Number 4

Number 4, also styled No.4 and marketed in full as Number 4 High Performance Hair Care, is an American professional hair-care brand founded in 2010 in Newport Beach, California [2]. According to the company, it grew out of a group of hairdressers, fashion designers, tastemakers and beauty insiders who set out to make something they felt was missing in the beauty industry; Toni Wells is credited as founder and director [2]. The brand positions itself as salon-oriented hair care that pairs botanical ingredients with cosmetic science, a stance it sums up as "Botanically Driven, Science-Backed."

The company remains active. Its website carries a 2026 copyright and dated seasonal promotions, and it continues to operate an online store and social channels alongside a salon and professional-stylist distribution network.

Number 4 traces its start to 2010 in Newport Beach, California, where its founding group gathered around what the company calls a shared vision "to create something missing in the beauty industry" [2]. Toni Wells is named as founder and director [2].

French culture runs through the brand's presentation. Its product families are grouped into collections named after Parisian neighborhoods — Essential (Le Marais), Style (Saint Germain-des-Près), Volume (Palais-Bourbon) and Moisture (Bois de Boulogne) — and its marketing describes the line as inspired by French style.

The brand's manifesto is built on three words: "Experience. Performance. Fashion." [2]. Its stated aim, in the company's own phrasing, is to combine "nature's greatest ingredients with cutting-edge ingredient technology" to make "soft, supple, youthful-looking, vibrant hair." The tone is deliberately unfussy: the tagline reads "The most beautiful things are found in the simple," and the brand adds that it takes hair care seriously but not itself.

The catalogue spans shampoos and conditioners, treatments, styling products, a body-care line and a men's range. Named products include the Super Comb Prep & Protect leave-in, the Fluoro5 Elixer Restore & Repair Oil and a Reconstructing Hair Masque.

Formulas are organized around four proprietary blends the company markets as its "Liquid" complexes — Liquid Vitality, Liquid Vibrance, Liquid Defense and Liquid Purity — each built on botanical ingredients such as acai berry, hibiscus, mangosteen, edelweiss, algae, moringa seed extract and oat extract, paired with vitamin C. The company describes these as antioxidant-rich blends meant to protect color and strengthen hair.

Number 4 also foregrounds a set of "free-from" and ethics claims: it describes its products as 100% vegan, cruelty free, sulfate and sodium free, gluten free, paraben free, shark squalene free and made in the USA [3]. No third-party certifying body (such as Leaping Bunny or a vegan certifier) is named in support of the vegan and cruelty-free claims, which the company states on its own account [3]. It says its formulas exclude ingredients it considers potentially toxic to humans as well as harsh sulfates and stripping alcohols [3].

The trade publication WWD reported that Number 4 extended its hair-care approach into a skin and body range [5]. The brand also maintains an "as seen in" press page listing a range of consumer and fashion titles, though these appear as an undated portfolio rather than dated editorial coverage.

As of 2026 the brand is actively trading, with a current-year site copyright, live promotions and an operating e-commerce store and social presence. Its distribution combines direct online sales with a salon and professional-stylist channel, and it reports international reach across multiple regions.