Jennifer Lawrence Launches Hair Brand Mes° With Biotech Founder

Jennifer Lawrence is entering the beauty business on Tuesday with Mes°, a hair care brand co-founded 50-50 with Arcaea founder Jasmina Aganovic, and it launches with three products priced from $34 to $52. The Oscar winner and Dior ambassador serves as founder; Aganovic, an MIT-trained chemical and biological engineer, is chief executive officer.

The partnership began with a Ted Talk. Lawrence, who had wanted to launch a hair brand for several years, says she did not find the right partner until she came across Aganovic's talk on the future of the category. Arcaea has raised $78 million in series A funding from investors including Chanel, Givaudan and Olaplex, and Lawrence has also become an investor in the biotech startup.

What's in the lineup?

Mes° uses biology as a design tool and opens with three products, all sold direct to consumer:

• Multitask Repair Mask, $52. A clear formula with a biomimetic tri-lipid complex and olive squalane, applicable to dry hair before shampooing, overnight, or worn out as a sleek wet look or slicked-back bun. The brand claims six times less breakage, up to 158 percent more lipids and a 32 percent reduction in protein loss during washing.
• Off-Duty Restyling Serum, $44. A bi-phase formula pairing a lightweight oil phase to smooth frizz and add shine with a serum phase to strengthen and reshape hair.
• Good Roots Volume Mist, $34. Powered by proprietary ARC-5™ Technology with microalgae to balance excess oil, it claims almost three times the volume and a 75 percent reduction in scalp oiliness.

Why "Mes°"?

The name was ready before the products. "I knew that I wanted my imaginary hair product one day to be called Mes°, because I didn't want to make something that was for overstyled perfect hair," Lawrence said. "I wanted it to be for the messiness of life. I have been referred to as a mess my whole life, so the name resonates with me."

She framed the gap in the market as personal. "It was always hair," said Lawrence. "There was something so glaringly missing for me as a consumer that I wanted to find, and then when I didn't, it was just kind of like, 'OK, well, I have to make it.'" She added: "I didn't want to remake something that already exists. I knew that something new needed to be created, and that opportunity didn't exist until Arcaea and Jasmina."

What does the science claim to do?

The formulations aim to enhance hair health during styling rather than compromise it. Lawrence described the old trade-off: hair that looks good but dehydrates under hairspray and hot tools, or hair health with thick masks and oils that leave it "falling flat and listless." "With these products, your hair gets healthier and stronger with every single use, and they're also styling products," she said.

Aganovic said Arcaea's research rejected the category's conventional wisdom. "We saw that everyone was viewing hair as this dead fiber, and from a biological standpoint, it was anything but," she said. "So we had this very different lens with which we were looking at hair care already."

Fewer steps, not more

The duo also positioned Mes° against routine inflation. "We talked about the fact that hair care and skin care had gone in this direction of more steps, more elaborate routines," said Aganovic. "The gap was really, hey, we're not going to go in that direction. The opportunity is actually to simplify people's routines, and do so in a way that delivers exceedingly high performance and excellent long-term benefits."

The products elongate time between wash days — fewer blowouts, fewer hot tools. "With the Good Root Spray, you don't need a dry shampoo because it will keep your hair from getting oily for more days," said Aganovic. "With the restyling serum, you won't need an extra detangler because your hair become less tangled." The mask, meanwhile, reworks the traditional repair mask that demands a shower and 20 minutes of waiting.

How is the brand rolling out?

Lawrence oversaw products, packaging and the marketing campaign, a video of models and civilians dancing to one piece of music, cast to reflect the population of her home city, New York. "The way we worked on it was that being unbothered, being relaxed, is in its own way an aspirational thing," said director Isaac Lock.

She joined Instagram in September and has racked up 8.4 million followers. "This was going to be the only way for me to have agency over what was being said and where it's going, and for it to be personal," she said. She also hinted at ambitions beyond the bathroom shelf: a more undone red carpet look. "It could be cool to start having a more undone look," she said of press-tour glam. "It would be fun to challenge that."