A Letter On Behalf Of Redken

For many, the last few weeks have been a time of great self-reflection. This is true for Shane and me as well. We are coming to you today speaking from our hearts.
 
We were remembering how we felt when we first came to our positions at Redken back in 2013. We knew right away that we had arrived somewhere special. Redken is a place of love. The hairdressing community is caring, passionate, and supportive.  In so many ways, the very best qualities that you can imagine in people you see reflected in hairdressers every day.
 
We thought a lot about how lucky we are, to have enjoyed these years alongside our hairdressers where time and time again we witnessed the community coming together to support each other. This is something we saw so often. Those who were part of our hairdresser community felt welcome, supported, seen, and heard. WELCOME. SUPPORTED. SEEN. HEARD.

The world is not a welcoming and supportive place for all. Not everyone is seen and heard. And even in our own industry and brand, these principles that we cherish so deeply are not applied equally causing pain for our Black and Hispanic team members We need to do more, so much more, for everyone to feel welcome, supported, seen, and heard. 

We are sharing here with you our vision, and the first steps that we are taking to be a more inclusive brand and to support the Black community. We are committed to taking action and will work together with the professional community to drive long-term, meaningful change in our industry, a change that is long overdue.

While Redken’s values have always been centered on community and education, now is the time to examine how we live those values each day in every action that we take. Our community will see change everywhere that we show up - online, in classrooms, in salons, at events and shows. 

• We will use our platforms, both in-person and online, to embrace inclusivity and support Black creators. You will see more diversity on our social media channels, in our ads, in our partnerships, at our events, and more.

• We are committed to diversifying our artist network, starting with onboarding more Black artists and educators into every facet of our education curriculum and activities.

• We will open the dialogue with Black-owned salons to better understand how we can support their needs and learn from them, both through online and in-person forums.

• We took an important step earlier this year towards making the professional beauty industry more inclusive through Redken x Mizani’s long-term ‘For The Love of Texture’ partnership. One element of this partnership involved training our network of 350+ artists and educators on how to color, care and style textured hair. We will continue to provide inclusive education and upskilling by making texture integral in our brand education. 
• We are organizing a diversity training for all of our Artists, Influencers, and internal brand teams at all levels. The goal of the training is to educate and empower our internal partners to be advocates for change.  
• We will be instituting an advisory board of diverse voices, consisting of internal and external participants, to educate, inform, and guide our brand.

• We will use our influence in the industry to change the beauty school curriculum. Every hairdressing student should learn about textured hair on Black mannequins as part of their fundamental education. We will also partner with beauty schools to offer opportunities to Black beauty students.
• We will support Black stylists who serve as leaders through independent education. 

We believe that actions speak louder than words. We are sharing the above to bring you into our thinking as to how we can take real, meaningful steps towards change. We fully expect to have deeper conversations as they evolve and come to life and for you to hold us accountable. We will continue to maintain an open, honest dialogue with you and we will share our progress on social media.  

We are here to listen, to learn what we don’t know, and to use the full might our influence as brand leaders to impact positive change. Thank you being a part of the Redken community, for using your voice to help us be better, and for participating in this journey forward.