The Interview: JVN Hair founder Jonathan Van Ness and CEO Teresa Lo talk growth plans

JVN Hair was founded by multi-hyphenate global personality Jonathan Van Ness (the celebrated hair stylist, writer, podcaster, star of Queer Eye and spreader of sunshine) in 2021 and it was launched in the UK with SpaceNK a year later.

Van Ness combined his deep knowledge of hair care and his ethos of inclusion and accessibility to create the line, which comprises shampoos, conditioners, masks and styling products, designed to tackle hair care concerns (be that, for instance, a requirement for repair, volume or hydration) for all hair types, ages and genders.

The range was built around hero ingredient hemi-squalane, a natural alternative to silicone derived from sustainably sourced sugarcane, which is more commonly found in skincare.

Encased in brightly coloured packaging and accessibly priced (in the UK prices run from around £16 to £24), the products not only perform well but they also smell divine. "Chic" is how Van Ness describes the formulas, which also seem to contain a huge dollop of his heart and soul, along with the high quality ingredients.

Given that it so, it was clearly hugely stressful when the brand's then owner Amyris (which owned brands such as skincare line Biossance and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's beauty range Rose Inc among others) ran into financial difficulty and entered into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in the US towards the end of 2023.

The brands were put up for auction and the race was on for Van Ness and JVN's CEO Teresa Lo to find a new home. While Biossance went to UK group THG and Rose Inc was acquired by Hong Kong asset manager AA Investments, JVN found a new owner pretty quickly in Windsong Global, which is also known for its investments in fellow beauty brands Revive and This Works.

Following the buy-out the JVN Hair range has been refreshed with the Nurture line for hydration repackaged in royal blue (the previous purple colour caused confusion among consumers who thought it was a purple shampoo for blonde hair) and a new mask has been introduced. The Undamage line has also been more positively renamed Revive and a new colour for the packaging will be introduced. Further launches are in the pipeline.

Van Ness with the new Nurture Intense Hydration Mask

What hasn't changed (bar tweaks to the Nurture line to work better in hard water areas) are the quality of the formulas, as Van Ness himself stressed on a recent visit to London to communicate the brand's plans to expand in the key UK market.

While Van Ness and Lo were in town, TheIndustry,beauty caught up with the pair to learn more.

When the JVN brand came up for auction, what was it that particularly attracted Windsong to buy it, And Jonathan, how did you feel about this investor? It must have been a relief to get such as great one but also a worrying time while the auction was underway.

JVN: We were so excited to find a partner in Windsong to continue our journey with JVN Hair. We believe so much in these formulas and we are so excited about our mission to help people love the hair they have, and feel confident about their gorgeousness. We have so much left to do and there is a lot more hair joy to be had, so we’re excited that Windsong wanted to align with us and help us continue our mission.

TL:  I think Windsong was attracted to JVN as a brand because in the beauty industry we really stand out for being something a little bit different. I think we have an incredible founder, we recognise that we have beautiful products that are accessibly priced, so for them it was an opportunity to tap into the haircare space with a brand that already had a lot of organic love and integrity, but do so in a way where they could also shine because they are operational experts and they knew that what we needed was support more on the back-end of operations and logistics. It felt like a really great, and natural fit.

It’s so funny, I was in Target shopping with my daughter when I spoke with the Windsong team for the first time. After that call I called Jonathan right after and said ‘I think we found the partner’. It’s also the energy; who you work with and if you trust them, and if they give off the same energy and you can tell that they want to do something similar whilst respecting what you do and the expertise that you bring – I think that’s really important. Every conversation we’ve ever had with Windsong has been very supportive – they want to support what we are here to do best, and enhance what we already want to do versus other conversations where a lot of other prospective buyers would want to change something about what we know is right for the brand.

Now that the brand is settled in the new group, you have targeted the UK for growth (hence your visit). What is about the UK that is such an attractive proposition for the brand? What does the growth roll-out look like?

JVN: The UK has such a beautiful beauty industry and community and incredible consumers, which is what makes it so attractive. In my career, I’ve been able to make a lot of inroads in the UK and have a loyal fanbase who have been so eager to support JVN Hair. Also, even people who weren’t part of my fan base thought that it was really incredible haircare even when they didn’t know who I was. Really the UK has been one of our top markets from the second that we got here. We’re also still instore at SpaceNK which is a really amazing feat after everything we went through last year so I think this is a community who wants our haircare; it resonates here, it works really well and for all hair types and I think the UK obviously has really good taste!

TL: Jonathan has a natural and loyal fan base here in the UK that we are so appreciative of. We have great relationships that are already established here so within the areas we’re already in, with SpaceNK being our key retailer, there is still so much we haven’t even scratched the surface on with our existing retailer before we even go bigger. We have new products that we want to launch, we have more expansion within SpaceNK that we want to do. There are already plans in place for growth just in SpaceNK, and then we’ll see where we go from there. The UK market is so rich in its haircare space. There are very few brands that talk to and embrace diversity in the way that we do which I think is very welcome here in the UK, so it helps to differentiate us and allows us to shine.

The Nurture line has been revamped in new blue packaging

When the brand was launched, it felt like a very clear and complete proposition off the bat, which is fantastic, but as the brand bedded in, were there new areas you felt you wanted to explore with the brand?

JVN: It was definitely not our intention to only release our initial offering. In my almost 20 years in the salon, my clients and people I worked with were often needing more moisture, more strength or more body in their hair, so that’s why we developed our shampoos and conditioners the way that we did.

I wanted to keep our stylers pretty simple in that it was either going to work with your natural texture like Air Dry Cream, or protect your hair if we were going to put heat on it such as with Instant Recovery Serum. Then as we continued with Instant Recovery Serum I realised that for more textured-hair or hair that was more frizz-prone and didn’t like to keep the shape that it was set in, it needed more help, which is why we launched Blowout Milk.

Our intention was to always grow, but it was always to grow intentionally – not to make products just to make them. They really needed to add something, and they need to be a reason why you needed that assortment. Especially in terms of stylers there are a few other things we need to create in order for us to be a fuller line so we’re really excited for that growth. I’m also really proud of what we have, because aside from dry shampoo and hairspray the only thing I use is JVN, so I’m really proud of the completeness of the range though we still have more innovation to make.

TL: The proposition of the brand and the way we launched was very complete, and there is really not much more we would change. It’s clean, very effective, great products that are at an affordable price point with diversity and sustainability at the forefront. That is who we are, that is always what we are going to be. There are definitely more products that we do want to launch to round out the assortment, but who we are won’t change. 

You have revamped the Nurture line, why did you focus on that and what are the added benefits of the new products?

JVN: We focused on Nurture because in our first year, it was the line that had the most feedback. There were a lot of questions around scent, and also around the purple of the bottle because it made many consumers think it was a purple shampoo for maintaining blonde hair. Taking that back and changing it to blue to signal moisture was important.

From a packaging standpoint, we also changed our pumps as there was feedback that the product wasn’t coming through quickly enough, so we made these thicker. Formula-wise, because we launched in nine months during Covid where most of the team were in the United States, it wasn’t until we launched in other markets such as the UK that we realised the water was harder, and Nurture didn’t have enough emollient and moisture to really make the hair feel hydrated for a hydrating line.

With that in mind we went back and added a beautiful penetrating amino acid that really delves deep into the hair to give it smoothness and added strength. We also created this upcycled vegan alternative to keratin from orange peels that is called Keratris that gives the hair so much resilience whilst still being pliable. It doesn’t make the hair feel rigid, it makes it very strong, shiny and supple. 

JVH Hair is for all hair types, ages and genders

The values around the brand are so important and almost as much of an appeal as the product itself (though the product is fabulous!), how do you work together to ensure those values are maintained and communicated to your community?

JVN: I think there are some companies that are purpose-driven and that’s why they want you to support their brand. I love that we’re queer-founded, I love that we’re female-led, however I think our formulas punch so far above their weight class and are so luxurious, effective and top-of-market too. For what their price point is, it is so accessible in comparison to the cost of the formulas.

That being said, how we also show up to enforce our values and our mission of wanting people to love the hair that they have; we have diversity of hair texture all through our team and educators. I work with so many different stylists that have all different points of view, hair types, races, ages so we get feedback from so many people when we’re creating or testing a product. It’s also making sure that our values of diversity and inclusion come into every area of our business, and I think that speaks to how we have such a diverse team.

TL: Our brand values are our team values, and that synergy is reflected in all of the marketing too.

Jonathan has such a large and loyal fanbase, which I am sure drives much custom to the brand, but have you found that the brand resonates beyond that loyal base?

TL: Absolutely. As much as people like who we are and what we stand for, at the end of the day what matters most is if you have good products, and that they work. If they do, that appeals to anybody.

SpaceNK has obviously been so integral to your success in the UK, can you explain why this partnership is so important and how it has been so successful?

TL: SpaceNK are an incredible partner, and they embody a lot of the same values that we have too. They’re entrepreneurial, they took a risk with us to launch this brand new hair brand in the UK when haircare at the time was a relatively small category for them. Behind the scenes, we also have a great relationship with the people at SpaceNK, and that shines through everything that we do – from the events, the marketing, even the partnership through the bankruptcy we were very transparent with them. Since coming out on the other side, we’re back and here. We just did an event together with SpaceNK, and the relationship it goes both ways.

Jonathan, this is more of a personal question, but how on earth do you balance all of your commitments, travel so much, dispense so much joy and remain such a nice person? Less mortals such as me would go mad…

JVN: I am also a mortal who doesn’t always have the best days, but really I have a community that supports me and makes it happen. My husband is so supportive, I couldn’t do the stuff I do without him. My assistant is one of my favourite people ever to draw breath, she’s the most incredible person. It’s also my friends and my family.

With the JVN Hair part it’s Teresa. I know she is so capable and so beyond talented in doing what she does, so that is also a huge part of it.

Any time there is a celebrity doing all the things, there is a whole village of people behind them that is helping to co-ordinate. Celebrities do work really hard and it is a particular type of hard, but no one can truly do what they do on their own. It’s all about support, but also my cats and dogs make me way happier.