TRESemmé is an American brand of

hair care Hair care or haircare is an overall term for hygiene and cosmetology involving the hair which grows from the human scalp, and to a lesser extent Facial hair, facial, Pubic hair, pubic and other body hair. Hair care routines differ according to a ...

products first manufactured in 1947 by the Godefroy Manufacturing Company in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, United States. It was named after the renowned hair care expert Edna L. Emme. The brand name is a

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

respelling of "beloved" () that includes the surname of its namesake. The TRESemmé

product line In marketing jargon, product lining refers to the offering of several related product (business), products for individual sale. Unlike product bundling, where several products are combined into one group, which is then offered for sale as a uni ...

was initially marketed only to

beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, and Day spa#Medical spa, medical spas. Beauty treatme ...

s. The TRESemmé brand was purchased by

Alberto-Culver Alberto-Culver was an American corporation with international sales whose principal business was manufacturing hair and skin beauty care products under such brands as Alberto VO5, Andrew Collnge, St. Ives (skin care products), TRESemmé, FDS, ...

in 1968, and then acquired by

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

in 2010.

History

The TRESemmé brand was launched in 1947 by Godefroy Manufacturing, and was bought in 1968 by

, a manufacturer of hair and skincare products. The original intention was to only distribute the products of the brand within beauty salons; however, as the product line became more popular, it was marketed to

supermarkets A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

and

pharmacies Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

. In 2010, Alberto-Culver was bought by

, an

Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British d ...

– Dutch multinational

consumer goods A final good or consumer good is a final product ready for sale that is used by the consumer to satisfy current wants or needs, unlike an intermediate good, which is used to produce other goods. A microwave oven or a bicycle is a final good. W ...

company. At that time, the product line was further developed and more products were added.

Product range

TRESemmé creates formulas suited for different types of hair. TRESemmé products include:

shampoos Shampoo () is a hair care product, typically in the form of a Viscosity, viscous liquid, that is formulated to be used for cleaning (scalp) hair. Less commonly, it is available in solid bar format. ("Dry shampoo" is a separate product.) Shamp ...

& conditioners,

dry shampoo Dry shampoo, otherwise known as hybrid shampoo, is a type of shampoo which reduces hair greasiness without the need for water. It is in powder form and is typically administered from an aerosol can. Dry shampoo is often based on corn starch or ri ...

mousse A mousse (, ; ) is a soft prepared food that incorporates air bubbles to give it a light and airy texture. Depending on preparation techniques, it can range from light and fluffy to creamy and thick. A mousse may be sweet or savory. as early ...

gels A gel is a semi-solid that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute cross-linked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady state, although the liquid phase may still ...

, hair sprays, ''crème & milk'', and other styling sprays. TRESemmé's products are used in hair salons across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, particularly for ''hair repair treatment'' from heat damage caused by

hair iron A hair iron or hair tong is a tool used to change the arrangement of the hair using heat. There are three general kinds: ''curling irons'', used to make the hair curl; ''straightening irons'', commonly called ''straighteners'' or ''flat irons'', ...

ing and blowdrying. , a software tool called "PROfiler" on the TRESemmé website allowed consumers to find the right products for their hair. , the tool was no longer available.

The brand spent an estimated US$17 million on advertising in 2004. , advertisement campaigns included one promoted under "Professional, Affordable".

South African racism controversy

In August 2020, TRESemmé was accused of being racist when its marketing campaign at South African retail chain Clicks ran an ad showing the text "dull and frizzy" and "dry and damaged" under the portrait of a black model while "fine and flat" and "normal" appeared under a white model. Following an uproar across South Africa against Clicks and TRESemmé, protest action, damage to some Clicks stores by members of the South African political party

Economic Freedom Fighters The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a South African communist and black nationalist political party. It was founded by expelled former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema, and his allies, on 26 July 20 ...

(EFF), and a call by Minister of Small Business Development Khumbudzo Ntshavheni to remove all TRESemmé products, Clicks issued an apology, temporarily closed a number of its stores, suspended staff responsible for approving the advert, pulled all TRESemmé products, and pledged to fill the gap with locally sourced hair care brands. National retail chains Shoprite/Checkers, Pick n Pay,

Makro Makro is a Netherlands, Dutch international brand of warehouse clubs, also called Cash and carry (wholesale), cash and carry stores. Makro was founded by SHV Holdings, a Dutch conglomerate based in Utrecht in partnership with German company ...

, Dis-Chem and Woolworths also announced their intention to remove all TRESemmé products from their shelves. On September 10, the EFF released a joint statement with Unilever South Africa on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

where they announced Unilever's decision to remove all its TRESemmé products from all retailers for 10 days as a show of remorse, conduct an internal investigation into the campaign, and take disciplinary action on those involved. The statement also said that the director involved in the campaign left the company and country. The intent behind the damaging advertisement is not universally regarded as ''purposely'' malicious and neither Clicks nor TRESemmé consider its racial undertone to be intentional. TRESemmé issued an apology in September 2020, stating that "the campaign set out to celebrate the beauty of all hair types and the range of solutions that TRESemmé offers" and that "we got it wrong". Commenting on the controversy, black television personality Somizi Mhlongo said that there may be some truth in the TRESemmé ad, noting "The hair that they showed is the hair that looks like what happens when we relax our hair. My hair right now is not natural, it has chemicals, it’s damaged."

Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week

TRESemmé was the official hair care sponsor of the

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is a series of international fashion weeks sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, a brand of Daimler AG. Designers featured during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Weeks include notable designers such as Rosenthal Tee, Mary Katrantzou and Davi ...

2014 in New York in February, and had been since 2006. TRESemmé created a team called "Runway Insiders" that included American

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

and DJ Harley Viera-Newton.

Awards

Awards won by the TRESemmé brand include: *''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

'' Beauty Award 2010 *'' Allure'' Best of Beauty Award 2010 *''Cosmopolitan'' Beauty Award 2011 *''

Elle Elle may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Elle (magazine), ''Elle'' (magazine), a fashion publication ** Elle Style Awards * Elle (India), ''Elle'' (India), the Indian edition * Elle (film), ''Elle'' (film), a 2016 French film * ''Elle: ...

'' Beauty Award 2011 *''Allure'' Readers' Choice Breakthroughs 2011

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:TRESemme Products introduced in 1947 Hair care products Personal care brands Shampoo brands Unilever brands