Previa

Previa is an Italian professional haircare brand made by PREVIA S.p.A. SB, a company based in Trofarello, a town in the province of Turin in Piedmont [4]. It develops shampoos, conditioners, treatments, styling products and salon hair colour, and presents them under the idea of "virtuous beauty": vegan formulas built largely on ingredients of natural origin, meant to perform at the standard hairdressers expect. The brand is aimed first at salons rather than drugstore shelves, and outside Italy it reaches hairdressers largely through exclusive distributors.

The brand is active. Its Italian owner continues to publish new product stories and colour shades, and the brand's long-standing German distributor records a formula revision and packaging redesign in 2025. Previa is also the European holder of the HEAD SPA trademark, which it uses for a set of scalp and hair rituals performed in salons [6].

Previa's founders are not named in the company's own publications, and its websites do not state when the brand began. What is clear is that it was already an established salon brand by 2002, when a German wholesaler took it on as an exclusive line [2]. The distributor's own timeline begins in 1974, but that date marks the founding of the distributor itself, not of the Italian brand [2].

The company that owns and makes Previa is PREVIA S.p.A. SB. The "SB" stands for Società Benefit, an Italian legal status for companies that commit to a public-benefit purpose alongside profit. It is not the same thing as a B Corp certification. According to its own business profile, the firm is a private, unlisted company with a staff in the range of 11 to 50 people, and it describes its work as "professional and natural haircare products made in Italy with an eco-friendly approach" [6]. The company says its status as a benefit company shapes its choices, and that it will keep investing in natural ingredients, vegan formulations and sustainable design.

Production and logistics are split across two Italian cities. The German distributor states that Previa products are manufactured in Milan and that deliveries for Europe and many other countries leave from Turin [2]. The owner's registered address, in Trofarello, lies just outside Turin.

Much of the brand's documented history comes from the timeline of W. Siepenkothen GmbH, the family-run company in the Black Forest that has distributed Previa in Germany for more than two decades. The distributor was founded in 1974 by Willi Siepenkothen, then the German sales manager for the hair brand Goldwell, as a regional retailer of other haircare lines. It became a limited company under Stefan Siepenkothen in 1994.

In 2002 the distributor dropped one of its earlier lines, Interkur, and took on Previa as its exclusive brand for Germany. From then on, the two histories run in parallel. In 2014 Previa went through a complete overhaul of its range, with new products, new packaging design and a new logo. Two years later, in 2016, came another design update, paired with what the distributor describes as a stronger environmental focus in both production and ingredients; the same year the brand introduced a toner made without ammonia.

By 2017 the German partner could supply salons across the whole German-speaking region, covering Germany, Austria and Switzerland, from its base in Egenhausen. In 2020 Previa reworked its ingredient lists to remove microplastics, moved to bottles made from sugar-cane-based plastic, and launched its Earth hair colour.

The Italian side of the business also grew. In 2023 Previa Haircare moved into a new distribution and logistics centre in Turin, an event the distributor's timeline heads as a new company seat for Previa Italy [2]. In 2025 the brand revised its formulas again and released a new packaging design, the most recent entry in that timeline.

Previa sums up its approach as "virtuous beauty". On its international website the company writes that it believes in "genuine and authentic beauty, born from the balance between nature and innovation" [5]. Three words carry the idea through its German-language material: genuine, effective and respectful. The brand's mission line describes natural cosmetics with professional performance that are pleasant to use and kind to the environment, and its German distributor uses the tagline "Natural premium haircare".

Each of the three values is tied to a concrete promise. Under "genuine", the company points to certified vegan formulas, ingredients of natural origin and from organic farming, and products that are dermatologically tested and nickel tested. Under "effective", Previa says it knows the daily demands of working in a salon and designs its formulas to meet professional standards. Under "respectful", it lists low-impact products, sustainable design, waste reduction and raising awareness of environmental issues.

A second strand of the brand's identity is ritual. Rather than a simple step-by-step routine, Previa describes holistic rituals built from gestures, massage and rhythm. The company says its head massages are inspired by Ayurveda, a traditional Indian system of medicine, and are meant to stimulate energy points on the head to relax, detoxify or energise. Fragrance plays a part as well: the brand describes its scents as combining green, woody, spicy and floral notes, and its German distributor says they were developed in collaboration with perfume houses.

The brand is positioned squarely in the professional channel. Its German distributor states that Previa products are not sold through drugstores and are available only through selected online retailers, which it presents as a way of keeping prices stable for salons [2]. Previa runs a dedicated platform, MyPrevia.pro, for salons, agents and distributors, and invites hairdressers to become official partner salons. The Italian company also operates its own online shop for consumers.

Previa's range is organised both by hair type and by product line. The main care lines include Reconstruct for damaged hair, Keeping for coloured hair, Smoothing for frizzy or unruly hair, Volumising for fine hair, Curlfriends for curly and wavy hair, and Silver, a line for blonde hair that the brand says neutralises unwanted yellow and copper tones. Extra Life is split into a Purifying and an Energising range for the scalp; the company claims the Energising products strengthen the hair root and stimulate the scalp to support hair growth. Further lines cover men's care, styling and finishing, sun care and body care.

Among the products the company lists as its best sellers are the Extra Life Energising Shampoo and Extra Life Purifying Shampoo, the Curl Definer from the Curlfriends line, and Taming Gloss. The Curlfriends line has recently been relaunched, with the distributor describing refined formulas, better performance and fresher textures for curly and wavy hair.

For salon use Previa offers several colour systems. Earth Colour, launched in 2020, is described by the brand as a gentle colouration made from ingredients of plant origin. Virtuous Colour is a second hair colour, for which the company announced new shades in November 2025. The professional range also includes a plant-based colour called Infusion, bleaching products, a hair lamination treatment, a Direct Colour Mask and a perm system called Wave.

Alongside the products sits the HEADSPA Certified Method, a set of scalp and hair wellbeing rituals that Previa describes as holistic experiences involving "mind, body and spirit". The company states that it is the official holder of the HEAD SPA trademark in Europe and sees itself as the guardian of the concept.

Some of Previa's technical claims are specific. The brand says its formulas contain up to 97.5 percent ingredients of natural origin and from organic farming [1], while its international site speaks of ingredients up to 100 percent of natural origin. It states that nickel levels are checked in every production batch, with a tolerance threshold below one part per million, so that the products suit sensitive skin. According to the company, its certified organic and biodynamic active ingredients are extracted and blended using patented technological processes, producing mild products such as masks, treatments, mousses and alcohol-free shampoos that are also free of silicones.

Environmental claims run through most of Previa's communication. The brand holds a "Vegan Quality" certification, which it says rules out ingredients and production aids of animal origin. It also carries the eco-bio cosmetics seal of AIAB, the Italian Association for Organic Agriculture; Previa says this seal guarantees that no irritating raw materials are used [3]. The company describes cruelty-free practice as a key word in its philosophy.

Packaging is the other focus. Since 2020 Previa bottles have been made from a plastic derived from sugar cane, and the brand states that this material is 85 percent bio-based and comes from renewable sources [1]. The company says it prefers recycled materials that can themselves be recycled. Its German distributor adds that it uses its own recycled cardboard as filler in shipments and is registered with the Green Dot packaging recycling scheme in Germany.

Previa is sold mainly through hair salons, supported by distributors and sales agents. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland the brand is handled exclusively by Previa Germany Siepenkothen GmbH, which supplies hairdressers and stylists across the region from Egenhausen. Besides Previa, that distributor also carries pH Laboratories, which it describes as the Italian company's sister brand.

Previa is an active brand. The Italian company published a story on its Curlfriends curl routine in May 2026 and announced new shades of Virtuous Colour in November 2025. Its German distributor lists a 2025 formula revision and packaging redesign as the latest step in the brand's history, and currently promotes the relaunched Curlfriends range to salons.