Tracee Ellis Ross reveals it took 10 years to launch Pattern: ‘Nobody thought it should be coming from me’

Tracee Ellis Ross opens up about what it really took to launch her thriving haircare line Pattern in 2019.

Even though Tracee Ellis Ross had long become a household name known for her massive curly mane, it took her ten years to get her hair care line, Pattern, on shelves.

On a recent episode of the podcast “Aspire with Emma Grede,” the 53-year-old actress and beauty founder opened up about the lengthy timeline and just how challenging it was to get her hair care line off the ground.

“I wrote my first hair care brand pitch when ‘Girlfriends’ finished,” she said of the 2008 series finale of her hit sitcom chronicling the lives of four women in Los Angeles.

“And I want to be very clear with people, this was 10 years, and nobody thought it should be coming from me,” she continued. “This was before celebrity brands existed. I’m the founder. So that is often different, whereas people bring somebody in, but Pattern was built as a consumer who saw a blank space in the industry that just was not being serviced and during the process I learned a process around no’s.”

The “Girlfriends” alum explained that despite her visibility as a famous actress — and being the daughter of the legendary Diana Ross — launching Pattern meant navigating a lot of “no’s.” She began the process before the natural hair movement gained momentum in the 2010s and before celebrity beauty brands flooded the market. She was even brought to tears during one encounter with someone she didn’t name, who was angry Ross wasn’t working with a hairstylist. 

Ross eventually launched Pattern in 2019 on the shelves of Ulta, and the brand has since exploded. The line was intentionally created to celebrate curly, coily, and tight-textured hair — not “fix” it or force it into straighter ideals. And while the brand is now enormously successful, she told Grede that getting there required a tremendous amount of support, including financially. She ultimately had to approach business partners in order to raise the capital to fund the brand.

“Someone told me early on not to use my own money,” she said. “I will also tell you I’m a Black actress in Hollywood. I did not have that money to use.”

Despite bringing in investors, Ross has remained Pattern’s primary owner and creative force. She still holds majority ownership and full creative control, overseeing everything from product formulas to packaging to how the brand shows up culturally. 

“I want to be very clear with people, Yes, I was an actress, and that was my window in to have certain conversations. But I am a consumer, and that’s what my pathway to being a business entrepreneur, business builder was as a consumer,” she said. “And what I knew as a consumer and a beauty consumer and a shopper in general was that my entire childhood and life around hair products, there was something missing.”