2023 ELLE Future of Beauty Awards: The Best in Hair Care.
What makes a beauty product “great” in 2022? For the beauty team at ELLE, the secret sauce to a Future of Beauty-worthy launch goes something like this: a breakthrough formula, never-before-seen level of inclusivity, and advancements in results.
“We gazed into our crystal (makeup) ball—reviewing hundreds of submissions—and selected the most exciting launches in the market right now to bring you this year’s Future of Beauty winners,” – said Elle’s experts.
The Unseen Colour Alchemy
For hair, colors like the glow of the Northern Lights or gleam of a scarab’s shell are now attainable with Colour Alchemy. The five holographic tints are triggered by heat and light, and work on many different hair shades—even dark ones.
Parfait Custom Wig
Parfait combines artificial intelligence and the know-how of seasoned hairstylists to solve pain points in the wig-creation process. AI helps capture sizing, so a custom wig can arrive in less than a week, compared to the standard five weeks or more.
Transition Mask – Pattern Transition Mask
At Tracee Ellis Ross’ Pattern Beauty, the team noticed the need for products to support processed hair that’s phasing back to its natural texture, because breakage can happen as a strand goes from straight to coiled. The Transition Mask strengthens hair during this delicate time with white tea and manuka honey.
Dyson Airwrap Multi-Styler
In 2018, Dyson debuted the Airwrap Styler, a combo hot tool and the first to harness the Coanda effect in a hair-curling device—using the law of physics to manipulate hair. It sold out almost immediately, and at one point had a 113,000-person waiting list. The version released this year, the Airwrap Multi-Styler, has enhanced that same technology, so the Airwrap can switch directions midstyle, as well as work on more hair types.
K18 PEPTIDE PREP pH Maintenance Shampoo
Forget the notion that shampoo needs to be stripping. This shampoo puts its patented molecule (named the K18 Peptide, which reconnects the bonds that are broken in a strand of hair every time you dye, style, or every aggressively brush) back into hair so that each cleanse is a step toward shinier, healthier hair.
JVN Embody Volumizing Foam
If your crunchy curls of the ’90s swore you of foam mousse forever—it’s time to give it another try. Queer Eye and Getting Curious’s Jonathan Van Ness formulated their version of volumizing foam with hydrating hemi-squalane, so you’re getting lift and shine without hair feeling stiff.
R+Co Bleu F-Layer Deep Conditioning Serum
This lightweight treatment caters to the little-addressed F layer, a three-nanometer area between the cells of the cuticle that must be hydrated for hair to look shiny. This leave-in, which should be used post-wash, has fruit extracts, the BLEU molecule (which will give you bond-building benefits), coconut fruit water, and sunflower seed oil.
Ceremonia Pequi Medium-Hold Styling Hair Gel
Founder Babba Rivera was inspired by the important role that gel plays in Latinx community’s hair routine when it came to formulating her own version. But this one has an oil (we know, an oil and a gel seem like they wouldn’t mix) from the pequi, a Brazillian fruit, for a flake-free medium hold that adds shine to all hair types.
g