The Roots of Design Essentials

The Design Essentials story starts back in the 1970s when Cornell McBride, the president of McBride Research Laboratories (MRL), entered the health and beauty industry with M&M Products Company in partnership with his classmate, Therman McKenzie. Their breakthrough came with “Sta-Sof-Fro,” which was the first softening product created specifically for African American men’s hair.

The revolutionary product made hair easier to comb and manage, and it was such a huge success that M&M was able to expand its product lines, as well as its brand, to the extent that it became known worldwide as a pioneer in African American hair care. McBride Research Laboratories sold M&M in 1989 to Johnson Products, leaving MRL open to new opportunities in the hair and beauty market.

Who’s Behind Design Essentials? What Sets It Apart?

Launched in 1990 by McBride Research Laboratories, Design Essentials was created with the aim of combining top-quality hair care products with the knowledge and skills to use them, not just in the salon but at home too. Design Essentials offers a range of top-quality products targeted to and specialized for black women, all of which will work for a number of different hair types. These professional products will cleanse, nourish, condition, replenish and revitalize. Its product lines, including Therapeutics Rx, Colaura and Wave by Design, are engineered to infuse the hair with nourishing vitamins and proteins so as to make hair manageable and beautiful.

Design Essentials doesn’t just want to produce products for better and more beautiful hair, though; it also wants to pass on knowledge to its clients. The brand offers lots of educational literature and even sponsors events to teach people and salons about its products and how to use them in a proper hair care regimen.

The Design Essentials Philosophy

The Design Essentials brand knows that hair care is important, and when hair looks good, you feel good. It has always aimed to produce hair care that will satisfy an individual’s hair needs, allowing its natural beauty to always shine through. Design Essentials understands that natural hair has a number of different textures, and instead of hiding that texture, it teaches women to embrace their natural hair texture and show it off at its finest.

Design Essentials has come a long way from its humble beginnings. Today, it offers more than 40 premium hair care products, selling directly to salons and through e-commerce sites to the individual. It’s the brand of choice for the natural hair care scene, and as such, it is rapidly becoming a global brand with distributors throughout the United States, Caribbean and U.K.