Kimberlee Blakley is an experienced Senior Manager of Product Development in the beauty industry. She specializes in hair care solutions that address core concerns for various hair types. With a background as a licensed cosmetologist, she brings hands-on expertise to her role, using her in-depth salon knowledge to guide product innovation and ensure real-world effectiveness.
Additionally, Blakley has a track record of conceptualizing and developing beneficial and tailored products to meet diverse hair care needs, blending her technical skills with a strong understanding of consumer preferences and market trends.
We sat down to chat with her and discussed her recent product development with The Mane Choice, tailoring your routine to your texture, and the evolution of product formulation in 2025.
Can you share a few highlights of your professional background as a hairstylist and trichologist?
I spent much time behind the chair. I worked at Warren Tracomi in New York City and several large hair care companies, developing products and testing and evaluating formulations from professional L’Oréal brands. I also worked at Moroccan Oil and Deva Curl for four years. Now, I manage products for all five of the MAV Beauty brands.
What inspired you to study trichology?
I was actually doing my behind-the-chair work as a stylist and working in product development. One of the brands I was working with was really challenged by a major media outbreak. I wanted to become an expert in understanding how products function on the scalp, how hair loss occurs, and how to regrow hair.
I got my license from the World Trichology Association, also based in New York City, so I am leaning into that to become a better product developer. I have tried throughout my entire career to set myself apart from the norm of product developers, who are typically marketers, or you have ones who are specifically cosmetic scientists. Taking a scope from my styling background and layering the trichologist on top of it made for a different product type.
As a product developer, you’ve worked with global beauty and haircare brands like L’Oreal, Morrocanoil, and DevaCurl. What were three takeaways you learned from these experiences?
For example, with L’Oreal, I leaned heavily into product development testing, which I’ve brought to all the companies I’ve worked at, including MAV. I’ve also delved further into formula evaluation, stylist perspectives, and consumer points of view and then really layered in marketing.
The places where I’ve worked have made me a great product developer for The Mane Choice and other brands in the MAV collection. With The Mane Choice, I ensure that formulas from a trichologist lens are healthy and great for the scalp. Then, I will sprinkle from my marketing view, which I get tons of help from Michelle Harris, the brand director for The Mane Choice.
As a renowned professional, what are your opinions on products that are developed for “all textures” versus formulated for specific texture types like curly, coily, and wavy?
Interesting question. Some products can be all-textured; for example, current stylers can be used across all curl types, with the understanding that it will depend on how much of the product you use to satisfy your curl type. Where I think it gets a real nuance, and a lot of people are learning this as I see some of the brands evolving, is that there is also a different play on moisturization.
You’ll see that The Mane Choice also leans into that with its different collections, like The Tropical Moringa, which truly focuses on moisture. When I consider curl products, shampoos, and conditioners, I focus more on the moisture level than the stylers. For example, if it’s a hold styler, the gel might provide a little bit more moisture, but you’ll never get the same amount as a cream styler.
Can you share the differences between texture, pattern, and type?
The pattern is your 1A through 4C, so that is how the curl of the hair at the hair pattern actually moves right. The 1A is super straight, and the 4C is the zigzag. Your hair diameter, which is the density of the individual strand, will either be fine, medium, or coarse. It’s identifying. For example, if you were to take a square section or a one-inch square section of your hair, you would be able to identify if the hair is fine, medium, or coarse. The texture pattern type falls into your pattern. All is like the descriptors for the pattern.
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We’ve seen tons of conversations about how to pick hair products for your texture; what do you think is the first misstep people make?
You can certainly go to your stylist. These brands are leaning into this because they want the consumer also to get the best results. Information on the website and the pack will help guide you to what will be best for your hair.
We’re seeing more conversation around blended textures than just a standard 2,3,4 texture type. If you have a blended texture, how would you choose hair products?
You have to be very confident in your pattern; for example, my hair is 3B, but it’s super fine, and I don’t have a lot. My perimeter from my forehead to the knape from my neck is extremely kind of limp, and the curls like are a little lazy. And then, when it goes towards the crown of my head, those curls are alive and awake. And they are a lot tighter. But it’s difficult for me to get my lazy girls to function like my curly curls. So again, my curly curls to function like my lazy curls, so I hope their products in that area that will help stretch them, which I’ll use a lot of gel in that area.
Number one, you must identify where you have the biggest issue. You can layer the products and/or use products that are specifically going to help that space, right? My crown area is a little bit more frizzy, so I would definitely always use a cream styler in that area so I can get more definition and more control over the wet curls. Then, I would freeze that with a gel. Or maybe on the perimeter of my hair, where it’s a little bit lazier, I would just use a very lightweight leave-in conditioner like our bond repair leaving and then follow it up with a gel rather than a heavier cream.
Everybody I’ve ever touched in my career has a little funky patch in the back of their head. I usually lean in heavily with the cream with the heavier cream stylers there, and it’s also, in part, about how you’re styling the hair, right? Are you raking the products through to form or definition? So as the hair dries, that piece is a little bit elongated, and you can blend it into, you know, the areas where the curls are a little bit more relaxed. Just a little lazy.
You work with The Mane Choice, which just released The Alpha 48-Hour Edge Control. Given the increased conversation about edge care, what are your recommendations for using edge control?
First, this formula is not just ’cause I made it, but it is the bomb like it is everything. I have gotten so many people complimenting my friends, who I’ve sent it to, who said, “Kimmy this the best thing we’ve ever seen.” So, I truly love this one; it is a passion project for sure.
This edge control is part of our Alpha collection because it incorporates all of those good-for-you ingredients like biotin and vitamin E, which also have great benefits for the skin and hair. So, the formulation itself is different from some of the ones on the market. It doesn’t leave a lot of shine; it’s more of a natural semi-gloss rather than a very heavy shine, which can be carcinogenic and cause bumps on the skin.
You have to be careful about where you’re putting in that area because it’s super sensitive and can get bumps so we leaned into making a formula that didn’t have such harsh ingredients in it and leaned into really having a malleable formula. The formula has a 48-hour hold, which is great and can be molded.
With each new season, naturals have to adjust how they use products and their regimens; going into 2025, what would you recommend are the essentials for spring?
I think what I expect for this next product development cycle would be much more in the multi-task stylers. Our consumer is used to having a lot of things to choose from, and we want to simplify their regimen. I think moving forward; it’ll be fewer, bigger, better, and really leaning into having multi-task stylers that can have more than one function for the hair.
