The Beachwaver Co.

The Beachwaver Co. is an American haircare and hair-tool company based in Chicago, best known for a patented rotating curling iron designed to let people style beach-style waves at home. It was founded in 2010 by celebrity hairstylist Sarah Potempa together with her sisters Erin Potempa-Wall, a former lawyer, and Emily Potempa [6][9]. The company remains active and privately held; in 2025 it was profiled by the trade publication BeautyMatter among its Future 50, with projected revenue of 150 to 200 million dollars [7].

The brand built its early reputation through television shopping and professional styling, then expanded sharply in the 2020s on the back of viral short-form video and livestream selling. It describes itself as female-founded, self-funded and independent, with no parent company on record.

According to the company, Sarah Potempa conceived the idea for a rotating curling iron after struggling to explain beachy-wave techniques to beauty editors, reasoning that a tool which turned in the correct direction at the press of a button would let anyone reproduce the look. The brand says development took about two years before its flagship product reached market.

The first prototype was improvised: BeautyMatter reports that Potempa and her sister Erin assembled it using parts from a hardware store with help from a freelance engineer, and that the brand launched on the television shopping channel QVC with only two working units [7]. Before founding the company, Sarah Potempa worked as a freelance hairstylist on fashion shoots and red carpets; editorial interviews list Selena Gomez, Alicia Keys, Emily Blunt and Reese Witherspoon among her styling clients.

The three founders took distinct roles. Sarah Potempa serves as chief executive and inventor; Erin Potempa-Wall, who trained as a lawyer at the University of Notre Dame, is president and holds several of the company's patents and trademarks; and Emily Potempa, a photographer and designer, leads creative direction.

The company dates its founding to 2010 [6][9]. The trade publication WWD has instead listed 2012, which corresponds to the launch year of the flagship Beachwaver Pro rather than the company's establishment [8]. Three independent sources — the brand site, the industry organisation CEW, and the company's LinkedIn profile — give 2010 for the founding.

The Beachwaver Pro reached the market in 2012 and drew early industry recognition, with the company citing Allure, InStyle and Good Housekeeping awards in 2013. From 2015 the brand served as a hair-tool sponsor at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and Potempa went on to style models at New York Fashion Week, Miami Swim Week and other runway events. The company reports international expansion into Mexico and Australia in 2017, a 2018 partnership with the World Surf League tied to advocacy for equal pay in women's surfing, and the launch of a vegan haircare line in 2019.

A turning point came in 2021, when the brand's products gained traction on TikTok. By the first half of 2024, WWD reports the company had become one of the largest beauty sellers on TikTok Shop, selling more than 1.1 million units within a year and ranking among the platform's top merchants, supported by multi-hour livestreams run from its Illinois warehouse [8]. In 2024 the brand launched nationwide at Target and opened a roughly 5,100-square-foot content studio in the former Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn [8].

The Beachwaver Co. is privately held and, according to the company and its corporate listings, has no parent company. It describes itself as self-funded and independent; BeautyMatter notes that the business has been financed in part through venture debt rather than outside equity [7]. There is no recorded acquisition history.

The company frames its mission around accessibility and self-styling, summarised in the tagline "Dream Big, Make Waves" and a stated commitment to innovation, accessibility, sustainability and empowerment. Potempa has described the core idea more plainly in an interview: "if you can press a button, you can curl your hair." The brand positions itself as a lifestyle company centred on beach culture and community, and emphasises its identity as female-founded, drawing on educational content such as tutorials and quizzes alongside its products.

Its pricing sits above drugstore tools but below salon equipment. WWD records the original Beachwaver Pro at 229 dollars and the later B-series at 99 dollars, the latter aimed at a wider consumer audience [8].

The company's signature product is its patented rotating curling iron, sold in several barrel sizes including the one-inch Beachwaver Pro and the 1.25-inch B1.25. The mechanism rotates left or right at the press of a button and uses a short clamp rather than a full-length one. Hair tools account for the large majority of the company's sales, alongside a haircare range of shampoos, conditioners, sprays and styling products, plus accessories and fragrance.

The brand markets its haircare as vegan [1], and says it sells refurbished "Certified Open Box" irons at a discount to keep usable products out of landfills. Erin Potempa-Wall is credited with holding multiple patents and trademarks tied to the rotating-iron design.

The company cites a large number of beauty-industry awards, including recognition from Allure, InStyle, Good Housekeeping and Oprah Magazine across the 2010s. In 2023 it received an award from Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW) in the product-innovation category for the rotating curling iron [9]. Reviewing the tool for Cosmopolitan in 2023, writer Lisa DeSantis concluded that it "really did make it so much easier — and quicker — to curl" long hair and described it as worth its price.

The Beachwaver Co. is active. Its most recent recorded milestone is its 2025 inclusion in BeautyMatter's Future 50, which placed it among the top one percent of TikTok Shop storefronts and projected annual revenue of 150 to 200 million dollars [7]. The company reports more than fifteen years in business as of 2025 and continues to operate from Chicago, with warehouse operations in Illinois and a content studio in Brooklyn.