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Rihanna’s Fenty Hair Launch: Can Lightning Strike Twice?

James Manso

June 14, 2024 at 5:05 AM·4 min read

Rihanna’s makeup brand launch set the celebrity bar astronomically high in 2017. Can she reach it again?

Fenty Hair, the entertainer’s fourth category expansion, debuted Thursday, following her initial makeup launch — which topped 500 million euros in sales in 2018 — and the successive forays into skin care and fragrance.

It’s early days for the hair range, but as for whether Rihanna can hit previous levels of success with it, the industry seems to think so.

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“The move capitalizes on premium hair care’s fast growth as a category and stays true to the brand elements that have made Fenty successful in other categories, such as catering to a diverse consumer base through both product and marketing imagery,” said Manola Soler at Alvarez & Marsal.

“The category’s success will hinge on the ability of the formulations to deliver from a quality and performance perspective, but overall the move feels like a strong extension for the brand,” she continued.

Fenty Hair encompasses nine products across care and styling, from an edge tool and heat protectant to a shampoo, conditioner and deep conditioner. They range in price from $18 to $36, and launched on the brand’s website directly.

Each product features a proprietary complex called Replenicore-5, which contains amino acids, proteins and antioxidants like Barbados gooseberry, upcycled jackfruit extract, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and green tea extract. They are intended for all hair types.

“They’ve done a good job of calling out the science backing and the compound they launched with,” said Lauren Bitar, chief innovation and strategy officer at Trendalytics. “A lot of celebrity lines just fizzle, because anyone can launch a perfume, but is there meaning behind it?”

Prestige hair care grew 10 percent in the U.S. in the first quarter, per Circana data, with celebrity brands growing 64 percent.

NielsenIQ data shows that sales of celebrity beauty brands grew 12 percent over the past 52 weeks, with more than half of those sales coming from cosmetics and nail, followed by fragrances and skin care. Hair care trails behind all of them.

“While cosmetics and fragrance lines by celebrities have seen significant success, hair care remains relatively untapped. This represents an opportunity for celebrities to branch out into hair care, offering products like shampoos, conditioners, treatments, and styling tools,” said Anna Mayo, vice president of beauty thought leadership at NielsenIQ. “The potential for innovation and market penetration in hair care is substantial, especially as consumers seek trusted and authentic brands.”

Soler agreed that the opportunity in the category is large and largely untapped.

“We have continued to see celebrity activity in the beauty space, but previously the focus was more on the makeup and skin care side — Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty and Hailey Bieber’s Rhode,” Soler said. “We have also seen significant growth in the number of brands and distribution channels for multicultural hair brands at the premium and ‘masstige’ side of the pricing spectrum.”

That includes Cécred, the Beyoncé-founded hair care line that debuted in February. That brand started off with a bang on social media, one that has since flattened. CreatorIQ data shows that during launch month, earned media value reached $13 million; May’s fell to $2.1 million.

Conversely, Rihanna’s entry into hair is having a halo effect on the other categories she plays in. Trendalytics said engagement with Fenty Beauty was down 23 percent year-over-year — a decline offset by the whopping 770 percent spike in engagement after the Fenty Hair launch announcement. On TikTok, audience engagement grew 807 percent.

Pointing to celebrity brand success stories, like Hailey Bieber’s Rhode, product performance is also crucial. “Look at the Rhode blush, it got so many views, and for Rare Beauty, blush is a powerhouse, too,” Bitar said.

“It’s very smart, they already had very strong brand images before they started and it wasn’t just that they were famous,” Bitar continued of successful celebrity brands — Fenty included. “Your name is only going to get you so far, and it’s good that they’re being thoughtful about messaging and packaging and everything.”