Actress and wonder executive Tracee Ellis Ross lives as much as her middle name, Joy. Although I’ve never met her in person, I could feel her joyous spirit radiating through our Zoom meeting as I witnessed her famous voluminous and bouncy curls take up most of my computer screen as she warmly greeted me from her home’s bathroom. She just finished capturing video content of her hair care routine using PATTERN products for our ESSENCE readers. Ross was in a cheery and upbeat mood, desirous to walk me through PATTERN’s newest update, and I used to be all ears. 

The expansion of PATTERN is personal to Ross, as she has an intimate relationship along with her hair, which could be described as the reality of her personhood. “It starts with my internal journey. The reality is that I actually have desired to create the blow dryer for some time. I didn’t realize that it takes this long to create a tool that you simply plug into the wall, however it’s taken two years. So it’s been an element of the unique story, and it’s all the time been an element of the roadmap for PATTERN. And I’ve long desired to reframe our relationship as a community to heat up to now my curls and our coils, and our curls and coils have been burned and fried and beaten into submission by blow dryers and tools which were designed to strip us of the gorgeous bounce and bends,” she says to ESSENCE.

Today, Ross embarks on a latest journey with PATTERN, her award-winning hair care brand, as the corporate marks its entry into the hair care heat category with the launch of its first heat tool, the PATTERN blow dryer. The brand’s first-ever skilled blow dryer provides faster drying with a long-lasting, durable, and powerful AC skilled motor, and 4 curl-conscious attachments, limiting heat and curl pattern damage to your hair. 

The Diffuser

PATTERN’s diffuser is ideal for achieving volume and definition without heat damage – simulating natural drying while cutting styling time.

The Wide Tooth Comb

Heavy-duty, yet kind on delicate strands, the wide-tooth comb allows for a simple glide through wet or dry curls and coils, gently detangling hair with wide-set prongs. 

The Brush

Based on PATTERN’s award-winning shower brush, the heavyweight brush attachment is superb for drying and stretching coils. The bristles detangle and smooth hair while effortlessly drying it, leading to the specified style in less time.

The Concentrator Nozzle

The focused airflow permits you to work in small or large sections, using a round brush for a sleek look or using the dryer on the roots to attain volume.

Together with the attachments, the hair dryer provides three heat, two-speed settings, and a lock-in cool shot button, allowing as much as six customized airflow and warmth settings for any curl type. As well as, the dryer includes an ion-controlled switch that prompts ions to smooth the cuticle or deactivates them so as to add volume. The ceramic-coated grill ensures even heat distribution helping to attenuate heat damage, together with a dual-locking mechanism ensuring the attachments stay firmly in place, a feature Ross appreciates. 

Ross’ goal with this latest product is to enhance our relationship with heat so we will maintain our natural textural hair pattern. “I’ve had a variety of experience with blow dryers where they’re just so hot that I unexpectedly see smoke coming off my hair. I take advantage of [The Pattern] blow dryer on the high heat setting within the high air blow, and I actually have never smelled a burned smell coming from my hair. So when you’re anyone who likes to stretch your hair, use heat to reinforce and play with the opportunity of your hair without damaging your texture or pattern, that’s what this product is about. It features curl-conscious attachments,” Ross tells ESSENCE. 

She also desires to make your wash day routine more manageable, and dare we are saying seamless, along with her blow dryer. For those who’re anything like us, you’ve experienced the wash day woes, including the annoyance of burning your hands because your blow dryer is just too hot or the comb attachment comes off the dryer when working through a difficult section of your hair. The PATTERN blow dryer serves as an answer to each those issues. “This product is straightforward for people to make use of of their bathrooms. I actually have small hands; I can hold it either from the nozzle or the handle. The dryer itself doesn’t get hot; the attachments get hot. So you may hold the dryer anywhere you would like. There’s the cold shot, which is great when you’re attempting to set your curls. After you’ve done the warmth, there’s the ion generator button on the back that helps to saturate the airflow so that you could smooth that cuticle, and when you’re anyone who wants less frizz, it creates that nice shine,” she shares. 

She continues, “One other thing that’s been like an enormous pet peeve of mine is you set on an attachment on the blow dryer, and the blow dry gets hot, after which rapidly, it’s not as secure, and the thing falls off and hits you in the pinnacle. So, with our blow dryer, all 4 attachments lock-in, and you’ve gotten to release them with the 2 buttons on either side. I do know everybody talks about innovation, but to me, essentially the most inventive extraordinary innovation is things that function well, work easily, and do the job,” she exclaims.

PATTERN also launched a heat protectant and shine spray to guard curls further. The warmth protectant guards curls, coils, and tight textures from the customarily irreversible effects of warmth damage, giving thermal protection. The lightweight spray safeguards strands with Crambe abyssinica seed, sunflower, and jojoba oil, providing a non-greasy solution to stretched styles, silk presses, and blowouts. 

Ross believes that there’s a technique to use heat responsibly and for it to open up a world of possibility, which was a part of her original dream for the corporate. “Like so many, I’ve nursed my hair back to health after years of pressing it inside an inch of its life and slowly began to seek out the suitable formulas and products to nourish it. But I also desired to create heat tools that cut down styling time. It’s an element of my very own story. I feel like there may be a way for us to utilize heat as a gateway and access so many alternative other possibilities. And I desired to bring that into the DNA of what we do at PATTERN,” she reveals. 

To Ross, self-acceptance has been a journey throughout her 50 years of life, which began along with her hair. “I could chronicle my journey of self-acceptance through my hair. All these different rituals and traditions accompany the hair that is an element of a culture, particularly for black women and folks. You realize, it’s a portal into our souls. It’s the way in which we get to where ourselves on the skin and connects us to our legacy, history, and stories in our culture. If I were to explain my hair immediately, ​​I might say it’s versatile, strong, and necessary. It’s worthy of attention and love. And it’s high quality, enough because it is. I might wish to describe myself that way,” she shares. 

The PATTERN Blow Dryer, heat protectant, and shine spray is out there at patternbeauty.com and will probably be exclusively sold at Ulta Beauty in stores and online later this 12 months.