Professional hair care brand Amika is doubling down on its roots for a global campaign focused on the unspoken connection between hair stylists and their clients.
“On Your Wavelength” launched April 3 and spotlights Amika’s top hair treatment products and authority as a salon-raised brand. The campaign, which arrives as the independent hair brand experiences a growth surge, is also meant to enforce Amika’s long-time focus on community by speaking “shoulder to shoulder” with consumers, explained CMO Nilofer Vahora.
“[Amika sits] at the intersection in a really incredible way between professional authority and emotional connection,” said Vahora, who joined Amika in December 2024. “We were founded almost 20 years ago by industry outsiders who really felt that there was an opportunity to make professional hair care feel more approachable.” The word "amika" means "friend" in Esperanto, according to a company blog post.
Key to the campaign is a 30-second spot featuring Rashuna Durham, one of Amika’s lead pro educators, who listens to four different clients as they attempt to explain what their hair needs before one eventually lands on, “You know what I mean?” and Durham responds, “I got you.” Each client is paired with the ideal hair treatment for their hair type, leaving them with a variety of flawless styles.
The decision to lead with a stylist instead of star-powered cast was intentional in order to emphasize Amika’s stylist community as the true authority, Vahora explained. Amika stylists are also consumers of the brand as well, with two-thirds using the products on themselves.
“Stylists are our foundation, they’re the experts who validate our performance and bring our brand to life every day in their salons,” she said. “At the same time, today’s consumer is looking for that expert-backed guidance, especially in a saturated category like hair care.”
“On Your Wavelength” will run through May and spans social media, creator partnerships, digital and out-of-home initiatives. The campaign was developed and produced with creative agency Shadow and directed by Ezra Hurwitz. Still images were captured by McKenzie Thompson.
Making hair care approachable
Amika was founded in 2007 in Brooklyn, New York, and is primarily owned by the private investment firm Bansk Group, which acquired a majority stake in the brand in 2022. The brand has recently been on a winning streak: In December, Amika launched in Ulta, in addition to being available online and in Sephora, and within its first month became the retailer’s No. 2 prestige hair care brand, according to Circana data cited by Vahora.
Timed around its launch in Ulta, Amika doubled down on its community of both micro- and macro-level beauty creators to further amplify its products. The brand leveraged its stylist creator community and popular faces like “Love Island” star Olandria Carthen to promote key hair treatments. The focus was content that educated other stylists and featured personal testimonials and a variety of different hair types to further the brand’s ethos that all hair is welcome.
“We jumped to number one brand in hair care [by earned media value] in December and January as a result of that campaign and our launch with Ulta Beauty,” Vahora said. “It showed us that there was an opportunity and an appetite out there for us to play a role that other brands in hair care just can’t because Amika has this amazingly loyal customer and community approach.”
“On Your Wavelength” features a similar creator strategy. For the campaign, Amika has teamed with over 25 creators from the stylist and everyday consumer communities — all of whom are long-time users of the brand — for content that will roll out in April and May. Partners will each leverage testimonials and before-and-after results to highlight two to four of Amika’s top treatments, each with prices in the $30 range.
The creator content will be amplified across a full-funnel paid media strategy spanning Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and Google, and select content will also be integrated into Amika’s website as shoppable user-generated content. A focus on community and relatable content could help Amika stand out in a crowded professional hair care category that is expected to grow in value from $24.5 billion in 2026 to $38.3 billion in 2036, according to Future Market Insights.
“A lot of brands will focus on clinical, focus on science, and in Amika, we have all of those things, we have the credibility, we have the clinically proven stats, but we also speak in a way that really makes people feel like they’re a friend to the brand and that relatability brings people in and keeps them loyal,” Vahora said.
That strategy has shown signs of paying off. Amika is currently the top treatment brand in America, according to Circana data cited by Vahora, and one of its treatment products is sold every 60 seconds.
Amika’s latest campaign comes as Vahora, formerly the CMO of Milk Makeup, approaches nearly a year and a half with the company. Since joining, the executive has further honed the brand’s commitment to community and approachability, traits she is confident will ring through for “On Your Wavelength” and beyond.
“This doesn’t feel like a one-off campaign, it’s really a platform that we’re building, that intuitive connection and personalized solutions will continue to show up across every touchpoint, whether it’s our new launches or education, new category expansion or future storytelling,” Vahora said. “It’s all going to be a big part of how we approach the brand.”
