Big news from BELLAMI. As of today, the world’s #1 hair extension brand is officially teaming up with Highlight Artists, the full-service talent management agency co-founded by lead celebrity hairstylists Jen Atkin and Justine Marjan. What’s more, BELLAMI is also launching “Beautiful Extensions of You,” a new global platform that solidifies hair extensions as an authentic expression of beauty that everyone can experience for themselves.
The first campaign under the platform, “Be Full of Yourself,” is designed to redefine the conversation around hair extensions for BELLAMI’s two most powerful audiences — pros and their clients — inspiring people everywhere to embrace unapologetic confidence, self-expression, and beauty without compromise. Since its inception in 2012, followed by its professional line debuting in 2017, BELLAMI has been at the forefront of the extension category – breaking down barriers, elevating industry standards, and making professional-grade transformations accessible to all. Now, with Highlight Artists’ expertise and their powerhouse collective — including Atkin and Marjan, as well as Mitchell Ramazon, Sabrina Porsche, Shelley Gregory, Hayley Heckmann, and Sienree Du – the brand is taking its mission to the next level.
This collaboration is more than a celebrity stylist endorsement: it’s a strategic alliance with the industry’s most respected talent to normalize hair extensions as part of an everyday routine, expand stylist and client perception of the category, and reinforce professional expertise. Leading the charge is Atkin, who represents the ultimate stylist icon — an aspirational mentor for professionals who has successfully built a career and businesses across every facet of the industry, from behind the chair to celebrity styling to the boardroom (OUAI, Mane, and, now, Highlight Artists). Following overwhelming requests from the BELLAMI stylist community, who identified her as the partner they most wanted to learn from, Atkin now joins as BELLAMI’s first Global Brand Ambassador to bridge both pro and consumer audiences.
“At BELLAMI, our mission has always been to empower both professionals and consumers, providing confidence through education, innovation, and credibility,” says Mary Burns, President of BELLAMI. She continues, “partnering with Jen Atkin, Justine Marjan, and our Highlight Artists ambassadors allows us to further elevate the category with expertise from the industry’s most trusted voices, while continuing to break down common myths around extensions.”
“Shaped by both community and consumer insights, this campaign is about celebrating confidence and individuality,” adds Charlotte Watson, Chief Marketing Officer at BELLAMI. “We want people to feel completely full of themselves, with hair and energy that take up all the space they deserve. Through compelling, aspirational storytelling and the guidance of top stylists, we’re inspiring everyone to achieve personalized, flawless hair that feels authentic to them,” Watson adds. In addition to the collaborative campaign, BELLAMI recently launched two new professional-grade innovations: Tape-In Deluxe and Tape-In Express Weft. Each features RootReplica™ Technology, a patent-pending advancement that mimics natural root growth for a seamless, voluminous, and ultra-natural blend. This latest innovation underscores the brand’s commitment to quality, and to equipping stylists with the tools to deliver customizable, undeniable results for every client.
“At Highlight Artists, we’ve built a community of some of the best hairstylists and makeup artists out there, and we’re all about pushing beauty forward. Partnering with BELLAMI is part of that — because extensions shouldn’t feel like an add-on, they should feel like you. We want to change the convo around hair extensions by giving both stylists and consumers the tools, education, and inspo to feel empowered, grow their craft, and totally own their individuality,” says Atkin.
In advance of the announcement of this new partnership The Tease connected with BELLAMI president, Mary Burns, and CMO, Charlotte Watson, to go into even more detail. Read on for our conversation.
The Tease: Tell us about how the partnership with Highlight Artists came about. Why was now the time for BELLAMI to partner?
Mary Burns: Professional stylists are at the center of everything BELLAMI does – we ask for their feedback and their needs, and we listen and lean into what they are looking for and who they want to hear from. Jen Atkin was a name that came up often, as her unique and powerful career journey from behind the chair to the boardroom really resonates with both stylists and consumers – she’s incredibly aspirational as both a creative, and a business leader — something we always want to inspire in our network of professional stylists. Partnering not only with Jen Atkin, but a broader selection of the exceptional talent on the Highlight Artists roster, allows us to access newer upcoming talent and we love that the agency represents such a strong suite of female stylists. We couldn’t think of a better partner to match our new campaign ethos — celebrating being ‘full of yourself’ and embodying confidence inside and out via a breadth of looks, textures and styles that can all be achieved through the use of extensions.
What will the partnership look like?
Charlotte Watson: This partnership is a yearlong, full 360-degree program crafted to speak to the stylist as our key audience. It’s a unique partnership with a squad of top tier stylists from Highlight Artists – Jen Atkin, Justine Marjan, Hayley Heckmann, Sabrina Porsche, Sienree Du, Shelley Gregory and Mitchell Ramazon – that all individually speak to different audiences, stylists, methods, and techniques. The campaign includes experiential activations that incorporate both stylists and influencers, always leading with our Pros. We’ll be heading to NYFW right after our launch to host the ‘BELLAMI Penthouse’ – a retreat for busy stylists during the chaos of NYFW, allowing them to rest and recharge with refreshments, snacks, kit stock ups, gifting, and restorative massages. The overarching campaign includes education, content, media partnerships, activations, and social amplification. BELLAMI is the #1 hair extension brand in the world and has a significant presence on social media, so we will be amplifying our campaign content where we know our stylists go for inspiration, education, and business building tips.
Jen Atkin occupies a unique place in popular culture, deeply respected by salon professionals for her career trajectory, but also intimately known by consumers whether from TV, social media or her many brands — why was it important to BELLAMI that she be the brand’s first Global Brand Ambassador?
Watson: It is exactly this reason that Jen Atkin is the perfect Global Ambassador for BELLAMI — her ability to resonate with both the professional stylist community and consumers at this pivotal moment in time as we work to expand perceptions of hair extensions for both audiences. Jen has been a longtime advocate for hair extensions in her career, and specifically BELLAMI — she was telling our team about her memories of visiting our original Beauty Bar in LA many years ago! She understands the powerful and profitable impact extensions can have on a stylist’s business, describing extensions as a stylists ‘secret weapon’ on set with us earlier this year.
It was mentioned that Jen Atkin will help bridge both pro and consumer audiences, is it possible to give us a hint about what we can expect?
Mary Burns: Our partnership with Jen Atkin aims to support the circular relationship between stylists and their clients. As Jen resonates with both consumers and professionals, we will support our stylists by increasing awareness and consumer adoption of hair extensions — so that once the client is in the chair, the conversation with their stylist around enhancing their hair via BELLAMI’s large range of extension methods becomes more seamless.
Lastly, we had to ask, “Be Full of Yourself” is a pretty tongue in cheek campaign concept, but beyond retention, what do you hope that it accomplishes for BELLAMI?
Charlotte Watson: Yes! We want people to feel completely full of themselves, with hair and energy that take up all the space they deserve. We want to shift perceptions. Rather than being a special occasion-only or total transformation experience, we want to reframe extensions as ‘beautiful extensions of you’ – a fully customizable way to enhance your natural beauty and feel your most confident, ‘full’ self! The campaign aims to inspire both the client and the professional stylist to choose the best — and that is BELLAMI.
To experience BELLAMI extensions, consumers can visit one of the BELLAMI Beauty Bar locations in Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, New York City, or the brand’s soon-to-be West Hollywood salon. Alternatively, they can consult with their current stylist or a BELLAMI stylist for personalized guidance. Pros can visit bellamiprofessional.com to purchase BELLAMI extensions or learn more through the most extensive education programs on the market via the BELLAMI Academy.
