people behind you who have, in most instances, sustained your brand and put it in position for acquisition."

She also emphasizes that investment and acquisition simply don't have to come at the cost of the brand's soul. It's all about finding the right partner — ideally one that's invested in the brand's ethos as well as its financial growth.

"Be sure that who you're selling or giving a portion to fully understands your short-term and long-term goals for the brand and your consumers," she adds. "I see it everyday — there are financial entities and individuals dedicated to our community out there ready to offer capital."

Please note: Occasionally, we use affiliate links on our site. This in no way affects our editorial decision-making.

Want the latest fashion industry news first? Sign up for our daily newsletter.