Tracee Ellis Ross Is Bringing the World the Celebrity Beauty Brand It Actually Needs

Meet Pattern by Tracee Ellis Ross, a line of hair-care products “specifically for curly, coily and tight textured hair.”

Tracee Ellis Ross for Pattern. Photo: Courtesy of Pattern

Lately, it seems like every week has brought the world a new celebrity beauty brand (or several). And while the power of star influence is strong, many of the recent launches have had inevitable airs of inauthenticity, of slapping a face or a name on an Instagram campaign for the sake of pandering to [insert celebrity with large social following here] fans, overlooking one crucial question: Does anyone really need this stuff?

And then Tracee Ellis Ross stepped into the beauty business and changed the game. On Tuesday, she introduced Pattern by Tracee Ellis Ross, a line of hair-care products “specifically for curly, coily and tight textured hair.” And yes, the world does still need this one.

Not only is Ross (like her mother Diana) known for her signature natural curls, but the natural curl care market has been an underserved one in the beauty industry, with many mainstream hair brands neglecting curly- and kinky-haired consumers. This gap in the market is something about which Ross has been acutely aware for much of her life: “@patternbeauty is the result of 20 years of dreaming, 10 years in the making (I wrote my first brand pitch in 2008, right when girlfriends finished) and 2 years of working with chemists. I’m so excited to share this with y’all,” she wrote in an Instagram caption announcing the brand.

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With formulas developed to “empower and nourish curly, coily and tight-textured hair,” specifically textures that fall in the 3B to 4C curl pattern categories, Pattern products have been personally approved by Ross herself: “My panel and I tried 74 different samples to get these 7 formulas for phase one,” she shared.

While the specific product lineup has not yet been announced, according to one Instagram post from the brand, items will include an argan oil hair serum, jojoba oil hair serum, medium-weight conditioner, hydration shampoo and leave-in conditioner.

Ross also clearly created the line in a thoughtful way, with realistic needs of consumers in mind: “@patternbeauty is for those of us who need more than a quarter size of product. Large conditioner sizes that actually fulfill the unmet needs of our community. Accessible pricing because everyone should have access to their most beautiful hair in their own shower, and gorgeous packaging that conjures the legacy of our history and makes us all feel like the royalty that we are,” she wrote on Instagram.