In 2026, 75% of women are coloring their hair, and demand for effective color protection is high. Since every hair story is unique, many “color-safe” products are unable to consistently meet the expectations of salon professionals and their clients. 81% of stylists actively seek out color care products, highlighting a clear need for proven solutions that deliver.
With the Protector series entering Sephora this week, Global Cosmetic Industry had the opportunity to chat with amika’s Chief Marketing Officer, Nilofer Vahora, on the state of color care for pro and consumer audiences and the very creative Backrooms campaign that ran during the line’s initial launch.
Global Cosmetic Industry: The Protector has been your biggest launch of the year, and we’ve seen that through the namesake campaign as well as the Backrooms campaign, both supporting the launch. What are the opportunities in color care that created the confidence in creating and really championing this product line?
Nilofer Vohara: We saw a really clear opportunity in color care. Consumers invest a lot of time and money in their color, but so much of the category conversation has historically been around being “color-safe.” We felt there was an opportunity to go further and be much more specific about what we were protecting your color from and how we could help maintain that salon result between appointments.
For amika, it was also really important that this be a pro-led launch. We were born in the salon, and stylists have always been foundational to how people discover and build trust in amika. They aren't simply another audience for us. They're the experts using our products behind the chair, recommending them to their clients and putting their own credibility behind that recommendation.
That becomes even more important with color. There’s a tremendous amount of trust between a client and their colorist or stylist. They’re not only providing the service, but they’re also helping their clients understand how to maintain their color and the health of their hair between appointments. So it was important to us that stylists experience The Protector and believe in the performance before we brought the story to consumers at scale.
We started with stylist activation and then amplified the launch across creators, media, point of sale and events. The strategy from the beginning was to establish that professional credibility first.
We also saw an opportunity to solve more than color fade. The color process itself can leave hair more fragile and prone to breakage, and consumers still want their hair to feel soft, healthy and manageable. That was a big part of the opportunity for us. We wanted to create a routine that could help protect the color, but also strengthen color-treated hair.
So we had the consumer need, we knew it was something our stylists were asking for, and we had really strong product performance behind it. That's what gave us the confidence to go big with this launch.
Global Cosmetic Industry: What makes this color care collection different or innovative for a consumer audience?
Vohara: I think one of the biggest differences is that we looked at the whole experience of having color-treated hair, not just color fade.
Of course you want your color to stay vibrant. But another major pain point is what the color process can do to the hair itself. It can become more fragile, more prone to breakage and not feel as soft or manageable. We didn't want to create a routine that only protected the color. We wanted to address the condition of color-treated hair as well.
What I think is really exciting is that we were able to deliver on both. The full Protector routine is clinically proven to help prevent color fade for up to 40 washes and make hair 14x stronger with 93% less breakage. So you're helping preserve your color while also strengthening hair that's been compromised through coloring.
We also got very specific about what actually causes color to fade. A lot of fading happens in the shower, so that's where the shampoo and conditioner come in. Then the treatment helps protect against things you encounter in real life, like UV exposure, heat styling, chlorine and copper.
We wanted to deliver all of that without heaviness or buildup too. There's no point in making your color last longer if your hair doesn't look and feel healthy while you're doing it.
One of the things we thought about from the beginning was how the story could continue to evolve after summer. We launched with UV, chlorine and heat because those things are so relevant in summer and they're really easy for consumers to understand. You're in the sun, you're swimming, you're heat styling your hair. You immediately understand why your color needs protection.
Now, as we move out of summer, we can talk more about the damage and breakage that can happen from the color service itself and the 14x strengthening benefit. So we're still talking about protecting your color, but we're giving people another reason to think about The Protector year-round. Color-treated hair needs color protection, but it also needs strength.
Global Cosmetic Industry: Referencing the Backrooms and the Protector campaigns around the collection. Was the Backrooms campaign always a part of the plan or was it a response to the real-time conversation on social/in the world?
Vohara: Backrooms was part of the plan from the beginning. We knew this needed to be a pro-first launch because stylists are such an important part of amika and how we build credibility as a brand.
We have a very strong relationship with our stylist community. They use the products themselves, they use them behind the chair and they're recommending them to their clients. With color in particular, that trust is so important. Their clients trust them not only for the service, but for what they should be doing at home to maintain their color and keep their hair healthy between appointments.
With Backrooms, we wanted to get The Protector into stylists' hands really early and let them experience it before we did the broader launch. We activated 300 pro stylists across three sequential product drops and worked with 35 contracted pro creators who created 105 pieces of stylist-led content. The creators started with white-label lab samples, so they had an extended period to actually test the products before the branded reveal.
I think that's what made the content more interesting. It wasn't, “Here's the finished product, here's the campaign, now tell people you love it.” They had actually been using it. They had opinions about it. They could talk about what they were seeing with their own hair and their clients' hair.
It was really important to us that the stylist experience came first because the stylist content brings a different level of expertise and credibility. Some of the content we're seeing from our Stylist Circle is also generating some of our strongest earned media value.
What wasn't planned was every part of the conversation that came out of it. Once people started using the product and talking about it, we could see what they cared about, what questions were coming up and what was resonating. That helped us figure out where to take the story next.
