By Theresa Hemmingway Celebrity Trichologist-Cosmetologist and Founder of Soleil Universal Research Center
SURC is deeply committed to and founded on the core principles of purity, innovation, and authentic consumer care.
At Soleil Universal Research Center, we research the“ Purity in Beauty” while exploring the boundaries of innovation and illuminating the path of discovery for multi textured hair and diverse skin tones.
Multi textured hair and diverse skin tones remain one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented demographics within the beauty sector, even though we make up the majority in consumer sales nationally and globally. Yet historically, we have been left with very few options in beauty and cosmetic products that truly work for us.
With so many beauty formulations containing carcinogenic ingredients, and so many consumers from this same demographic being diagnosed with breast cancer, fibroid tumors, uterine cancers, blood disorders, and other illnesses linked to the prolonged use of relaxers and chemical products, I became scared, tired, and angry over what these everyday salon products were doing to my clients, colleagues, and even myself.
“ What part did I play in any of this as their cosmetologist?” 24 FLEXZONELIFE. COM
I have literally visited clients in the hospital, watching them slip away while questioning what role the beauty industry, and those of us within it, unknowingly played in their suffering.
These women came to me faithfully for years, trusting me with their crowns and their confidence. Yet we were never properly educated on the long term dangers behind many of the ingredients we were taught to use professionally.
After my own diagnosis with fibroid tumors in 2023, nearly 27 years after using many of these same products myself, I knew I could no longer stay silent.
I became tired of watching our communities remain invisible to an industry that rarely considered our hair textures, our skin tones, or our overall wellness in product development and formulation.
I was tired of hearing our hair described as“ hard,”“ dry,” or“ difficult,” instead of being properly understood.
I was even one of the first professionals to contact the CDC during Covid 19 to discuss what I believed were significant links between the virus, hair loss, and permanent texture changes. At the time, I was not believed. Today, we know much more.
After more than 30 years in the beauty industry, from working