Held in the Glasshouses of NYC, MIZANI held an exclusive launch of their new haircare products
MIZANI campaign ambassadors and models Chanel Iman, Maria Borges, Grace Mahary, and Heidy de la Rosa were on the scene joined by seasoned global artistic director Cesar Ramirez. MIZANI, a division of L’Oréal USA, creates hair care products for African American women with natural or relaxed hair. On the first day of summer, guests arrived to a rooftop inside of the Glasshouses in NYC, with an aerial view of manhattan which added to the preexisting glamour.
Founded in 1991, MIZANI celebrated 25 years in the hair care industry and being lauded as the “professional authority for all textured hair.” In 2014, hair extraordinaire and celebrity stylist Cesar Ramirez was brought on as the brand’s global artistic director. Ramirez has achieved super star status as he’s worked on highly coveted hair such as Kim Kardashian, Ciara, and Beyonce among a myriad of other celebrities. The brand reinforced the fact that their products are meant to embrace the natural texture and curls of women – not hide it. In addition, MIZANI has an education program where hair care specialists are educated on how to style and maintain natural hair and textured styles.
We spoke with Ramirez at the launch about why he chose to join the MIZANI team.
What led you to join MIZANI’s campaign?
Cesar: I’ve worked with MIZANI products for many years in the salon that I trained in and I fell in love with this one product called thermastrength. I’ve never worked with a product like that before, that just made the hair feel stronger as you worked with it. I felt like they were just so ahead of their time. A lot of products since have started to incorporate heat protectors. I’ve always just had a personal love for the brand. Kate [MIZANI Director of Education] was actually my educator for years and when she came onto the brand she was telling me about this amazing opportunity to really help women with textured hair or anyone with textured hair. I’m so passionate about it. It’s really my clientele and I’m doing what I love.
So, when you were named creative director what was your vision for the brand?
Cesar: I wanted it to be cool. I wanted it to be hip and I wanted it to feel attainable. I wanted women to see an image and say “Oh wow. I love that.. I could work that.” I think a lot of times with hair, you want to be innovative and you want to inspire but you don’t wanna leave women feeling like they can’t have or achieve it. I really want it to have a fresh feel and keep it moving forward.
And you’ve worked with Ciara, Kim Kardashian, etc. How has the transition been from straight hair to textured?
Cesar: The funny thing is, Ciara has extremely curly hair and she absolutely loves MIZANI products. She’s always hitting me up saying “please send me more!”. What’s amazing is that you can look at someone and not even know what their natural texture is. The products work so well to manipulate textures and make someone with super curly hair have beautiful, straight, silky hair. Or you can take someone who has really straight hair and give them beautiful curls and it looks like it’s their natural curl!
