An Ohio-based Nail Salon Is Getting in on Biotech Hair Repair
- Goddess Maintenance Co, founded by Lauren Vesler and Manda Mason of The W Nail Bar, debuts a BioTech Blowout Leave-in Restorative Mask powered by biotech-derived peptides for $40 per 50-ml. tube.
The ever-buzzy world of hair repair has a new player — albeit with some familiar backers.
Launching Tuesday from Lauren Vesler and Manda Mason, sisters and cofounders of Ohio-based nail salon The W Nail Bar, Goddess Maintenance Co debuts with a BioTech Blowout Leave-in Restorative Mask, powered by two biotech-derived peptides and retailing for $40 for a 50-ml. tube.
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As part of the launch, The W Nail Bar — which operates 14 locations — has rebranded to Goddess Maintenance Co and plans to expand services beyond its current nail and hair removal offerings.
"It's always been a goal for Lauren and I to run a products business — we want Goddess Maintenance Co to become a head-to-toe beauty empire," said Mason, who cofounded the salon with Vesler in 2015 and was later connected by an investor with Edward Connaghan and Denise Russell, the husband-and-wife duo behind Eightfold Inc and, as of 2024, beauty incubator Next8 Investments.
Previously, Connaghan and Russell were involved with both Olaplex and K18 during both brands' early days as distributors and last fall, the pair acquired skin care brand Matter of Fact for an undisclosed sum through Next8 Investments.
With Goddess Maintenance Co, "we knew we couldn't do a 'me-too' product — it had to be disruptive," said Russell.
To that end, the brand teamed up with biomaterials innovation company Bolt to harness its vegan silk technology for the two peptides (dubbed the "goddess molecule") that power Goddess Maintenance Co's products. The molecule emulates properties of spider silk, known for its strength and flexibility, to create scaffold-like structures that wrap around strands and penetrate the hair cuticle and cortex for inside-out protection and repair.
While the brand is kicking off with the leave-in mask, it has plans to bring the goddess molecule to other products, "whether it be fragrance, skin — these are all categories that we have in development," said Vesler.
Added Connaghan: "With Olaplex, we focused so much on the bleaching, chemical repair side of the business that we forgot about the other parts of the business. We rectified that when we got to K18…but that mask is highly expensive — we launched the 50-ml. bottle at $75.
"With [Goddess Maintenance Co] and this vegan spider silk, we're able to halve the cost of manufacturing and simplify the packaging, which means we could keep things simple," he continued.
Goddess Maintenance Co also offers a larger version of BioTech Blowout for professionals, available for $99.
The brand is launching with a focus on the salon channel and the professional community, entering 1,300 distributor doors to start via BSG and Paramount Beauty. By the end of 2025, it will be available in more than 100 countries (including via its direct-to-consumer website) and the founders anticipate BioTech Blowout will be in roughly 100,000 salon doors.
"It's about simplifying the beauty routine — this is a mask that can replace multiple products and help you get the most out of what you have," said Vesler.
Upon launch, 500 influencers globally will take to social media to share content and before-and-after photos for the mask, which aims to offer heat protection, address frizz, speed up the blow-drying process and boost curl retention, in addition to preventing breakage.
Though the four founders did not comment on sales expectations, industry sources anticipate Goddess Maintenance Co could do $20 million in the wholesale channel during its first year on the market.
"This year, we're focusing on letting the hair mask shine — we want this to be big," Vesler said.
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