After years of influencing the beauty space with its human-inclusive, botanical-rich products, Non Gender Specific has now brought its unique skincare philosophy to the world of haircare.
As of July 18th, the gender neutral skincare brand has made its first foray into the haircare category, with the launch of two new products: the Phytonutrient Infusion Hair Cleanse ($28) and Phytonutrient Infusion Hair Conditioner ($28). Much like Non Gender Specific’s cult-favorite skincare range, the nourishing daily shampoo and conditioner are enriched with the same botanical-rich ingredients that helped make the brand so beloved. Better yet, both products are perfect for all hair and scalp types, regardless of gender, and are formulated to cleanse and nourish your hair and scalp to its healthiest state.
In the interest of learning more about this exciting launch, The Tease connected with Non Gender Specific founder Andrew Glass to discuss the brand’s recent expansion into haircare. Here, he discusses why a haircare line made sense for Non Gender Specific, how he worked to maintain the brand’s identity in a new product category, and some of the new haircare products that are on the horizon. Read on for his insights.
Since its launch six years ago, Non Gender Specific has been solely focused on the skin care category. Why was expanding into haircare a natural next step for the brand?
Andrew Glass: Our goal was always to venture into several areas of self-care, but skin care was initially our main focus. Personally, I’m always hunting for shampoos and conditioners that are healthy for me but also make my hair feel great, and even with the hundreds of products out there, I couldn’t find one that ticked every box.
Could you share how you approached the expansion into the hair care category in order to ensure that Non Gender Specific would still maintain its core value and quality?
Glass: Our hair care formulas were a slow development process…I wanted them to be absolutely perfect. They had to be free of any harsh chemicals (that are extremely common in hair care), they had to be rich in nutrients, and they had to work on all hair types. As “the brand for all humans,” we had to create “hair care for all humans” or else it wouldn’t work. We spent years finding the right mix of botanicals and textures to accomplish this. Each formula revitalizes, plumps and protects from root to strand, and your hair feels amazing afterwards!
Non Gender Specific is known for its emphasis on gender neutral beauty. What does gender neutral beauty mean to you, and how is this concept incorporated into your new haircare products?
Glass: Besides our name, we tend to take a very subtle approach to the term “gender neutral” because it’s very easy to be put into a niche sub-category like “non-binary” or “gender fluid,” and while those are great, that’s not us. For us, gender neutral beauty means creating products for everyone; men, women, non-binary, moms, dads, daughters… literally everyone. For us, our marketing and visual efforts focus on the ingredients and not so much the person, because skin is skin. Even when we do have models in a campaign, we try to be diverse with our choices and usually end up covering up most of their bodies/faces with flowers. For the hair care launch, we took the exact same approach. Our visuals for the campaign feature a diverse group of models in various environments with beautiful flowers and plants intertwined with their hair, again, we wanted the focus to be on the botanical-rich aspect of the products versus a face.
What made the Phytonutrient Infusion Hair Cleanse and Hair Conditioner the perfect first products to help introduce the haircare range to consumers and fans of the brand?
Glass: We felt that a staple shampoo and conditioner were good foundations to launch a new category. These are daily-use products that would ground the collection and hopefully become go-to products for our customers.
Similar to Non Gender Specific’s skincare range, the haircare range also harnesses the power of botanical rich ingredients for its formulations. How did you translate your understanding of skin to make formulas that would address hair and scalp concerns?
Glass: The journey to healthy hair begins at its roots. Just like a flower that is planted in the ground, the root needs to be “planted” in an environment that will aid its growth. The scalp is really just layers of skin when you think about it, so we developed these formulas literally from the root. Once we determined the right ingredients to nourish the scalp and enrich the root, we then began combining ingredients that would focus on strengthening the strand, boosting volume, and protecting against environmental pollutants. Each formula is sulfate-free, paraben-free, phthalate-free, PEG-free, phosphate-free, DEA-free, and aldehyde-free.
As a skincare brand moving into the hair care category, Non Gender Specific is actively participating in the ongoing skinification of hair movement that we’ve been seeing for the last couple of years. What are your thoughts on this movement and what significance does it hold for the brand’s hair care range?
Glass: I personally think this movement has helped the category, especially when it comes to ingredients. Before this trend there wasn’t much knowledge or transparency surrounding the ingredients we were using…as long as our hair felt smooth and looked plumper, we were happy. Once skincare brands who always had to be ingredient focused started developing hair care products, I think it shed a light on this issue and forced the heritage hair care brands to step it up.
What can consumers expect going forward with Non Gender Specific and its new haircare line?
Glass: They are going to love the shampoo and conditioner. We’ve already been working on two additional products including a Phytonutrient Infusion Hair Oil and a 72-Hour Plumping Cream!
To shop Non Gender Specific’s new haircare range, be sure to visit nongenderspecific.com . And for all things Non Gender Specific, make sure to follow @nongenderspecificofficial on Instagram.
