The Steam Bar, a Black British-owned haircare line, launched in Sephora after completing the retailer's Accelerate program. The founder's journey from fashion to scalp care signals a retail push into underserved markets.
Alpha Score of 49 reflects weak overall profile with weak momentum, poor value, strong quality, moderate sentiment.
The Steam Bar, a Black British-owned haircare brand founded by Judy Koloko, launched in Sephora in April after completing the retailer's Accelerate program. The brand became the first Black British-owned company accepted into the program in January 2025, then won a spot on Sephora's shelves after the program ended in June.
Koloko built the line around scalp health – a focus she said Selfridges executives told her was a fresh proposition when the brand launched exclusively there in late 2023. The Steam Bar now sells six products at Sephora, including a clarifying shampoo, a hydrating conditioner, a scalp microbiome serum, a detox mask, a satin bonnet, and a microwaveable steam cap that is currently sold out online.
The readthrough for the broader beauty sector is about distribution access. Sephora's Accelerate program has become a pipeline for brands that serve demographics traditional retailers have underinvested in. The Steam Bar targets Black consumers with specialized scalp care, a segment that has historically been served by mass-market brands or small independents, not premium department stores or specialty retail chains.
Koloko described the pivot from fashion to haircare as a personal calling. She said she gave up a career that included dinners with Karl Lagerfeld and relationships with Anna Wintour and Miuccia Prada to build the brand. The Steam Bar's packaging – green and gold, an ode to her Nigerian roots – carries the tagline "What Lies Beneath," referencing both scalp care and a deeper mission. Koloko said she wants to use the business to build a care home for her daughter, who lives with cerebral palsy, blindness, and epilepsy.
For Sephora, adding The Steam Bar extends a broader push to diversify its brand roster. The retailer has invested in Accelerate as a way to find founders who can reach consumers that competitors like Ulta Beauty or mass channels have not captured. The Steam Bar's early sellout of the steam cap suggests demand for premium at-home hair care tools in the Black haircare market, a category that has been dominated by drugstore pricing and professional salon channels.
Koloko already has her sights on Atlanta, which she called "the hub for Black hair." She plans to open an experiential retail concept there, modeled on the brand's Selfridges pop-up, which she said drew messages from customers calling it the best haircare experience they had ever had.
The brand's trajectory – from a laptop pitch at Selfridges to Sephora shelves in under two years – shows how retailer accelerator programs are reshaping the route to market for founders who do not fit the traditional venture-capital or mass-retail mold. Whether other large retailers follow Sephora's lead in sourcing from their own incubator pipelines will determine how much the sector's product mix shifts over the next two years.
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