In the two years since it dropped, Cécred has proven itself as a fierce competitor up against any other brand in the hair category. In 2025, its debut in Ulta Beauty was the most successful prestige haircare launch in the retailer’s history. Cécred has won 89 beauty industry awards. And this month, the brand expanded from the U.S. only to the U.K. through the retailer Space NK.

Cécred’s CEO Grace Ray traveled to London for the launch, as did Tina Knowles, Cécred’s vice chair and Beyoncé’s mother (better known as Ms. Tina). We caught up over Zoom during their travels; Knowles had just finished visiting three salons and introducing stylists there to Cécred products. “We used to travel here a lot back with Destiny’s Child, and and I just felt like there was really a void in products that worked across the board for every hair type,” Knowles remembered.

This is the kind of insight she brings to the brand; in the 1980s, Knowles owned a successful salon in Houston called Headliners. She mixed new ideas (she recalls one product that included ground-up human hair) with tested-through-generations staples like olive oil treatments. “I had a computer before anyone else,” she remembers. Beyoncé, her fellow Destiny’s Child members, and her sister Solange all grew up in and around the salon. “Ms. Tina is a seasoned salon owner and hairstylist, and you’ve got Beyoncé who could be a hairstylist as well given her experience,” says Ray, the former CEO of Milani Cosmetics who has been with the brand since its earliest days. “[From them], we’re getting not just creative ideas for marketing, but innovation that’s really breakthrough.”

Beyoncé is known for her perfectionism and intentionality. Every detail of her work is labored over. And that has been true for Cécred too. “That is why Beyoncé fully funded the business on her own, to not be beholden to any other investor’s agenda,” Ray says. Cécred tests its products on all types of hair textures, not only straight hair—an outlier in the industry. One interested investor who questioned high research and development costs was an immediate red flag, Ray remembers. “I would love to have a conversation with them now,” she says.

These days, Beyoncé still “sends products back 10 times,” Knowles says. She “challenges us beyond what you could believe,” she says. “She’s that methodical and detail-oriented and—’No, it’s not good enough.'”

And while Beyoncé is the brand’s founder, she’s not its face. She doesn’t appear in advertisements. That’s intentional, Knowles confirms. “Our customers have sold the brand for us,” Knowles says. Cécred’s edge drops went viral after a man in Ireland posted about using them to regrow his hairline. It introduced lash and brow serum after customers were using hair products on their lashes.

Instead, Beyoncé integrates the brand into her own life and work. And that artistry complements Cécred’s rigorous product standards. During the Cowboy Carter tour in 2025, mini-salons were part of the tour’s set in stadiums. She recently shared a video of the multi-day process of combing out her husband Jay-Z’s locs using Cécred products. “Beyoncé is a master at storytelling through her art,” Ray says. “We are very focused on the inspiration and connection and emotionality that comes with the hair care journey, and that is a form of storytelling that we try to do all the time. That’s a big extension of Beyoncé.”

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world.

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PARTING WORDS

"They’re about human conditions, about what we all grapple with all the time. I find often, in movies or television, that in order for there to be emotional stakes, there has to be a murder. I think most of us have really high stakes in our lives that don’t involve murder."

— Julianne Moore on her career and making films about women's lives