One curly can make a difference.
That’s what AG Hair Cosmetics found out. The 15-year-old family-owned company based in Vancouver, Canada, had been hearing feedback from salon stylists that they wanted a curl-enhancing product. At the same time, the company received an e-mail from a Canadian CurlTalker who used AG. Through a series of e-mails, she introduced the company to NaturallyCurly.com.
‘I logged onto CurlTalk and began to read,’ said Corinne Spitznagel, AG’s director of education. ‘I was amazed at how many people there were and how educated they were about the product. It was a whole new language, which was great. We’ve been involved with hair forever, so to discover this was amazing.’
In addition to connecting AG with NaturallyCurly.com, the member also posted a ‘dream product’ survey on which people could post the attributes they were looking for in a product.
‘What we heard was that they wanted something that would reduce the frizz, but they were unhappy with with all the products that were too oil, greasy or heavy,’ Spitznagel said. ‘They wanted something that would even out the curl and that would add a lot of shine. Since many had dryer hair, they needed it to be moisture rich.’
So AG went into the laboratory and began working on the product. It took a year and a half to create Re:coil, a curl activator loaded with moisturizers and botanicals to moisturize, add body and enhance the texture.
While the company traditionally tested its products at salons, AG sent Re:coil out to the CurlTalker to get her feedback.
‘It’s the first time we had a consumer try it as well,’ Spitznagel said.
Re:coil was launched in September and has been one of AG’s most successful new products ever — tripling original sales projections. Whether it was the demand for a curl-specific product, the timing or the involvement of NaturallyCurly.com is unknown. We’d like to think it’s the latter.
Re:coil joins the company’s line of 40 products.
