Battling Frizz And Graying Roots Made This Entrepreneur A $600 Million Fortune

Forbes

Gail Federici sold her first company, John Frieda Hair Care, in 2002. She’s more than doubled her fortune building a second brand, Color Wow, which is now eyeing a $1 billion sale.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gigizamora/2025/06/09/how-battling-frizz-and-gail-federici-john-frieda--graying-roots-made-this-entrepreneur-a-600-million-fortune/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, how battling frizz and greying roots made this entrepreneur a $600 million

00:07fortune. After selling her first company, John Frieda Professional Hair Care in 2002,

00:14Gail Federici thought she was done with hair forever. She'd spent the prior 13 years growing

00:19John Frieda, a partnership with the legendary British hairstylist of the same name, which she

00:24co-founded in 1989 and made an estimated $170 million fortune from its sale to Japanese giant

00:31Cow Corporation. In a phone call from her home in Wilton, Connecticut, the 76-year-old Federici

00:38tells Forbes, quote, I felt like we'd been there, done it. I'm always interested in learning new

00:43things, and I thought, I don't want to do the same thing all over again. For the next five years,

00:49Federici made a massive career pivot. Inspired by her husband, James Smith, who is a musician,

00:54and two teenage daughters' interest in singing, she launched her own music label in London,

00:59Hometown Entertainment. This detour didn't last long. By 2013, Federici had retreated from her

01:06fledgling music career and launched Color Wow, a haircare line she says was inspired by her sister's

01:12greying roots. Her first product? An eyeshadow-like root cover-up product that lasts until the user's

01:19next hair wash. Color Wow has since released over 60 products combating everything from frizz to dryness.

01:27Susan Anderson, a senior analyst at New York investment bank Canaccord Genuity,

01:32covering beauty, explains, quote, They're solving everyday problems.

01:37This niche has proved highly lucrative for Color Wow. Jennifer Lopez used its products during her

01:432020 Super Bowl performance, and the brand's $28 anti-frizz Dreamcoat spray treatment is one of

01:49Sephora's best-selling hair products. The Wilton, Connecticut-based company says it recorded some

01:54$300 million in revenue last year. Federici, Color Wow's sole owner, has done it all without bringing

02:02in outside investors. Forbes estimates the brand's value to be about half a billion, though the growing

02:08value of her Color Wow steak, which is now worth more than double what she got from John Frieda,

02:13has helped propel her net worth to an estimated $600 million. She ranked number 61 on Forbes' 2025

02:21list of America's richest self-made women, which was published in June. Haircare wasn't Federici's

02:28first passion. After graduating from the University of Connecticut in 1970, Federici first followed in

02:34the footsteps of two of her three siblings who studied law and enrolled in the University of

02:38Bridgeport Law School, now known as Quinnipiac University School of Law. While in night school

02:44at Bridgeport, she got a job as an assistant at Zotos, a haircare brand headquartered in Darien,

02:49Connecticut. Federici worked her way up the ranks at Zotos, quit law school during her last year,

02:55and eventually became Vice President of Corporate Communications, where she helped develop the

02:59ideas behind popular products of brands like Bain de Terre and Acclaim. It was during her time at

03:06Zotos that she met London-based John Frieda at a haircare industry convention in London in 1988.

03:12He had a small product line and was looking for guidance on how to take it further.

03:17In 1989, she became his business partner and moved to London. A year later, they launched their Frizz-Ease

03:23Serum, one of the first-ever products to target Frizz. It was an instant hit. Later came popular

03:29brands Sheer Blonde and Beach Blonde. All of this caught the attention of Japan-based Calcorp,

03:35which offered the partners $450 million in cash to buy them out in 2002 to gain access to the

03:41growing haircare market. It was an amount that Federici now describes as, quote,

03:46irresponsible to refuse. Though she admits, quote,

03:49I did feel quite lost after the sale because it happened so quickly and it was our life.

03:54With ColorWow, Federici was able to get back to the roots of what made John Frieda a hit.

04:01Before launching the company in 2013, she brought back Dr. Joe Sincotta, a chemist she first met at

04:06Zotos and later recruited to John Frieda. It's Sincotta who helped come up with the root cover-up,

04:12which is one of ColorWow's top-selling products.

04:14For full coverage, check out Gigi Zamora's piece on Forbes.com.

04:22This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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