As stylists and salon owners, with clientele ranging from the everyday woman to the celebrity, Nikki Lee and Riawna Capri know a thing or two about what this industry needs and wants. After launching In Common, a line of inclusive products designed with the stylist and client in mind, the Nine Zero One owners are introducing a new perk to their brand: a rewards program. Here, the duo shares the inspiration behind their new venture and what they've learned along the way.
Firstly, fill us in on In Common.
Riawna: Nikki and I are firm believers in healthy, beautiful hair. It doesn’t matter how much you paid for color or cut—if your hair isn’t healthy, your hair isn’t beautiful. If we try think of the best treatment out there, we can’t. So Nikki and I decided to create one. Every product that In Common creates is going to physically make your hair in a better state than it was before.
Nikki: Our first product, Magic Myst, which launched last fall, has a proprietary blend of two key technologies: Healing Water Technology, which adds moisture back into the hair, and our C3, or Custom Care Complex, what we call smart technology. It really understands the needs that your hair has, whether it’s damaged and has dryness to it, whether it’s in need of moisture—it’s able to smartly work its way in at the cortex level, and over cumulative use give your hair better results and better health.
And you don't require salons to stock a minimum amount of product?
Nikki: No, and that’s important to us strictly because we’ve been there, we’ve done that. About 10 years ago, when we had our first order, the brand we wanted to stock's minimum order was $8,700. We had to do it, and we did. We only carried two product lines because that’s what we could afford because of the minimum ordering. Nikki and I knew that when we made this product line, we wouldn’t do a minimum of X amount of SKUs; why not just get the shampoo if you don’t like the conditioner? Why do you have to order every single product in a line if you only like certain ones? So, we’re changing the game—we wanted to offer it to people to get what they want, how many they want, when they want, with no minimum for anything. Live your life and get what you love!
Riawna: So, this could be super helpful for independent people or in salon suites.
Do you hope that you’ll add more SKUs or do you want In Common to be a more curated and small offering?
Riawna: Nikki and I have worn all the hats—we’ve been the assistant, the receptionist, the hairstylist and the salon owner. When Nikki and I are making these products, we want each and every product to be f***ing amazing—not just make a volumizing spray just because everyone else makes a volumizing spray. We want to curate everything to be an amazing product and not an abundance of SKUs “just because.”
Tell us more about the rewards program!
Nikki: What’s so exciting about it is that for every dollar that a salon or stylist spends, they’ll earn 20 percent in what we’re calling In Common Dollars to redeem for back bar or styling station products. They can be redeemed online. When they redeem it, it’s dollar for dollar. So, if they spent $50 on products, they get that in rewards. The rewards program is going to be retroactive, back to when we first launched the product back in November 2018. Also, a salon or stylist will be able to redeem rewards online with the manufacturer, which is us. We’re used to having to go through a local distributor and wait six weeks to get the rewards. With us, it’s simple.
Riawna: We don’t like to follow rules just to follow rules—we like to do things that are in the best interest of the salon and the stylist. This is our way of giving back.