Briogeo

Nancy Twine spent nearly seven years at Goldman Sachs, ending as a vice president on the trading floor. Then her mother died suddenly, and the loss sent her back to something she’d left behind: the homemade hair treatments she used to mix in the kitchen with her mother and grandmother in West Virginia. She walked away from finance to turn those recipes into a business.

The brand she built, Briogeo, launched in 2013, grew into one of the largest independent Black-owned hair care companies in the country, and made Twine the youngest African American to launch a product line at Sephora. In April 2022, Wella Company acquired it.

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At a glance:

Founded	2013
Founder	Nancy Twine (former Goldman Sachs VP)
Acquired by	Wella Company (KKR-owned), April 2022
Deal terms	Undisclosed
Positioning	Clean, natural, high-performance hair care
Launched at	Sephora (youngest African American founder to do so)
Hero product	Don’t Despair, Repair! deep conditioning mask

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The Story

A trading-floor VP with a kitchen full of hair recipes

Nancy Twine grew up in West Virginia making beauty products in the kitchen with her grandmother, a family habit of mixing natural ingredients into hair and skin treatments. She studied finance at the University of Virginia, then went to Wall Street, spending close to seven years at Goldman Sachs and rising to vice president on the trading floor. On paper, the path was set.

The loss that changed direction

In 2011, Twine’s mother died suddenly. The loss sent her on what she has called a soul-searching stretch, and it pulled her back toward the homemade hair treatments she’d made growing up. She left Goldman Sachs and started prototyping products in her East Village apartment kitchen, self-funding the early work herself rather than waiting for anyone’s permission or money.

Briogeo, and the youngest founder at Sephora

She launched Briogeo in 2013: clean, natural, high-performance hair care, built without many of the silicones and sulfates the industry leaned on, a version of “clean beauty” before that was a category anyone was marketing. She got it onto Sephora’s shelves and became the youngest African American to launch a product line at the retailer, and Briogeo grew into one of the largest independent Black-owned hair care brands in the United States.

The Wella exit

In April 2022, Wella Company, the KKR-owned beauty group behind Wella Professionals, OPI, and ghd, acquired Briogeo for an undisclosed sum, calling it one of the fastest-growing hair care brands globally. Twine stayed on to keep running the company she’d built from her kitchen.

The Strategy

Clean hair care before “clean” was a category

Twine bet on natural, transparent formulations years before the clean-beauty wave made that table stakes. Briogeo helped pioneer what the industry later called the “skinification” of hair, treating hair care with the ingredient scrutiny people applied to skincare. Arriving early to a trend, rather than chasing it, is what let a new brand define a lane instead of fighting for one.

Sephora as the launchpad

Rather than stay DTC-only or fight for drugstore shelves, Twine aimed straight for prestige and landed in Sephora. The retailer’s shelf gave a new, self-funded brand instant credibility and national scale, and the placement itself became a milestone the press could not resist writing about.

Formulas for real hair, including the underserved kind

Briogeo built products that worked across hair types, including the curly and textured hair the mass market had long treated as an afterthought. Its hero, the Don’t Despair, Repair! mask, became a repeat-purchase staple, and serving customers the big brands overlooked gave Briogeo a loyal base that broader lines couldn’t easily win.

The Marketing

The founder story was the brand’s best asset

A Goldman Sachs VP who left finance after a personal loss to build hair care from her grandmother’s recipes is a story the press tells for free. Twine’s background gave Briogeo a founder narrative that was specific, credible, and repeatable, the kind of earned media that no ad budget buys, and it put a real person at the center of a clean-beauty brand.

Representation as substance, not slogan

Briogeo became a prominent Black-owned brand in prestige beauty at a time when few existed, and Twine used her platform to push for more. That mattered to customers who had been overlooked by the industry, and it made the brand’s inclusivity feel earned rather than marketed.

The Numbers

Year	Milestone
2013	Briogeo launches, self-funded, from Twine’s apartment
2013+	Enters Sephora; Twine becomes youngest African American to launch there
2010s	Grows into one of the largest independent Black-owned hair care brands in the US
April 2022	Acquired by Wella Company (undisclosed sum)

The deal: Wella did not disclose what it paid, but it described Briogeo as one of the fastest-growing hair care brands in the world and folded it into a portfolio alongside OPI and ghd. For a brand that started self-funded in an apartment kitchen, an acquisition by a global beauty group is the full-circle outcome.

The starting capital: near zero. Twine bootstrapped the early products herself, which meant she owned the brand outright as it grew and controlled its direction the whole way to the sale.

What You Can Learn

Your old career is an asset, not a detour. Seven years at Goldman gave Twine the financial discipline and nerve to build and eventually sell a company. Whatever you did before is training you’re bringing with you, not time you wasted.

Arrive early to a category. Briogeo was clean hair care before clean was a marketing term. Getting to a shift before everyone else lets you define it instead of competing inside it, and that head start compounds. Read how to spot where a market is heading.

Serve the customer the giants ignore. Briogeo built loyalty by formulating for textured and curly hair the mass market underserved. The overlooked customer is often the most loyal one, because you’re the brand that finally showed up.

Self-funding keeps you in control. Twine bootstrapped Briogeo from her kitchen and owned it outright as it grew. Starting small and on your own money is slower, but it means the company is genuinely yours when someone comes to buy it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who founded Briogeo?

Nancy Twine founded Briogeo in 2013. She was a vice president at Goldman Sachs before leaving finance to build the brand, inspired by natural hair treatments she made growing up with her mother and grandmother in West Virginia.

What happened to Briogeo?

Wella Company, a global beauty group owned by private equity firm KKR, acquired Briogeo in April 2022 for an undisclosed sum. Nancy Twine stayed on to continue running the brand.

Is Briogeo Black-owned?

Briogeo was founded by Nancy Twine, a Black woman, and grew into one of the largest independent Black-owned hair care brands in the United States before its acquisition by Wella Company in 2022.

What is Briogeo’s hero product?

The Don’t Despair, Repair! deep conditioning mask is Briogeo’s best-known product, a repeat-purchase staple central to the brand’s growth.

When did Briogeo launch, and where?

Briogeo launched in 2013 and entered Sephora, where Nancy Twine became the youngest African American to launch a product line at the retailer. She built the early products self-funded from her apartment kitchen.

Sources

• Wella Company / PRNewswire, “Wella Company Amplifies Growth with the Acquisition of Briogeo,” April 29, 2022. The acquisition and Wella’s portfolio.
• Business of Fashion, “Wella Company Acquires Hair Care Brand Briogeo”. Deal context and KKR ownership.
• NPR, “Briogeo: Nancy Twine,” 2020. Twine’s Goldman Sachs background and founding inspiration.
• Yahoo Lifestyle, “How Briogeo Founder Nancy Twine Went From Goldman Sachs VP to Hair-Care Success Story”. Her mother’s passing and the pivot to Briogeo.
• Wikipedia, “Nancy Twine”. West Virginia upbringing, education, and the Sephora milestone.