Social Media Sensation Brad Mondo’s Brand XMondo Selects Sally Beauty As Its First Retail Partner

“Sally Beauty was the first place I ever bought hair color or any hair supplies,” says XMondo founder Brad Mondo. “I would walk down the aisles of color, extensions and hair products and be so excited just thinking about the transformations I could do on my friends.”

For that reason, Xmondo’s retail partnership with Sally Beauty, which marks the brand’s retail debut, is a pinch-me moment for the entrepreneur, hairstylist and social media star. The brand launched online at the chain Tuesday with hair color products that will be rolling out to its stores starting Sept. 1.

Sally Beauty, the largest distributor of semipermanent hair color in the United States with over 1,300 shades, has an exclusive agreement with XMondo to offer its Clear Glossing Treatment along with seven of shades of its Color Depositing Mask. Mondo selected the brand’s top-selling shades for the retailer: super red, super purple, super pink, super blue, slate, berry and turquoise. The products are priced at $24.99 each.

“I hope that, with this partnership with Sally Beauty, I can inspire even more people to try a bold new color with their hair,” says Mondo. “I’m so excited that now my color will be more accessible for everyone who wants to try the brand. You can now just drive to a nearby location and pick up the color, which is great for impulsive people like me.”

XMondo launched in 2019 after Mondo attracted a massive following on social media. He currently boasts 9.6 million followers on TikTok and over 2 million followers on Instagram. XMondo Hair has 425,000 Instagram followers, and XMondo Color has 125,000 followers on the platform. XMondo Hair has 84,600 TikTok followers.

Last year, XMondo told Beauty Independent the brand’s sales skyrocketed 1,700% from 2019 to 2020 and 200% from 2020 to 2021. Mondo, who broke into hairstyling at a young age at his father’s former salon, invested roughly $40,000 to $50,000 from his personal savings to bring XMondo to life.

“I knew that with social media success the world would be my oyster, and I could do things like start my own haircare brand,” he says. “I decided one day to start posting hair-fail reaction videos and things really blew up from there…I kept pushing and posting a lot of content consistently on every platform I could and, in result, I saw extremely fast growth.”

In developing XMondo, a huge goal of Mondo’s was creating high-quality, hair-friendly semipermanent color products for consumers interested in experimenting with bold hues without being stuck with them for a long while. “Semi-permanent color is an easy way to change up your look with low commitment, so it’s a perfect option for those who are ready to take the leap to a bright new color but don’t want it to last forever,” he says. “Color has gotten a bad rep in the past for being damaging and harsh, but now, with color like XMondo, you are able to have fun with your hair with little commitment and actually make your hair healthier in the process.”

“I hope that, with this partnership with Sally Beauty, I can inspire even more people to try a bold new color with their hair.”

The brand’s semipermanent Color Depositing Masks contain hyaluronic acid to hydrate hair and lock in moisture; hydrolyzed vegetable protein to strengthen and restore dry strands; and bond-boosting technology to aid in rejuvenating damaged hair. The formula is designed to be simple enough to apply at home and takes 20 minutes to process. The color fades from washing and factors like salt water and sun exposure.

Mondo declined to comment on sales projections for the products at Sally Beauty, but he offers a glimpse at their performance presently. He says, “We sell a hair color product every three minutes and, with the help of Sally Beauty and expanding into brick-and-mortar, this number is going to grow even larger.”

The retail partnership is top of mind for Mondo today and so is assortment expansion. XMondo’s product assortment sits at about 40 products. Outside of hair color, the brand’s products include WaveTech Wave Foam, WaveTech Wave Revival Mist, Supernova Blonde Toning Leave-In Foam, Viper Smoothing Oil, Hydromania Conditioning Mist and Salty Sea Salt Spray.

“We are working on 20 to 30 new projects at any given time,” says Mondo. “There are so many new color shades coming as well as a lot of innovative haircare products that I am dying to release.”

Since its launch, XMondo has been focused on building connections with suppliers and manufacturers and shoring up its internal team. The brand has 15 people on its internal team. Mondo says, “We are now at the point where we have incredible connections and can produce more state of the art and innovative products than ever before.”

Sally Beauty, parent company of Sally Beauty Supply and Beauty Systems Group, could use XMondo’s pizzazz to enliven sales. Sally Beauty Supply’s net sales rose .8% in the second quarter ended March 31 to reach $530.2 million. Comparable-store sales jumped 9.1%. The largest categories at Sally Beauty Supply, hair color and haircare represent, respectively, 38% and 24% of its sales. The next largest category, styling tools and supplies, represents 19% of its sales.

Down 356 stores, Sally Beauty Supply had 3,143 stores worldwide at the end of the third quarter. For the full fiscal year, Sally Beauty expects comp-store sales to advance by a low single-digit percentage and net sales to dip by a low single-digit percentage. Although the company is partnering with entrepreneurial brands like XMondo, it’s also attempting to increase its owned brand penetration from 34% to over 50%.