Tracee Ellis Ross PATTERN Beauty: A Textured-Hair Empire

FROM A 2008 BRAND PITCH TO 11 RETAIL PARTNERS: HOW TRACEE ELLIS ROSS BUILT PATTERN BEAUTY HER OWN WAY

In 2008, right after wrapping the sitcom Girlfriends, Tracee Ellis Ross sat at her computer and wrote a brand pitch for a hair-care line made for curly, coily and tight-textured hair. What she could not know was that it would take another decade — and 74 product samples — before a single bottle reached a customer. Her story belongs alongside the founders in our Black Entrepreneurs Worldwide: An International Spotlight feature: Black founders who turned personal frustration into global business.

A Decade of “No” Before the Launch

Ross has described PATTERN as “20 years of dreaming, 10 years in the making,” including two full years working with chemists to perfect her formulas. As a lifelong curly-haired consumer, she watched a beauty industry market straight-hair ideals to everyone — and refuse to make space for the textures she grew up with. “When I feel good about myself, I actually buy more,” she said at NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show. “Particularly when it comes to the Black customer, that in and of itself is the problematic equation. Telling Black customers that their hair was a problem, and that you needed ‘this’ to fix it, absolutely did not work for me.”

The breakthrough came when she connected with then-Ulta CEO Mary Dillon and merchandising vice president Monica Arudo, who Ross credits as the first people who truly understood her vision. PATTERN launched in 2019 with just seven products, one retail partner and direct-to-consumer sales — and grew from there into a global brand sold by 11 retail partners.

Building a Real Company, Not Just a Celebrity Brand

Celebrating Tracee Ellis Ross PATTERN Beauty and Its Impact

Ross is clear about one thing: PATTERN is not a celebrity licensing deal. She is the majority owner of the company and serves as co-CEO alongside Christiane Pendarvis. She partnered with consumer products house Beach House Group, which now has about 47 employees designated solely to the brand. “I am an artist, first and foremost,” she said at NRF. “My business acumen is very based on my creativity.”

The scale tells the rest of the story. What began with seven products has grown to more than 50 — including a steamer, a blow dryer and a three-in-one interchangeable curling iron designed for textured hair — across 11 retail partners. Beyond Ulta, PATTERN is carried by Sephora in the US and Canada, Macy’s, Amazon and UK drugstore chain Boots, making it a genuinely global Black-owned beauty brand.

Changing How the Industry Sees Textured Hair

Ross founded PATTERN to fill what she calls a “blank space” in beauty: an industry not spending “the time, the money, the attention” on the 65 to 75 percent of the global community with curly, coily or tight-textured hair — a US market she estimates at over $31 billion. Though the brand’s content celebrates Black beauty, its products serve anyone with textured hair. “I don’t believe hair has a gender or a race,” she said. “And I’m fascinated that the market for Black hair care is considered ‘niche.'”

Her message to founders is as blunt as her business model: know when you don’t know something, and bring in people who do. PATTERN started with about three people around a table. It is now a multimillion-dollar brand — built by a woman who refused to let the gatekeepers decide whose hair was worth serving.

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Tracee Ellis Ross PATTERN Beauty