Shea Moisture

Shea Moisture is a United States personal-care brand specialising in haircare, body and skincare products built around shea butter and other plant-based ingredients, with a particular focus on textured hair and melanin-rich skin. The company was established in Harlem, New York, in 1991 by Liberian immigrants Richelieu Dennis and Nyema Tubman together with Dennis' mother, Mary Dennis [4]. Since 2017 it has been owned by the consumer-goods group Unilever, which acquired it through its parent, Sundial Brands [4].

The brand ties its identity to a family heritage that predates the modern company by decades. According to Shea Moisture, its recipes trace back to Sofi Tucker, Richelieu Dennis' grandmother, who sold shea butter and homemade beauty preparations at a village market in Bonthe, Sierra Leone, in 1912 [4]. That year is sometimes cited as the brand's origin, but it describes the heritage story rather than the founding of the company, which Wikipedia records as 1991 [4]; the brand's own account refers only to "over thirty years" for its modern incarnation.

Richelieu Dennis, a Liberian-born entrepreneur, began by making soaps from his grandmother's recipes after arriving in the United States, and built the business alongside Tubman and his mother. Editorial coverage dates the founding of the parent business, Sundial Brands, to 1992, a year after the Shea Moisture brand itself [5]; the two are adjacent but distinct entities, with the brand generally dated to 1991.

Shea butter remains the flagship ingredient. The company says it is sourced through partnerships with more than 53,000 women in West African cooperatives who receive fair wages [1]. This sourcing model, tied to community reinvestment, sits at the centre of how the brand presents itself.

Shea Moisture operates under Sundial Brands, which Unilever moved to acquire in 2017 [4]. Since the acquisition the brand has continued to trade under its own name and identity as part of Unilever's portfolio. Within that portfolio it sits alongside brands including Dove, Vaseline, TRESemmé, St. Ives and Dermalogica.

The company frames itself as purpose-driven and community-rooted, stating that "every purchase you make directly supports our mission to reinvest in our communities, fostering growth and empowerment." It says it has reinvested over $10 million into economic and educational opportunities [1]. A related programme, the SheaList, is described by the brand as a community of Black entrepreneurs supported through the SheaMoisture Fund, spanning initiatives such as fellowships, pitch programmes and relief funds for Black-owned businesses.

The brand is positioned around natural ingredients and formulation standards. Shea Moisture says its products exclude sulfates, phthalates, parabens, mineral oil and petrolatum [1], and it markets formulas described on its site as "92% Naturally Derived." Its audience has been characterised in editorial coverage as Black women with textured, curly hair and consumers with melanin-rich skin [5].

The range spans haircare, body care and skincare, alongside deodorants and baby, kids' and men's lines. Haircare products are organised by hair type, and much of the catalogue is grouped into ingredient-led collections such as Raw Shea Butter, Jamaican Black Castor Oil, African Black Soap, Coconut & Hibiscus, and Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil. Beyond shea butter, hero ingredients include virgin coconut oil, manuka honey, mafura oil, maracuja and argan oil.

Shea Moisture was named Overall Favorite Brand in the Naturally Curly annual survey in both 2015 and 2016, and received an Award of Earth Defender in 2020 [4].

In 2017 the brand drew criticism for an advertisement in its #EverybodyGetsLove campaign, which showed women discussing their "hair hate" but featured predominantly white and non-Black women. Critics argued it sidelined the Black, textured-hair customers who had supported the brand from the start, and described it as erasure of that core audience [5]. The company apologised publicly, posting that "we really f-ed this one up" and acknowledging that the campaign had departed from serving its core customers [5].

Shea Moisture is an active brand owned by Unilever since 2017 [4]. Its e-commerce site remains live and selling, with multi-country support including the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Its most recent documented milestone is the release of its first Impact Report in November 2022, announced alongside a new community impact grant [7].