Bread Beauty Supply’s owner, Olamide Olowe, has posted an open and honest account of the hair care brand’s most recent product launch and its poor reception from shoppers.
The hair care brand, which was founded in 2020 by Maeva Heim, specialises in minimalist products tailored specifically for kinky, coily, curly and textured Afro hair, and was acquired by Olowe’s holding company Cost of Doing Business (CODB) in April 2025.
CODB was founded by Olowe, who is also the founder of skin care brand Topicals, along with its President, Sochi Mbadugha.
Bread Beauty Supply launched its latest product, Slick-Hold Gel, in May as part of the new Bread Sport line, and it was created specifically to give a firm and long-lasting hold for slicking back curly and coily hair.
However, in a candid video posted to TikTok on 6 June, Olowe said the product was not a success and had generated “almost no sales”.
Olowe said in the post: “I have spent basically my life savings trying to revive this brand, trying to carry this brand and making sure that it stayed Black-owned, and that it was successful in the midst of so many Black-owned brands closing.
“And I am not the type to talk very often. A lot of people know that, but I think this is a new chapter in my own evolution of coming and speaking directly to my community.”
Olowe then asked the brand’s followers and beauty fans what they felt went wrong with the launch.
She added: “What did we do wrong in our rollout and in our marketing that did not really work well with our audience, with our customers.
“Was it the brand positioning? Was it not clear what the product did? Did we not see enough before-and-after [images]?
“I really want to learn, because I think I feel like in acquiring Bread, I feel like I am back to square one, around learning what actually even works in the market.”
Despite the poor reception of Slick-Hold Gel, Olowe reaffirmed her desire to improve Bread Beauty Supply and put the brand back on the right footing.
Olowe continued: “I think we need a lot more community activations, [but] because budgets are tight, [as] they are being funded by me, I often struggle with what exactly we should do, but there will be more community events coming.
“I am also going to do more content that shows how you can use the gel and [send] out more product[s] to creators.
“Outside of that, I think I am also going to continue being creative.
“I think one of the things I love the most about Bread, what it has brought out of me, is my creativity, like Topicals definitely brought out my creativity, but like Bread makes me feel childlike again, because it is so feminine.”
Cosmetics Business has contacted Bread Beauty Supply for further comment.
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