Drybar Founder Alli Webb Is Changing How We Think About Hair With Her New Brand, Messy
Messy Co-Founder and Co-CEO Alli Webb
Perfect. That was the word often used to describe Alli Webb. The perfect blowout—which she practically invented as the founder of Drybar, the perfect family, the perfect life. But a lot has changed for Webb since she launched Drybar in 2010. Her new hair brand is named to reflect that and the reality of life: Messy.
'In this age we're entering of being really vulnerable and authentic, it's messy,' Webb says. 'It's like, I'm a mess, and we're all a mess, but we're embracing it. It's not a bad thing—it's empowering.' Life isn't perfect, and your hair shouldn't have to be either. That's idea behind the brand, launching this month on itsmessy.com and Sephora online and in stores.
'Drybar was my identity for so long,' Webb says. 'We sold it in 2020, moments before the world exploded. After I sold the company, I was dealing with an identity loss because Drybar was my life.' Unsure what to do next, Webb sunk her teeth into writing her book, The Messy Truth, which was part memoir, part business guide, a tongue-in-cheek take on building a business on what worked and what didn't, including her personal life, down to her divorce and teen son's rehab stint.
'It was this whole notion of messy—my mom died; it was the shit that happened,' Webb says. 'It was everything. It was so interesting because Drybar was this massive success and put me on the map, and then my life is falling apart behind the scenes. But it was also awesome. It's such an interesting juxtaposition in my life.'
The Messy collection
Like everyone else, COVID-19 majorly impacted Webb's life, but it also changed the way she approached her hair. 'I had blown out my hair forever and I was bleaching it blonde for the last 10 years, and that all came to a screeching halt when COVID happened,' she says. 'I stopped blow drying and bleaching, and I was taking much better care of my hair, and it started to grow and get healthy. I started to embrace my natural side. I just lost the taste for the perfect blowout.'
That major change ultimately led to Webb's aha moment: Either women are getting flawless blowouts or they're leaving their hair completely au naturel. But what if there was something in between? After running the idea by her brother, Michael Landau, who was her Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Drybar and now Messy, she pitched the idea to Sephora. 'Obviously I have a long-standing, great relationship with them, and they signed off on it before there was even any product, which I don't know if they've ever done that or not before, but it was a real vote of confidence and felt great. We've been very much in the kitchen with them.' Messy raised their first round of funding with Unilever Ventures.
'I want to create a hair line that helps you embrace the hair that you have,' Webb says. 'What do you do when you don't have a blowout? The pendulum swings, right? Remember how makeup was the perfect pointy brows and then it swung back to more natural. That's what it felt like was happening to me.'
Webb points out that there are countless products dedicated to making damaged hair healthier and healing it. But there aren't as many brands out there designed to stop the damage from happening in the first place. 'There's a gap in how we're thinking about hair,' she says. 'Every product out there is to make your hair better than it is. Our philosophy with Messy is don't fuck it up in the first place.'
Messy I Can Begin Again Shampoo
Messy fills the space in between a blowout and letting hair completely air dry naturally. 'It's a whole method, which we now call the Messy Method,' Webb says. Her Instagram has demonstration videos, and Messy's website and social channels will have plenty of educational how-tos as well. The Messy Method naturally reduces damage.
'What's interesting to me, as a longtime hairstylist, is when you get a blowout you're manipulating hair to do what you want it to do,' Webb says. 'When you're doing the Messy Method, I'm still manipulating it—it's just the drying process is longer, so I'm not actually putting all that heat on my hair. I'm using my fingers as a brush and get it 30 to 40% dry, and then twist sections all over, which is the only real time-consuming part of it, and then let them air dry.'
Webb is aware that women often find it a challenge to embrace their natural texture, but she hopes that her personal hair journey will encourage them to follow her lead. 'I think Messy will be a pioneer in that,' she says. 'My hair is curly and my whole life I've been blowing it out. Only in the last few years I started wearing it like this but also learning how. It's been a lot of trial and error.'
The entire line is meant to work with all hair textures, even straight hair. 'Our creative director has super straight hair and it's been so fun to watch how Messy has changed her hair,' Webb says. 'She's like, 'I feel like I'm so much more confident because my hair was always very straight.' She's got waves.'
Messy I Am Enough Rough Dry Style Cream
Messy is launching with five products, though they will eventually expand with more. Messy I Am Enough Rough Dry Style Cream has 450-degree heat protection and creates effortless waves with soft hold and shine while minimizing frizz. Infused with vegan silk, I Am Transformed Instant Silk Revival Spray works to refresh waves and texture on second day hair to help it look and feel fresh; Webb predicts it will be their hero product. Webb calls I Will Not Be Broken Overnight Repair Hair Serum a silk pillowcase in a bottle because the treatment prevents breakage and strengthens and nourishes hair while you snooze. I Can Begin Again Shampoo is deeply hydrating and fights frizz, with oat peptides for damage, olive stem cell extract for moisture and upcycled argan and watermelon oils to strengthen. I Am Soft I Am Strong Conditioner softens, smooths and adds shine.
'At the end of the day, all of these products are designed to embrace what you have,' Webb says. 'Our mantra is the magic is in the mess.' Even the packaging gets that across with a mantra on each one, such as 'I am enough.' 'Because of everything that I went through in the last few years, I've been on this major spiritual journey and have gone over to the woo-woo side a little bit. Every product says something inspiring on it.'
Webb is proud that Messy encapsulates what she has gone through in life and hopes it will encourage women to be themselves on many levels. 'I wrote out this whole manifesto of my life was perfect—the perfect husband, the perfect boys with the perfect hair, and now it's not so fucking perfect,' she says. 'I'm embracing the messier side of my life. It's been this whole transformation for me personally. I get so many compliments on my hair now. The magic is in the mess and embracing what you have and the messiness of your life. I feel really driven to empower women and give them permission to not have a perfect blowout.'
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