Clairol

Clairol is an American personal care-product division of company Coty, specializing in hair

coloring and hair care, that was begun in 1931 by Americans Joan Gelb and her husband Lawrence
M. Gelb, along with business partner and lifelong friend James Romeo, after discovering hair-
coloring preparations while traveling in France.[1] The company was widely recognized in its home
country, the United States, for its "Miss Clairol" home hair-coloring kit introduced in 1956. By 1959,
Clairol was considered the leading company in the U.S. hair-coloring industry. In 2004, Clairol
registered annual sales worth about US$1.6 billion from the sale of its hair-care products.[2] As of
2014, Clairol manufactures hair-coloring products sold under the brand names "Natural Instincts",
"Nice 'n Easy", and "Perfect Lights".
Clairol products
The Clairol hair-coloring line includes permanent hair color, semipermanent hair color,
and highlighting and blonding products. As of 2014, Clairol's hair-color products are sold under these
brands:

 Nice 'n Easy

 Natural Instincts
 Perfect Lights
 Balsam
 Herbal Essences
 Hydrience
 Ultress

Advertising history
Clairol's one-step home hair color was a breakthrough in the beauty industry, as was
its advertising campaign. Clairol hired the advertising firm Foote, Cone & Belding, which assigned
the account to a junior copywriter (Shirley Polykoff, the only female copywriter at the firm). Polykoff's
future mother-in-law inspired the "Does she...or doesn't she?" slogan. After meeting Polykoff for the
first time, she took her son aside and asked him about the true color of his girlfriend's hair. "Does
she color her hair, or doesn't she?" the embarrassed Polykoff could imagine her mother-in-law-to-be
asking. Although Polykoff did color her hair, the practice was not something to which women openly
admitted during the Depression (when her future mother-in-law first asked the question). In 1956
(when Polykoff was assigned the Clairol campaign), hair dye was still considered something not
used by genteel women.
To counter the stigma of hair color and create a wholesome, sentimental image for Clairol, early print
ads—some of which were shot by fashion photographers Richard Avedon and Irving Penn—featured
girl-next-door models accompanied by children with hair the same color. "Does she...or doesn't
she?" became an effective slogan; within six years, 70% of all adult women were coloring their hair,
and Clairol's sales increased fourfold. In 1967, Polykoff was inducted into the Advertising Hall of
Fame.