Riding the wave of the multicultural beauty trend, which includes a new demand for curly hair products, Curly Hair Solutions is ready with a new look and new name.

Curly Hair Solutions’ line-up includes a hero product that has been its bestseller at salons throughout the years, Curl Keeper. The styling product, marketed at the professional level, accounted for 80% of its product sales at one time.

Realizing that the product name was so memorable among the brand’s fans, Steven Torch, the company’s CEO, said the company decided to change Curly Hair Solutions to Curl Keeper—just in time for its retail debut at Target stores in January 2016.

When Changing a Brand Name Is Worth the Risk

The bestselling product is now called Curl Keeper Original, to distinguish it from the brand name. The styling line also includes Curl Keeper Gel, Curl Keeper Leave-In Conditioner, Curl Keeper Styling Cream, Curl Keeper Beach Mist, Curl Keeper Slip, and Curl Keeper ReMane Straight.

“Changing the name was a big risk, but getting into Target proves it was the right decision,” says Torch, whose partner is the president of the family-run business, his uncle, Jonathan Torch. Jonathan Torch is also a hair stylist and founder of the Curly Hair Institute in Toronto.

Jonathan Torch is in charge of product development and works with a lab to formulate the entire product line. Steven Torch is in charge of packaging and distribution. 

So what about the name Curly Hair Solutions? It is still the name of the professional hair care line, and it includes three sets of shampoos and conditioners, which are sold at salons and beauty supply stores.

The New Packaging Posed a Few Labeling Challenges

In addition to changing the name, Curl Keeper needed a new look if the product was going to stand a chance among the hundreds of competitors in the hair care section at Target stores.

Jonathan and Steven collaborated on the new look, along with Cassandra Little, controller and the company’s chief of design, who executed the team’s vision for the new packaging.

“When we first started approaching distributors to go into retail with our professional product line, they didn’t love our old packaging. We knew we needed to ‘spice it up’, so it would stand out on store shelves,” explains Steven, realizing the huge difference in switching from professional to retail distribution. “You’re completely relying on the package to sell the product in retail, and don’t have the benefit of a hair stylist acting as a sales person,” Steven adds.

Curl Keeper Original is still in a cylindrically shaped polyethylene bottle, which is the same bottle used for Curl Keeper’s other styling products, which helps keeps costs down. Two of the styling products, BeachMist and Slip, have an eye-catching trigger spray instead of a flip-top cap like the others. “We spent more on this than a typical pump sprayer would cost because it gives the consumer added value since it works well with these products. Plus, if it helps draw a shopper’s eye to our brand over a competitor, it’s worth the extra cost,” says Steven. 

But the most prominent design change for the entire brand is the switch from silk-screening the bottles to using foil labels, which are digitally printed. Flashes of the silver foil shine on certain parts of the labels, acting as “highlights” on the curly swirls of hair. Each styling product has a corresponding color, including purple, orange and red, which is used to make the swirls of hair pop against the white labels.

“We ran into a ton of issues with our new labels,” Steven says “When they didn’t work due to application issues, many of our suppliers advised switching to a paper label. We wanted to keep the foil - we liked its shiny look," he says. "We also didn't want to silk screen directly on the bottle, because we had such an intricate design. So we met with all of our suppliers one day at our filler, watching the bottles go down the line. We re-tooled all of the equipment, trying to figure out a solution. Then, our label supplier was able to source a new foil label that had more stretch, and it finally worked,” he explains. 

The foil labels are waterproof, of course, and they’re also coated to ensure that the graphics are shower-proof.

The Evolution of a Design, Over 15 Years

Curly Hair Solutions has been a family-run business for 15 years. The company’s most popular product, Curl Keeper, was also its first product, which launched in 2000.

Knowing when a package needs an updated look is important for any brand - check out the photo that shows the evolution of Curl Keeper’s look.

“Curly Qs” and the infamous Comic Sans font were changed to a more modern font that's easy-to-read. A black circle frames the brand name and incorporates one curly lock of hair, for a look that's designed to attract the consumer's eye.

The photo shows how Curl Keeper's look has evolved - drastically. The first bottle on the far left is the product in 2000. Next, lavender and purple were introduced into the design in 2003. The third bottle features the addition of black, for a look that is bold, from 2009.  The last bottle on the far right is the new design for 2015. It shows the change from silk-screening the graphics on the bottle, to the brand's new foil labels.

What’s Next?

Will the company soon expand to create brands that target more hair types?  Steven says there are new products already in development, as well as hair accessories - but the company will stick to what it knows best, which is curls.

“Jonathan is always keeping his eye on what will be the next big trend for curly hair - and he’ll keep developing the products that women with curly hair need,” says Steven. He adds, “We may have been late getting to the retail space, but we were one of the earliest pioneers in the curly hair category - and we intend to keep building on that success.”