TRESemmé

TRESemmé is a hair-care brand founded in the United States and owned since 2010 by the consumer-goods company Unilever [2]. Its products were first manufactured in 1947 by the Godefroy Manufacturing Company in Manhattan, New York City, and the line was named after the hair-care expert Edna L. Emme. The name is a phonetic respelling of the French phrase très-aimé, combined with Emme's surname.

The brand built its identity on a single idea: salon-quality hair care sold at drugstore prices. It began as a salon-only product before moving into supermarkets and pharmacies, and today it is distributed worldwide across roughly twenty countries, including the Nordic markets.

TRESemmé traces its origin to 1947 in Manhattan, where the Godefroy Manufacturing Company first produced it and marketed it exclusively to beauty salons [2]. The brand's own South African brand-story instead dates the line to 1948; the two figures are close, and the 1948 date likely reflects the consumer launch rather than the year of first manufacture [7]. Unilever's brand-owned text sidesteps the question, describing TRESemmé only as "born in the salon over 70 years ago" [1].

The founding name pays tribute to Edna L. Emme, a hair-care expert of the era. Combining the French très-aimé with her surname gave the brand a word meant to read as "much-loved."

For its first two decades the brand remained a salon product under Godefroy. In 1968 it was purchased by the personal-care company Alberto-Culver [2], which developed it into a mass-market line. According to editorial accounts of the brand, TRESemmé was marketed as the first salon brand sold in supermarkets and pharmacies [3] — a positioning that has defined it since.

Ownership changed again in 2010, when Unilever acquired Alberto-Culver and with it TRESemmé. Under Unilever the brand has leaned on professional styling as a marketing anchor: the company says stylists have tested its products backstage at New York Fashion Week since 2009. Other records point to different fashion-week dates — Wikipedia notes TRESemmé was the official hair-care sponsor of New York's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and had been since 2006 — but these refer to distinct arrangements rather than a single disputed date.

TRESemmé is a Unilever brand, having passed from Godefroy to Alberto-Culver in 1968 and to Unilever in 2010. Within Unilever's beauty and wellbeing portfolio it sits alongside brands such as Dove, Vaseline, St. Ives, Clear and Dermalogica.

The brand's positioning is summed up in its taglines, "Professional. Affordable." and "Used By Professionals." Unilever frames the mission as "making salon-quality products without the salon price," adding that "every woman deserves to look and feel fabulous, like they have just stepped out of the salon" [1]. The company says its products are "tested to ensure they work as well as (or better) than salon brands."

That drugstore-professional stance is central to how the brand is received. One editorial review places TRESemmé firmly in the affordable category and notes it appeals to buyers who want salon results without premium prices [3].

TRESemmé's range covers shampoos and conditioners, dry shampoos, mousses, gels, hair sprays, crèmes and other styling products. Among its recognised lines is the Keratin Smooth collection, built around keratin, a protein found in hair. The brand also markets its Fresh and Clean dry shampoo, a product later drawn into a 2022 recall.

On ethics, TRESemmé states that it is "proud to be PETA-certified cruelty-free" and does not test on animals anywhere in the world [1]. That claim is contested at the corporate level: an editorial review notes that parent company Unilever is not itself a cruelty-free company and engages in animal testing through third parties in some markets [3]. The two positions describe different scopes — the TRESemmé product line versus Unilever's wider corporate practice — rather than a direct factual contradiction.

In September 2020, a TRESemmé advertisement on the website of the South African retailer Clicks described Black women's natural hair as "dry and damaged" and "frizzy and dull," while labelling white women's hair "fine and flat" and "normal" [5]. The advert drew nationwide protests led by the Economic Freedom Fighters party; several Clicks stores were damaged, retailers including Pick n Pay, Woolworths and Dischem pulled TRESemmé products, and the brand issued an apology. The South African cabinet called the advert "profoundly offensive and racist" [5].

In October 2022, Unilever issued a voluntary recall of nineteen dry-shampoo aerosols, including TRESemmé Dry Shampoo Fresh and Clean, after an internal investigation found the carcinogen benzene in the products' propellant [4]. Unilever said it had received no reports of adverse effects and acted "out of an abundance of caution." A federal class action followed, with a proposed settlement of about $3.6 million; related litigation continued into subsequent years [6].

TRESemmé is an active, global hair-care brand. Unilever maintains its brand pages, products remain in distribution across the Nordics and some twenty markets, and litigation tied to the 2022 recall continued into 2024 and 2025 [6].