Somewhere between reclaiming country music for Black people and bringing cowboy-core to NYFW, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter found time to launch a new business venture – Cécred. Designed to honor the sacred traditions of haircare, Cécred offers a range of clinically tested products catering to all hair types.
“The journey of creating Cécred has taken years, and I’m so proud to finally reveal what we’ve been working on,” Knowles-Carter, Cécred’s founder and chairwoman said in a press release to theGrio. “As a Black founder, it was important to me to concentrate on where I saw the greatest need for healthy haircare and to place scientific innovation and product performance above all else. We started by prioritizing the needs of textured hair like mine, along with other types and textures that need more moisture and strength.”
Like most little Black girls, Beyoncé was introduced to haircare by her mother, Tina Knowles. The “Renaissance” star’s passion for hair grew as she swept up hair in her mother’s salon as a youngster. With a front-row seat to her mother’s cosmetological expertise, Knowles-Carter saw firsthand how she catered to clients’ hair health by mixing tech-forward formulas with natural butters and oils. Now, Ms. Tina brings her 40 years of experience as a hair stylist, salon owner and entrepreneur to Cécred, serving as the brand’s vice chairwoman.
“In my own experience serving clients, I loved witnessing the joy they felt watching their hair grow healthier, shinier, and more vibrant,” Knowles added in a statement. “I have personally witnessed how these products have stopped breakage in its tracks. I’ve seen the transformations from using these products on all different hair types and textures, and the results have been amazing.”
To commemorate Cécred’s launch, Beyoncé starred on the cover of Essence magazine’s February/March issue, which includes an interview with her and her mother.
“Hair has always been a very big part of our lives,” Knowles told the publication. “Just as fashion saved our family, hair is how we made a living.”
“My mom had a roster of amazing clients at her salon, and while the environment was therapeutic for them, it was also for me,” Beyoncé added. “It was in her salon that I realized my dreams of being a performer […] So much of the fabric of who I am came from her salon.”
Though it may be new to fans, the star revealed Cécred’s launch has been years in the making. Having reportedly discussed the idea of launching a haircare line since she was a teenager, Knowles-Carter explained how meaningful it is to see this dream come to fruition.
“What an honor to be able to do something so special with my mother and to be able to share that with the world,” the award-winning artist shared. “It feels like all of her life’s learning, her 70 years, and now my 42 years, are generational and meant to be. Honoring the legacy and the wisdom passed down through generations and mixing it with science and technology is part of this line. It was important that we borrowed some of our past and brought it into the future.”
Today, the brand introduced its Foundation collection, consisting of eight products that reportedly “cleanse, condition and visibly repair” hair. Filled with an array of butters, oils, honey, and fermented rice water, the collection is beneficial for straight-to-coily hair textures regardless of whether they are color-treated, chemically processed, or heat-styled – nuances deeply inspired by Knowles-Carter’s own hair journey. Throughout her decades-long career, the star has learned to maintain healthy hair while navigating the coloring, high-tension styles, hair adhesive, sweat, and build-up generated by her life as a performer, which she used to inform Cécred’s formulations.
With prices ranging from $20 to $52, the star’s haircare brand also continues her philanthropic efforts at BeyGood in the creation of a $500,000 BeyGOOD x Cécred Fund, which honors the knowledge and influence of professional stylists by funding cosmetology school scholarships and salon business grants.
“Cécred is a legacy project for me, one that’s probably the most rooted in my ancestry. It’s so far beyond business. Hair is our lineage; it’s our family story,” said Knowles-Carter, explaining her ambitions to create a new inclusive, science-backed standard in haircare that dispels myths and helps change the narrative in haircare.
Explore and shop the full collection at cécred.com
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