Longtime Beauty Exec Evelyn Wang Launches Silverist To Care For Gray Hair

Even for someone adept at identifying holes in the beauty market, a personal experience can really hammer home the depth of a hole. That was the case for Evelyn Wang, former CMO at Milani Cosmetics, SVP at Wet ‘n’ Wild and CEO at Papa & Barkley, after she chose to go gray in 2015 following 20 years of dying her hair.

“I started to Google things about gray hair and look for products, and I really didn’t find anything. Everything online was about, how do you color your hair? How do you get rid of stubborn grays? How do you prevent those grays from coming back?” she recounts. “I had a little light bulb in my mind of, huh, that seems like a need gap.”

Busy in her executive roles, Wang didn’t set out to fill the gap until two years ago, when she began working on what has become Silverist, a brand launching today with three products formulated specifically for gray hair. Priced at $32 each, the three products are Lustrous Rituals Buildable Tone Shampoo, Smooth Harmony Shine-Infusing Conditioner and Holistic Benefits Leave-in Hair Serum.

Wang explains gray hair lacks melanin and has a tendency toward heat damage, discoloration and dryness. Silverist’s products contain a blend of saccharides, including the umbrella polypore mushroom, for heat protection and to ward off yellowing. They’re paired with well-known ingredients like hyaluronic acid and niacinamide for shine, smoothness and defrizzing. There are oils and fermented microalgae for scalp and hair conditioning, too.

The products were tested on over 100 women with gray hair. Housed in recyclable silver aluminum bottles, they avoid silicones, sulfates and artificial fragrances. Rather than an artificial scent, they feature a fresh natural scent with top notes of citrus, apple and parsley; middle notes of aloe vera, geranium rose and lily of the valley; and base notes of rosemary and clary sage.

While brands have collections for gray hair (e.g., L’Oréal Paris EverPure Silver Care and Oribe Silverati) and there’s a growing group of brands dedicated to aging hair (Hair Biology, Better Not Younger and Commence, for instance), Wang says, “There’s nothing that’s been built from the ground up to address the needs and routine of this consumer and her emotions.” She elaborates, “Silver hair is not just another color of hair because there is so much emotion, stigma, ageism and sexism still that you are fighting as a woman once you decide to embrace it. So, a big part of it is the silver-haired community and the emotional support of going through the process.”

Wang prefers the word “silver” over “gray” in referring to hair and her brand because silver sounds aspirational to her. “My belief is that it can be an aspirational hair state,” she says. “Also, once you start looking at the hair, it is in fact not gray because what you have is de-pigmented hair. For instance, if you are a blonde, you actually will never have gray hair. You’ll start to have pigmented white hairs instead. You’re going to fade to more of a creamy color…There’s a whole spectrum and undertones of various silver-colored hair. I think it’s more accurate that we are silvers.”

There are several reasons Wang cites for why the time is now for a gray- or silver hair-focused brand. Celebrities like Andie MacDowell and Jamie Lee Curtis have embraced their grays, showing it’s OK for successful women to break up with hair dye, and gen X women are driven to age on their own terms. Thousands upon thousands of them have gathered on social media to discuss their grays.

“Many women who have turned gray realize they have an increased sense of confidence going through this process.”

In addition, Wang suggests the strength of haircare is leading to opportunities for products in segments previously deemed niche. Statistics vary, but somewhere between 50% and 75% of American women are estimated to dye their hair. According to market research firm Circana, prestige haircare sales rose 10% in the first half of this year.

“As someone who looks at the market and is seeing that haircare is booming, it’s becoming more bespoke like skincare to different types of hair needs such as curly hair, etc.,” says Wang. “Why aren’t we talking about the needs of natural gray hair? There literally is this audience that is craving knowledge and products to address their needs as they embrace their natural gray.”

She continues, “In contrast to the male experience with gray hair, where it’s not really something you need to debate, it just grows in and then you’re a silver fox, for women, there’s so much to contemplate in terms of how people perceive you…The beautiful thing is that so many women who have turned gray realize they have an increased sense of confidence going through this process and that they actually, in fact, don’t look older with natural gray hair.”

Hair generally grays in people’s 30s and 40s, and Silverist is targeting women in their 40s to 60s. To speak to them, Wang partnered with designer Nicole Ellsworth and agency JXL Creative to fashion the brand’s unfussy modern design and voice. She describes Silverist’s brand voice as akin to the “wisecracking older sister who’s going to kick someone’s ass for you and give you straight advice.”

As it gets underway, Silverist is delving into stories of gray hair with a blog on its website, and it’s plugging into members of the gray hair community on platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Wang has been doing TikTok Lives for the past year and a half and has had up to 9,000 viewers in a TikTok Live session. On Silverist’s TikTok account, which has nearly 5,500 followers and 78,000 likes, she posts gray hair content and takes people inside the development of Silverist. A recent TikTok video shows Wang checking in with Silverist’s formulator, Emily Reed from Chem Haus Cosmetics.

Although Silverist is kicking off in direct-to-consumer distribution, it plans to be in retail soon and aims to enter clean beauty and beauty specialty chains. To fund its launch, Wang used her savings and secured a friends and family round. She declined to divulge how much it cost to bring Silverist to market. In its initial year in business, the brand forecasts it will generate a high six-figure sales total.

Going forward, Wang imagines Silverist could extend its assortment to hairstyling products and demi-permanent hair color to accent gray hair. “There is room to basically address all the needs under the sun for natural silver hair and mature hair in general and other needs that this consumer may have,” she says. “The more I get into this, the more I don’t even want to create a haircare brand, I see this more as a community for this consumer.”