Pekela Riley joined Ulta Beauty’s Pro Team in 2018 as a diversity strategist and found nothing there for textured hair.
“When I began my work with Ulta, it was pretty much ground zero,” said Riley, an award-winning hairstylist and the founder of True+Pure Texture.
The argument she took in with her was not about adding a product line. It was about who gets to walk into a store and be served.
“If Ulta Beauty was going to be a beauty destination, it had to be a beauty destination for all,” she said. “I hated to see women coming into doors and stores and feeling othered.”
The stake in it is geography. A woman in a big city has options, a network and somebody’s cousin who does hair. Two hours from any of that, the chain store is the only door on the street.
“If you’re in Idaho, you may not be able to go and get a sew-in,” Riley said.
Sixty-five per cent of people in the United States have textured hair. The service most of them need has been treated as a specialty, which is how a woman ends up driving three towns over for something a salon could do where she lives.
Riley is clear that getting a national chain to offer it was not a favour anybody did anybody.
“What we are talking about is discipline and structure and respect,” she said. “Those values have to be aligned.”
