What’s Going on With the Magical Mystery Shampoo?
Olaplex went from small batches sold from a garage to a $14 billion dollar brand in seven years. Then TikTok turned on them.
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It was, perhaps, inevitable in 2022 that TikTok users would figure out how an of-the-moment slicked-back bun could double as a self-care moment — and just as inevitable that the multitasking hairstyle would go viral.
Hence the Olaplex bun, where the “slick” of the bun comes from Olaplex No. 3, No. 6 or No. 7, hair treatments whose users are so evangelical that they tweet things like “Tempted to put Olaplex down as my religion on the census form.” By February, the hashtag #Olaplexbun had more than five million views.
The hashtag/hairstyle wasn’t created by Olaplex, said JuE Wong, its chief executive, though the company soon posted its own tutorial suggesting a cocktail of multiple products. “What started out as a treatment has transformed into a lifestyle accessory,” the company said on its website.
Fair enough. Olaplex has grown from three products made by hand in a surfboard-littered garage in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 2014 into a salon essential and a much-posted-about (and expensive) staple of millions of women’s at-home hair-care routines, among them Kim Kardashian, Drew Barrymore and Jennifer Lopez. Along the way, the company — its hero ingredient is said to repair hair and prevent damage from bleaching and dyeing — spawned many imitators and became shorthand. (There are now pretenders for the crown of “the Olaplex of nail care” and “the Olaplex of skin care.”)
In 2021, Olaplex knocked Dyson off its perch as hottest hair brand in a report by the shopping site Cosmetify. Its 2022 rankings have not been released, but Matt Davies, the managing director, wrote in an email that the Olaplex “will still come out on top. We sell every product, every day (stock permitting), and often have customers purchasing the complete collection despite the price.” (That’s about $225.)
In September 2021, Olaplex went public and was valued at more than $14 billion.
But for all the customers who think the products are capable of necromancing their hair, there is also dissent: unhappy customers, skeptical chemists, disillusioned colorists. Sephora.com has dozens of one-star reviews for Olaplex, some blaming the oils and creams for damage, many just saying the products don’t live up to the hype.
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