Dianna Cohen is not your typical haircare founder.
The most notable founders in the space almost always have a history as a hairstylist, going all the way back to Vidal Sassoon in the 1970s to Oribe Canales in the aughts to Jonathan Van Ness of “Queer Eye” fame, who launched their JVN brand in 2021. Most other recent standout successes, like hair repair label K18, are launched by scientists, the product of years of formulation in a lab.
Cohen is neither stylist nor scientist, but a brand builder who began her career as an intern at beauty blog Into the Gloss during its heyday, before moving on to work in marketing for a list of what were then the biggest names in direct-to-consumer: luggage brand Away, shaving label Harry’s and athleisure start-up Outdoor Voices. In 2019, she was even named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.
It’s those skills that she’s flexed while building Crown Affair, the buzzy haircare brand that’s become a favourite of savvy influencers, in-the-know urban dwellers and even a few celebrities. (Doja Cat wore its hair towel for a pre-Met Gala photo opp in 2024.)
With a distinct signature colour (a light sage green), curated product assortment and influential fan base, Crown Affair frequently attracts comparisons to another beauty label, Glossier. Cohen, too, who serves as the brand’s most visible ambassador (she has over 37,000 followers on Instagram) is often spoken in the same breath as her former boss, Glossier founder Emily Weiss.
However, she’s had the benefit of watching Glossier’s stumbles and learning from them. Crown Affair entered wholesale early on; Cohen had seen its power while working at Harry’s. Knowing she’s more of a creative than a numbers person, she had a partner in Elaine Choi, Crown Affair’s newly-promoted CEO, from the get-go. Expanding the assortment has been a careful and deliberate process; only last month did it begin selling a second formulation of shampoo and conditioner.
On the heels of its fifth anniversary, however, Crown Affair is thinking bigger and looking to expand beyond its cool-girl roots. The brand announced it had closed a $9 million Series B funding round in November of last year, and is expanding its Sephora presence to 450 doors by the end of 2025, a major increase from the 55 it sold in as of last summer. It aims to hit $30 million in sales this year, up from $20 million in 2024.
“We’re starting to see the second wave of people — there are people all over the country that are meeting Crown Affair for the first time,” said Cohen, before likening the recent fundraise to a rocket ship. “Even though we thought we knew where we were aiming it in the beginning, we now know where we’re aiming it.”
Beginning with a Brush
While Cohen wasn’t a hair professional before Crown Affair, she was a person who was, admittedly, obsessed with hair.
“Hair is my final accessory,” she said. “It’s the thing that makes me feel good, and it’s the category in beauty that I always invested in, which meant luxury salon products.”
She wanted to create something with a greater sense of ease, that was still beautiful.
To start, the brand began with sleek hair accessories. Cohen had been a fan of Mason Pearson hairbrushes — a $200 boar bristle hairbrush that’s been sold for over 100 years — but when she recommended them to friends, they scoffed at the price.
She wanted to make “the hair brush feel like the equivalent of your Harry Potter wand,” she said. It created its own version, sold at the more accessible but still upscale price point of $98, as well as tortoiseshell hair combs. Products followed, starting with The Oil.
Choi said the brand isn’t focused on creating a version of its products for every hair type, as is the tactic for most haircare brands, but instead creating a version of each that can work for a variety of people. That ethos is reflected in the naming of the products, which points to their singularity: The Finishing Gel, The Leave-in Conditioner, The Texturising Air Dry Mousse.
“The idea is that everything is not for everyone, but there is something for everyone,” said Choi. “We believe that our products will help you discover what your hair is and what you can do with it, and you’ll have the tools to do your hair in five minutes, and be able to walk out the door.”
This value proposition combined with sleek branding has meant the brand found a natural home at luxury spaces, which is why Crown Affair entered the more niche retailers Violet Grey and Goop before going more mass market with Sephora in 2022. But the relatively high price points — a shampoo and conditioner set costs $68 — and the fact that the products are not for everybody, has given the label a bit of an exclusive air.
The assortment, while simple and streamlined, is meant to feel special, including fragrance (the brand even created a hair perfume in partnership with D.S. & Durga) and elegant packaging. But the products’ greatest luxuries are arguably the thoughtful details that make them easy to use, customers say. The Hair Clips offer a second row of interior teeth so they’re more secure; The Dry Shampoo is applied not by spray, but with a designated brush.
“Hair is not my thing, so I get overwhelmed when you see these brands at Sephora that have 20 different types of shampoo,” said Nan Philip, a content creator who frequently shares her love of Crown Affair products across her platforms. The Hair Towel, one of its most popular products, was her first entry point to the brand. “I’d used a hair towel before, and it was fine, but this one is much more elevated, with the size of it and elastic band in the back. It’s just that little bit better.”
For that reason, partnerships with influencers, rather than salons, have driven most of Crown Affair’s growth, predominantly focused on gifting. (The brand is an exclusive partner of affiliate network ShopMy.) Cohen, too, is one of the brand’s most visible advocates, sharing tips on everything from air drying to manifestation on Instagram, TikTok and Substack.
To the Masses
Crown Affair has become a favourite for those in the know in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Miami, where Cohen is based. Now, it wants to stretch beyond the coasts.
Increasing its presence in Sephora is a big part of that; the Series B round will be used in part to fund those efforts, as well as build up the team.
Cohen, meanwhile, has largely ceded the day-to-day leadership of the company to Choi, who has been with the brand as president and COO since before it launched. She admits that she’s better as an individual contributor than a manager, and is more well-suited to external communication and creativity than the nitty gritty of a P&L; Cohen will continue to drive the brand’s storytelling efforts.
“The benefit of having spent a decade working at other consumer brands is you learn from other founders that you’ve got to trust,” she said. “I’m not going to micromanage.”
Even as the brand grows, Choi said they don’t want to abandon their more intentional approach to hair care. Though they now have much of the foundational products covered — shampoo, conditioner, leave-in, oil, finishing gel — launches will be kept to just two or three per year, to ensure they’re making products that have a worthy place in customers’ routines. Customer feedback is a big part of that; its new hydrating shampoo and conditioner was introduced after they received feedback that more people wanted another option.
To fuel growth, the brand is “betting on Sephora,” Cohen said, as the retailer looks to expand its own presence in hair care. For their part, Sephora has embraced “the concept of haircare as a mindful daily practice,” said Jennifer Lucchese, VP haircare merchandising at Sephora, an approach that she said Cohen pioneered.
Ultimately, Cohen and Choi want to create a “legacy brand,” they both said, one that will be around for decades to come. Much of the brand’s messaging revolves around the idea of building a “ritual,” meant to inspire customer loyalty. So far, it’s working: 60 percent of existing Crown Affair customers will buy a new product when they launch it.
“That’s the thing that’s interesting about hair care,” said Choi. “It actually takes time for people to be willing to integrate a new product. But once they’re in, they’re pretty loyal.”
