After selling his first company, John Frieda Professional Hair Care, in 2002, Gail Federici thought his hair was finished forever. He had dedicated the previous 13 years to develop John Frieda, a society with the legendary British stylist of the same name, which he co -founded in 1989, and kneaded a fortune estimated at 170 million dollars with his sale to the Japanese giant Kao Corporation.
“I felt we had already lived,” Federici, 76, tells him a Forbes In a phone call from your home in Wilton, Connecticut. “I’m always interested in learning new things and I thought: ‘I don’t want to repeat the same.”
For the next five years, Federici took a radical turn to his career. Inspired by her husband James Smith, musician, and the interest of her two teenage daughters for singing, founded her own record label in London, Hometown Entertainment, and hired several artists, including the British British GX band and the English rapper Taio Cruz, who would subsequently launch successes such as “Dynamite” and “Break Your Heart” under another seal.
This detour did not last long. For 2013, Federici withdrew from his incipient musical career and launched Wow color, a hair care line that, according to her, was inspired by her sister’s gray roots. Its first product: a product to cover the roots similar to an eye shadow that lasts until the next washing. Since then, Wow Color has launched more than 60 products that fight everything, from frizz to dryness.
“They solve everyday problems,” explains Susan Anderson, a senior analyst of the New York investment bank Canaccord Genuity, specialized in beauty. This niche has been very lucrative for wow color. Jennifer Lopez used her products during her performance at the 2020 Super Bowl, and the “Dream Coat Spray” of the brand, of 28 dollars, is one of the best -selling hair products in Sephora. The company, based in Wilton, Connecticut, claims to have registered about 300 million dollars in revenue last year.
Federici, the only WAW color owner, has achieved it without resorting to external investors. Forbes Estimate the value of the brand in approximately 500 million dollars, although the growing value of its Wow color participation, which is now worth more than double what it received from John Frieda, has promoted its net assets up to approximately 600 million dollars. He held the 61st position on the 2025 Forbes list of the richest women in the United States who made themselves, recently published.
“I always tell everyone here:” When you believe something that matters, you want money. “
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How the fight against frizz and gray hair made this entrepreneur a 600 million pon
Hair care was not Federici’s first passion. Raised in Connecticut, where he saw his father leave his lawyer to devote himself to software development, he admits that he had no other plan than to live an “adventurous life”.
He studied English and art history at the University of Connecticut and, after graduating in 1970, followed in the footsteps of two of his three brothers, who studied right and enrolled in the Law Faculty of the University of Bridgeport (now known as the Faculty of Law of the University of Quinnipiac). While studying at Bridgeport’s night school, he got work as an assistant in Zotos, a Capillary Care brand based in Darien, Connecticut. Federici was ascending in Zotos, left the Law Faculty during his last year and finally became a vice president of corporate communications, where she helped develop ideas behind popular products of brands such as Bain de Terre and Acclaim.
His first love, he says, was not his career, but travel. At 27, he enrolled at the University of Paris to study French; At 28, he began taking battery classes and sing in a band at night; Already the 29, I already studied right at night. “I was totally disorganized!” Admits Federici, who adds: “My only clear vision was that I wanted a life where I could work between the United States and the United Kingdom.” It was during his time in Zotos that he met John Frieda, a resident in London, in a convention of the capillary care industry in London in 1988. He had a small product line and sought guidance on how to take it further. Meanwhile, Federici had been considering entrusting his own way and founding an advertising agency, partly because one of his twin daughters was born with congenital heart disease, which meant a new burden for family finances.
In 1989, he became his partner and moved to London. A year later, they launched their serum Frizz-Ease, one of the first products to combat frizz; It was an instant success. Subsequently, the popular SHEER BLONDE and BEACH BLONDE brands arrived. All this caught the attention of Kao Corp., based in Japan, which offered partners 450 million dollars in cash to buy their part in 2002 and access the growing market of hair care. It was an amount that Federici now describes as “irresponsible to reject”, although he admits: “I felt quite lost later (of the sale) because it was very fast and it was our life.”
With Wow color, Federici was able to return to the roots that made John Frieda a success. Before founding the company in 2013, he recovered Dr. Joe Cintetta, a chemist who met in Zotos and subsequently incorporated John Frieda. Fivetta was the one who contributed to the creation of the product to cover roots, one of the best -selling Wow.
Color Wow performs approximately half of its sales through its website and the rest through about 4500 physical stores, such as Sephora, Beauty and independent hairdressers. It has also expanded its scope through marketing with celebrities. At first, the company associated with the stars stars Chris Appleton, who used Wow color products in its customers, including Jennifer Lopez, the Kardashian and Ariana Grande. In February 2021, Wow Color launched the “Money Masque” with Appleton, a capillary treatment of $ 45 for super bright and luxurious hair.
Several other Wow products were inspired by Federici’s hair problems. The “Dream Coat Spray” arose after the mastery of capillary care attended a Aerosmith concert in Jones Beach. “I remember that I diced my hair perfectly, which took me a long time … and half of the process I went to the bathroom, I looked in the mirror and I was horrified,” he recalls. “I had a huge hair, and I want to say huge, with Frizz.”
In John Frieda, Federici helped Develop Frizz-Ease, which facilitated drying with curled hair dryer to achieve smooth tufts. But the products did not resist moisture. She and Fivetta got down to work. The formulas can return to the laboratory 50 times before receiving green light, says Federici. After many attempts, Cincotta arrived at Federici’s office with a demonstration: two hair samples, one treaty and one without treating. He used a dropper in both. Uncounted hair absorbed the drops instantly, while those in the treated sample accumulated at the top.
In 2023, according to Wow color, it sold a bottle almost every 4 seconds in the United States and the United Kingdom; That means more than 21,500 bottles a day and more than 151,000 bottles in just one week.
“The corporate mentality is simply to get a gel, get this out, they do not think about inspiration,” says FincoTta, who points out that he and Federici avoid sticking to trends and instead look for new raw materials that can help them do “the impossible.”
According to Federici, she and Fivetta maintain a list of all the products that they hope to develop one day, among which Dream Coat used to be. Some are still scientifically impossible, he says, but others could take only a few months. If all the tests go well, Wow color hopes to launch a large product next summer.
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The beauty industry does not look as attractive as a few years ago. Several brands acquired before or during the Covid-19 pandemic have seen their valuations collapse. An outstanding example: Olaplex Holdings, a capillary brand developed by two chemicals that is promoted with strengthening technologies, debuted in Nasdaq with an assessment of 15.9 billion dollars in 2021. Today, the company is worth only 900 million dollars.
By focusing on solving specific problems, starting with frizz and gray roots, Wow color has taken advantage of a lucrative trend, explains Dan his, Morningstar beauty analyst. “Consumers increasingly resort to specific products for each type of hair,” he says.
A report published by the consultant McKinsey last September reached the point of predicting the “hair skinification”, describing how the elaborate routines and specialized products that were once associated with skin care are being transferred to the hair category, which helps to boost its annual growth rate composed of 5% to 2028.
At the same time, several brands compete for a part of this growing market. Among them, Ouai, launched in 2016 by Jen Atkins, stylist and friend of Kim Kardashian, and K18, founded in 2020, which became an online cult brand thanks to her molecular repair mask aimed at chemically treated hair, not to mention the new incorporations of global giants such as L’Oréal. “The prestigious hair care sector has become much more competitive,” says Anderson.
Two or three decades ago, “if you had curled hair or wanted to treat it after dyeing it, there were probably not so many options available compared to today,” adds its.
Despite the increase in competition and recession, some beauty agreements of great success continue to thrive. In May, the company quoted in the ELF stocks announced the acquisition of Rhode, the skin care and makeup company of Hailey Bieber, in an agreement that could reach the one billion dollars, although about 200 million of that amount are conditioned to the company to meet certain requirements after the acquisition.
“I think there is definitely interest on the part of large consumer products companies,” says Anderson about the landscape of mergers and acquisitions in the beauty sector. “We have seen many of them be acquired by Unilever and things like that … there is still interest in a good brand.” In April, Reuters He informed that Wow color was considering a sale with an assessment of 1,000 million dollars. Federici confirms that he has received contacts from possible buyers for five years. “It has not been the right time for us,” he says, and adds that they are “talking and seeing what makes sense.”
If I sell, Federici acknowledges that he could end up in a situation similar to that of the sale of John Frieda. “I can’t imagine without doing anything,” he says. But, at the same time, it seems to feel a family limitation in its own sector.
Each of our formulas is completely different because we address a different problem. But, after all, they are still hair care products. I think at some point I would like to find another way to make a difference.
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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