Hair-care tycoon Carolyn Aronson enters mass with Cloud: ‘It has the callouts Gen Z is looking for’

In 2006, the longtime hairstylist and salon owner launched professional hair-care brand It’s a 10 with one hero product: Miracle Leave-In spray. The $21 formula was an immediate success for its ability to hydrate, smooth, condition, defrizz and protect hair with one formula. The brand had immediate success by seeding the product to professional hairstylists before entering Ulta Beauty, Target, Sally’s Beauty, Cosmoprof, SalonCentric and Amazon, and selling DTC. 

Using Miracle Leave-In as the anchor for expansion, the company added formulations through the years for various hair types and preferences. This includes new Miracle Leave-Ins for coily, blonde and men’s hair; keratin- or color-treated hair; and lite, fragrance-free and dye-free variations. Each new collection includes shampoo, conditioner, masks and a variety of other offerings. The brand also sells body care.  

In 2017, Aronson bought out her co-founder to become the sole owner of It’s a 10. She’s taken on no investors. The brand currently brings in around $500 million in gross annual sales and is distributed in more than 125 countries. 

On a personal level, Aronson has also provided inspiration for women in the beauty industry. She entered the foster care system at age 2, began working in salons as a teenager and is currently one of the beauty industry’s few self-made billionaires. She’s also known for her philanthropy. For example, It’s a 10 donated $250,000 worth of products to the Los Angeles Dream Center in January to help victims of the Los Angeles wildfires. 

This year, Aronson is expanding her empire with Cloud Haircare, a new, Gen Z-focused line of shampoo, conditioner and styling products sold in two collections: nourishing and volumizing. Each SKU sells for $11.99 in CVS, Walmart and DTC. 

The line features colorful, flat lay-friendly packaging and Gen Z-focused values: vegan, Leaping Bunny-approved formulas free of parabens and SLS, and sold in bottles made from post-consumer plastic resins. 

Aronson’s expansion into mass comes at a time when the sector has experienced a renaissance, of sorts. New, fresh brands are currently flooding the market, many of which are priced at $11.99 — like Odele, Saltair, Being Frenshe, Laura Polko and Function of Beauty —  while bargain formulas like Suave are back with new branding. 

Beyond Cloud Haircare, Aronson entered the home hair-color space in 2023 with Rewind it 10, a line of men’s home hair and beard dyes. She partnered with friend and rapper Fat Joe on the collection, as well as her husband Jeff Aronson. It sells for $15 per box DTC and through Sally’s Beauty, CVS, Walmart, Amazon and more retailers. 

To entice shoppers, each shade of hair dye is modeled by an influential figure like model Tyson Beckford, football star Trace Kelsie, DJ Khaled and celebrity face Brody Jenner, among many others. 

On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Aronson provides Glossy listeners an inside view of her move into mass hair care with Cloud and insights into navigating the men’s marketplace with Rewind it 10. She also gives listeners a teaser on her entry into women’s hair color and her hopes for Cloud Haircare.

Excerpts from the conversation, below, have been lightly edited for clarity. 

On her secret power

“I was a hairdresser for 20 years. I stood behind the chair. I was a salon owner. I touched thousands of heads and have used thousands of products. That’s been my golden sword throughout all of this. I’ve been able to cut straight to the chase and understand the consumer as well as the hairdresser and what they lack, what they need and what’s going to do well in the market. I do my research and I stay up with trends. I stay up with ingredients. I stay up with technology. As I manufacture, what’s available to me out there today has completely changed, so I incorporate that into what I do.”

On launching Rewind it 10 with celebrity faces

“The barbering industry is up 5,000% right now, so for men to come out and feel good about wanting to look and feel good and giving them permission [is important].

With [Fat] Joe’s initial concept, [we knew] what we should create. … I get approached a lot to create products, but this one was a combination of working with a dear family friend [Fat Joe] as well as knowing it was time to do it. My husband, Jeff Aronson, is a partner in this company [and Cloud Haircare, but not It’s a 10 where I am the sole owner]. I call us the trifecta: me, Fat Joe and my husband, Jeff. Jeff is a marketing genius, and he’s the one who thought to put all of the famous faces on the boxes. We didn’t cut one of those people checks. So, yeah, Travis Kelce, DJ Khaled — these people are friends of Joe’s, a lot of them, or know him. And so, when people come aboard, they’re not cut checks. They actually get a portion of each box, and it really gives us promotional power. I mean, we get billions of impressions. … It was just a really brilliant way to make men today feel like it’s OK [to color your hair]. I mean, whoever thought that Travis Kelce colored his hair?”

On the possibility of selling It’s a 10

“I’m just beginning. We’re an 18-year-old brand. We sell over 11 million bottles a year just of our Miracle Leave-In product. We’ve gone worldwide, and I became sole owner of the company in 2017, which is only seven or eight years ago now, and I’ve been able to double the company since then. I have so much more to do. I love creating. It’s one of my favorite things to do, and that’s why I have become a serial entrepreneur. I have created multiple brands underneath the It’s a 10 enterprise umbrella, so to speak. The check would have to be so big. It just wouldn’t even make sense. And truthfully, I don’t foresee that happening anytime soon. I want to keep creating and [introducing] more companies or more brands, raising the bar within the beauty industry.”