Sunday II Sunday Wants Black Women to Stop Compromising Haircare

For many Black women, working out can sometimes revolve around wash day.

According to a 2013 study by Jama Network, nearly 40% of Black women avoided exercise due to concerns over sweating out their fresh hairstyles, while 36% skipped water activities all together.

Entrepreneur Keenan Beasley saw how Black women compromised activities in the name of their hair firsthand. His 13-year-old niece, a top swimmer in the U.S., considered leaving a sport she loves, because balancing her hair became a challenge. That's why Beasley created Sunday II Sunday, a haircare brand that refreshes and protects natural curls and coils through sweat and chlorinated water.

Sunday II Sunday launched in Jun. 2020 with four core products called the Moisture Balance Collection, which includes the Root Refresh Micellar Rinse, Edge Flourish Daily Serum, Revive Me Daily Moisturizing Spray, and Soothe Me Daily Scalp Serum. The brand also offers a trio of essential oils and vegan biotin hair gummies.

While Sunday II Sunday aims to change haircare from a static to an active category, it's also a celebration of the versatility of textured hair.

"Frankly, textured hair is the most diverse type of hair out there," Beasley tells InStyle. "It’s so malleable and you can do everything with it. You can go straight to curly, you can support so many weaves, extensions, braids, and faux locs."

Here, Beasley shares his inspiration for the brand, what he hopes for in the future of the beauty industry, his go-to products, and more.

What inspired you to start Sunday II Sunday?

There are couple pivotal points that led me to start the brand. When I was working at L’Oreal and running Garnier, the lack of diversity and how textured hair was treated overall is something that stood out to me. It was positioned as this dry and damaged category, which I thought was a horrible way to position it. While textured hair has the tendency to be drier at times because of the shape of the hair follicle, it’s just a different hair type and it doesn’t mean it’s always like that. The second real aha moment for me was just growing up as a Black guy with a mom, sister, niece, and a ton of women of color around me. Intuitively, I’ve always known women of color don’t wash their hair everyday, so as a business leader in that category, that was really defined by shampoo and conditioners, it didn’t capture the habits and practices of women with textured hair. The real personal aspect is the story of my 13-year-old niece, one of the country’s top swimmers. She loves the sport, but textured hair and swimming don’t go together per se. Watching the challenges she’s had, including considering leaving the sport altogether, is what really prompted me to step in and create a brand that addresses little girls and women who are athletes and live these amazing active, fulfilled lives but feel like they need to make compromises because of their hair.

How did you approach making these products?

It was very simple and organic. Maybe because I’m a guy, I’m so observant about the category and I consider myself a servant to our customers. The beauty industry is often based off static moments that are beautiful like wedding days or galas, but that’s not daily life. That’s not what the women in my life are looking like every day, so we built the brand off of their daily lives. It’s called Sunday II Sunday because during the week is when your life is happening. We want to help get you from activity to activity and moment to moment. For me, it was about shifting the conversation of static beauty to active, living beauty. Our mission is ensuring that our consumer is living their lives without any compromises, and ensuring they have a healthy base to start from when they do have a formal moment.

What do you hope for in the future in terms of diversity and inclusion in the beauty industry?

I’ve been in marketing and brand-building for a long time and I believe in bringing the consumer you’re serving into the room. It’s important when you’re talking about diversity. While our products are designed for textured hair, they’re great for all hair types. So, I wanted to make sure that across all my teams, someone is bringing someone diverse into the room so all hair types are represented. When I look at this industry, we tend to pick on pillars and sectors, but I pick on the entire ecosystem. That includes research and development, sales and retailers, marketing, and investors. There’s just as much confusion and lack of diversity at the investor level, so a lot of amazing brands haven’t been able to get funding in order to get off the ground. The whole ecosystem needs an update in order to bring the diversity that makes this country so special into the room.

What products from the line are you most proud of creating?

So many people are telling me that Root Refresh is their favorite product. The intent of that product is to create something that provides a more enjoyable experience than dry shampoo. The purpose of dry shampoo is phenomenal, and I think we’ve all tried it on those days where we don’t want to go through an immersive wash experience. However, there’s so much about dry shampoo we don’t like, from the dry residue to the aerosol spray. Root Refresh is a really light mist and the surfactant in it is micellar water, borrowed from skincare. It’s gentle, easy to use, and just toweling it off leaves you with soft, manageable hair. Plus, it leaves a really nice crisp apple scent behind.

If I had to pick my personal favorite, I really love Edge Flourish. It’s not just about the edges around the hairline that get so much tension from those protective styles like braids that pull at the hair line and cause a bit of hair loss, but the eco stylers and edge gels out there are thick waxes that can cause breakage. Edge Flourish was created to provide a healthy base. There’s biotin in it so it can be used as a spot treatment for thinning spots around the crown and other areas of the hair.

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Shop Sunday II Sunday's Haircare Products

SOOTHE ME Daily Scalp Serum

This cooling, soothing serum is ideal for anyone with protective styles like braids or post-workout. On top of providing instant relief for dry, itchy scalps, it's infused with a patent-pending botanical complex that reduces flakes in up to 28 days.

To shop: $28; mysunday2sunday.com

ROOT REFRESH Micellar Rinse

While the concept of dry shampoo is revolutionary, the white, powdery residue it leaves in hair can cause more dryness and buildup. That's where Sunday II Sunday's Root Refresh Micellar Rinse comes in. Powered by apple cider vinegar and micellar water, the lightweight mist cleanses and refreshes your hair and scalp without stripping it of its essential oils. The rinse is safe for all hair types, including color-treated hair and protective styles.

To shop: $31; mysunday2sunday.com

REVIVE ME Daily Moisturizing Spray

This moisturizing spray is designed to hydrate and refresh curls in-between wash day. It's also infused with the brand's patent-pending botanical complex to promote a healthier scalp in just under a month.

To shop: $31; mysunday2sunday.com

EDGE FLOURISH Daily Nourishing Serum

Lay your edges or spot treat any thinning areas caused by tension from weaves or protective styles with Sunday II Sunday's nourishing serum. It's infused with ingredients like biotin, coconut oil, sunflower seed oil, banana botanical extract, and safflower seed oil to condition and strengthen edges.

To shop: $28; mysunday2sunday.com

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