Briogeo

Briogeo is an American haircare brand founded by Nancy Twine, built around clean, plant-based formulas marketed for all hair types and textures. Most trade sources, along with Wikipedia, date its founding to 2013 [6], when it launched with four products — one shampoo and three conditioners. Since April 2022 the brand has been owned by Wella Company, which acquired it to expand its sustainable haircare portfolio [7]; Twine remained chief executive after the deal.

The company positions itself as a group of "healthy haircare experts" and frames its mission around the idea that everyone deserves the confidence that comes from healthy hair. It is no longer independent, but it continues to trade actively as a Wella sub-brand.

Briogeo was created by Nancy Twine, who grew up in West Virginia making beauty products with her grandmother before earning a finance degree from the University of Virginia. She spent her early career at Goldman Sachs in commodities sales, reaching vice president by 2009. According to Wikipedia, Twine researched at a small-business library in midtown Manhattan to learn how to launch a hair care line, formulating products in the evenings while still working at the bank, and connected with a Sephora buyer after presenting at the Cosmoprof trade show.

The brand describes its origins in more personal terms: Twine turned to haircare after her mother's death, the company says, reconnecting with childhood memories of making beauty treatments at home with her mother, a doctor and chemist. She left Goldman Sachs in 2014 [6].

There is a minor discrepancy over the founding date. Wikipedia and several trade publications place it in 2013 [6], while Briogeo's own About page refers only to launching "about 10 years ago," implying roughly 2014 [1]. The 2013 date is the more consistently corroborated figure; the brand-site wording is approximate copy rather than a stated year.

At launch, Briogeo entered Sephora, where Twine became, by Wikipedia's account, the youngest African American woman to launch a line at the retailer [6]. The brand grew quickly over the following decade, expanding into retailers including Nordstrom, Ulta Beauty and MECCA, and into markets across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Australia. By 2020 it was generating an estimated $40 million in gross revenue [6].

In 2021 the company reworked its kit packaging, removing plastic trays and making the packaging fully recyclable. The following year brought the brand's defining corporate event: its acquisition by Wella Company.

Wella Company acquired Briogeo in April 2022 for an undisclosed sum, at a point when the brand had reportedly reached sales exceeding $100 million [7]. The purchase was Wella's first major acquisition under the ownership of private-equity firm KKR, which had bought Wella in 2020 [7]. Twine stayed on as chief executive. Within the wider group, Briogeo sits alongside Wella brands such as Clairol, Sassoon, Sebastian Professional, OPI and Nioxin.

Briogeo presents itself as a clean, plant-based haircare line built for inclusivity, with formulas it says are designed to work across all hair types and textures. Its stated mission is that "everyone deserves the confidence that comes from healthy hair," and it markets under the tagline "For Every Force of Nature." The brand also maintains what it calls a "Blocklist" of ingredients it declines to use, and pledges to donate 1% of every purchase to nonprofits chosen by the customer.

The brand's best-known product is the Don't Despair, Repair! Deep Conditioning Mask, a rosehip-oil and algae treatment that the company markets as strengthening hair up to twice as much after three uses. It is the brand's flagship and most-decorated product, described in editorial and retail listings as a Byrdie Beauty Award winner and a repeat Allure Reader's Choice winner for best conditioner [8]. Other hero franchises include the Scalp Revival line, built around binchotan charcoal and coconut, and the Destined for Density serum, which the company says increased hair density by up to three times in a 16-week study of 35 participants.

Briogeo describes its formulas as "6-Free," meaning they are made without sulfates, silicones, phthalates, parabens, DEA or artificial dyes, and groups its formulation approach under in-house names such as GeoActive and a "Powerful Advanced Rice Protein Complex." Hero ingredients highlighted by the brand include biotin, avocado oil, rosehip oil, binchotan charcoal and copper peptide.

Sustainability is a consistent theme in the brand's marketing. Briogeo says that 99% of its secondary packaging and boxes are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, and that its HDPE bottles contain a minimum of 30% post-consumer recycled resin, with some made entirely from it. The company also states that it is one of the only hair brands included in both Sephora's Clean+ Planet Positive and Ulta's Conscious Beauty programs [3].

The Scalp Revival Micro-Exfoliating Shampoo received an Allure Best of Beauty award [1]. The Don't Despair, Repair! mask has accumulated the bulk of the brand's editorial recognition, including Allure Reader's Choice and Byrdie awards [8]. Twine herself has been recognised separately from the brand, including a CEW Female Founder Award (2019) and a place on Inc.'s Female Founders 100 list (2018) [6].

Briogeo is an active brand under Wella Company ownership following its 2022 acquisition [7]. It is no longer independent, but continues to operate and sell through its own e-commerce site and third-party retailers across multiple regions, with Nancy Twine remaining as chief executive.