As I Am

As I Am is an American hair-care brand built around products for tightly coiled and curly hair. It was founded by the chemist Dr. Ali N. Syed and is made at the company's headquarters in Melrose Park, Illinois, which the brand says is 100% owned and operated by the Syed family and entirely self-funded [1]. The line is sold across mainstream US retailers including Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, Amazon and Sally Beauty, and it remains active, with continued press coverage and a large social following into 2026.

The brand's own accounts of its starting point do not fully agree. The company's homepage states that "Dr. Ali Syed founded As I Am in 2011" [2], a date echoed by its Instagram biography, which notes that the inaugural Classic Collection appeared that year. The about page instead frames the launch loosely as the "mid-2000s," following Dr. Syed's earlier success [1]. The explicit, cross-corroborated 2011 date is the one the brand uses most consistently.

As I Am is the work of Dr. Ali N. Syed, a chemist whose career long predates the brand. According to an editorial profile in the textured-hair trade publication Black Beauty & Hair, Syed was born in India, fled as a child during the 1947 partition, and immigrated to the United States in 1972 after teaching chemistry in Pakistan and Tanzania [5]. He took his first laboratory work at Johnson Products, then a leading Black-owned hair-care manufacturer, where he spent roughly a decade and earned his first patents.

In 1984 Syed founded Avlon Industries, a professional hair-care company he summarised with the motto "The Science of Haircare." The same profile describes As I Am as his first retail range — a set of collections formulated for home use rather than the salon — and links its arrival to the growing natural-hair movement of the era [5]. The brand positions Syed as a specialist in the field; its homepage credits him with 45 patents in curly-hair care [2], while the about page gives the figure as "over 30." The count is cumulative across his career at Johnson Products, Avlon and As I Am rather than patents held by the As I Am line alone.

As I Am presents itself as science-led hair care made specifically for textured hair, developed through research with professional chemists and stylists. The about page states the products are formulated without mineral oil, sulfates or silicones and emphasises naturally derived ingredients [1]. The company describes its mission as providing "the very best products, education and customer service" to each customer, alongside a social-giving commitment to donate one dollar per order to causes focused on growth, education, development, justice and prosperity. Its public tagline is "Beautiful curls & coils."

The range is organised by curl type, from Type 4 coily to Type 1 straight hair, and by need — hair growth, moisture, scalp care, repair and so on. One point the brand addresses directly is ownership and audience: As I Am has stated on its TikTok account that it is not Black-owned, while noting that its products work across many curl types [8]. The line is priced for the drugstore tier and distributed through a multi-channel retail model rather than a single exclusive partner.

As I Am's catalogue is built from ingredient-led collections. Hero ranges include an Onion Collection combining red onion, ceramides and isoquercetin, marketed around hair growth, plus lines built on rosemary, coconut, Jamaican Black Castor Oil, rice water and batana oil. Among its most-cited individual products are the Coconut Co-Wash, a cleansing conditioner; Rosemary Oil; the Coil Defining Jelly; and Curl Color, a temporary colour gel. The brand's press page reports a clinical claim that its Curl Color gel "strengthens hair by 6% after one application" [4].

The Coconut Co-Wash in particular has drawn repeat editorial attention. A PureWow round-up syndicated on AOL featured it as a long-standing staple in one user's daily curl routine, used "to refresh and condition without drying it out" [6].

The brand maintains a self-listed press page documenting coverage in mainstream beauty and lifestyle titles. Featured products have appeared in Vogue's summer-curls guide (2023), British Vogue's curl-defining round-up (2021), Allure (2021), Harper's Bazaar's cleansing-conditioner feature (2022), Byrdie (2023) and Cosmopolitan (2024), among others [4]. More recently, Glamour highlighted the Rosemary Oil in early 2026. The same page records appearances tied to figures such as Victoria Monét and a Dove Cameron glam-team feature.

As I Am's sustainability report sets a goal of reaching Net Zero by 2030 [3]. The company states that, as of 31 December 2021, it had offset 201 metric tons of carbon dioxide and that all of its deliveries are carbon neutral [3]. It describes further work in progress, including a life-cycle analysis of its packaging and raw materials and efforts to reduce plastic use, framing several of these initiatives as still in the investigation stage.

On its Instagram biography the brand also describes its formulas as vegan and cruelty-free [7]; these claims surface from the brand's own social channels rather than a product-ingredient page.

As I Am is an active, US-headquartered brand with a multi-region footprint. It records continuous press coverage through January 2026, maintains broad US retail distribution and reports a substantial social following of roughly 307,000 Instagram followers and about 82,000 on TikTok. Beyond its home market it operates a European arm and is carried by retailers in the Nordics.