Aveda

A Czech emigré named Horst Rahel Bacha opened a small salon in Minneapolis in the 1960s, travelled to India to study Ayurvedic medicine in the 1970s, and came back with a hair care brand that he sold to Estee Lauder for $300 million in 1997. Rachel Bacha trained as a hairstylist in Europe before moving to the US in the 1960s and opening salons in Minneapolis. A trip to India in 1973 to study Ayurvedic plant medicine produced the insight that plant extracts could replace the petrochemical bases, then standard in hair care. Aveda launched in 1978 with Ayurvedic inspired shampoo and grew through the 1980s and early 1990s as the first meaningful plant-based professional hair care brand. The Ayurvedic provenance was a clear differentiator when plant-based was a fringe beauty category.