BaByliss PRO

BaByliss PRO is the professional styling and barbering division of BaByliss, a French personal-care brand that traces its roots to 1960s Paris. The parent company grew out of the first electric hair-styling tools, and the professional line took shape decades later, after the American firm Conair Corporation acquired BaByliss in 1995 [3][5]. Today BaByliss PRO operates as a Conair-owned brand, making clippers, dryers and barbering tools for salon and barber professionals worldwide.

Because BaByliss sits inside the Conair group, the brand is best understood as acquired rather than independent: it continues to develop and market new products, but its ownership and direction belong to its US parent.

⚑ Thinner sourcing. The article relies largely on the brand's own statements (T2–T3). Glowpedia is seeking independent sources.

The BaByliss story begins with electric hair tools developed in Paris. According to Wikipedia, the first electric hair straightener was invented by René Lelièvre and Roger Lemoine, and Jean-Pierre Feldblum released and marketed the product under the BaByliss name in July 1960 [3]. The brand's own Australian site tells a slightly more romantic version, crediting a "renowned Parisian hairstylist Lelievre" with introducing the first professional curling tong in the 1960s.

The exact founding date carries a minor discrepancy. Wikipedia records 1960, tied to that July 1960 launch, while the brand site speaks loosely of "the 1960s"; an earlier internal note had suggested 1961 [3]. The 1960 date rests on the strongest dated evidence. A separate note had also floated the name René Lecoanet as a founder, but both Wikipedia and the brand's own site name Lelièvre and Lemoine [3].

Whatever the precise year, the company established itself quickly. A business-history database describes BaByliss as the inventor of the first electric hair curling iron and, in its early decades, the leading French manufacturer of personal-care appliances, producing curling irons, waxers and facial saunas for the European market [5].

The defining turn came in February 1995, when Conair Corporation bought a majority share in BaByliss for roughly $38 million [3][5]. The deal reshaped Conair: company sales rose from about $500 million before the acquisition to more than $650 million afterward [5]. An earlier internal note had dated the purchase to 1991, but the brand site, Wikipedia and the business-history record all point to 1995. The professional BaByliss PRO line was launched in the wake of that acquisition, which the brand describes as marking "a new chapter."

From there the professional division expanded steadily. BaByliss PRO entered the Australian market in 1998, and a BaByliss for Men line followed in 2003 [3]. In 2012 the brand launched Barberology, its dedicated barbering range, and in 2014 it partnered with leading barbers to introduce the FX line. Its most recent flagship arrived in 2024 with FXONE, a range of barber tools built around a single shared battery.

BaByliss PRO is owned, through the BaByliss brand, by Conair Corporation, the US appliance maker founded in 1959 in a garage in Queens, New York, and now headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut [4]. Conair is majority-owned by the private-equity firm American Securities, with minority stakes held by members of the founding Rizzuto family [4]. Within the wider group, BaByliss sits alongside Conair house brands such as Cuisinart and Waring. Production runs through several Conair plants, including a facility in Chiuduno, Italy, which the group acquired in 2009 [3].

BaByliss PRO presents itself as a maker of professional-grade tools for stylists and barbers. The company frames its range around creative freedom, saying its tools are "designed to inspire creativity, offering you the freedom to explore endless possibilities." It points to a long track record in salons, describing itself as a trusted name among hairstylists and barbers for more than fifty years.

The catalogue centres on electrical styling and barbering tools: hair dryers, straighteners, curling irons and hot rollers on the styling side, and clippers, trimmers and shavers on the barbering side. Several lines are built around proprietary technologies the company markets under names such as Nano Titanium and Porcelain Ceramic, applied across its dryers and straighteners.

One of the more unusual entries is a long-running collaboration with Ferrari, begun in 2010, which produced hair dryers whose motors were developed with input from Ferrari engineers [3]. The 2024 FXONE ecosystem, in which a single battery powers a set of barber tools, is the brand's current signature on the professional side.

BaByliss PRO is an active brand operating under Conair ownership rather than an independent company. It maintains regional sites for markets including the United States, Australia and Europe, and its most recent notable launch — the FXONE range — dates to 2024, indicating ongoing product activity. Its standing is therefore best summarised as acquired but operationally current: a French-born styling name that has run as part of a US group since 1995.