For Kahh Spence, wellness and Black culture go hand-in-hand. So, pivoting from hairstyling to launch Samir Grey, his new fragrance and personal care brand, was a natural next step. “It was really important for me to step into this space and move away from my work as a celebrity hair stylist,” he tells ESSENCE. “I’ve always been drawn to business and beauty in this really interesting way.”
With a former client list full of bookings from Kelly Rowland to Cardi B, he says his foray into the wellness and fragrance market was guided by his deeper understanding of beauty. “There are a lot of founders with brands that don’t have a keen understanding of the landscape and the space,” Spence says. “Some say it’s better that way, but I personally believe in order for you to really thrive, you’ve got to understand what it is that you are tapped into in the market space that you’re living in.”
After launching his first fragrance brand in 2019 then closing in 2022, his current brand, Samir Grey, has been in development since late 2023. Between consulting other Black founders—specifically Danessa Myricks, Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye, and Tashon Thompson—taking leadership courses, and learning all about the ins and outs of being a founder, “I’ve been adapting to being a leader in this way now,” he says. And, his brand’s very first product, One the Parfum, is a testament to that.
Working in tandem with perfumer Cécile Hua and product developer Eliane Treadwell, the fragrance is a memory of the woman who raised him. “We were all so emotional because the fragrance is really inspired by my late mom and our memories together in beauty,” he shares. One the Parfum, however, was more of a memory he wishes they actually had time to share. When developing the fragrance, “I had painted this picture to [Hua] around this vacation I wish my mother and I would have gotten a chance to take, but she had passed away before we were able to.”
The scent transports you to a boat sailing away from the beach—Hawaii, the South of France, Cape Town, Miami, no matter the location—while a subtle breeze gusts through your cashmere sweater like a warm hug. “That’s the emotion I wanted you to feel,” he says. That, and the lasting memory of his mother’s scent: DKNY’s “Be Delicious”, Gucci Guilty by Gucci, and Victoria’s Secret Cherry Blossom and Love Spell.
Taking six months to develop the brand’s first perfume, “I did something that most founders won’t do,” he shares. “We were developing, designing, and working on packaging simultaneously.” While it’s a more expensive way to develop a product, especially as a self-funded brand like his, he says it required him to be unwaveringly decisive throughout the process. But, it wasn’t a hard feat when every decision was made with the same message in mind.
“We live in a world where everything is so fast-paced that we forget to pause and take care of ourselves and how we’re living, what we’re doing, how we’re showing up for our bodies and our mental,” he says. With Black wellness at its core and hopes of our community having a Samir Grey edit in our toiletry bags, “I want this to be a brand that we’re proud of.”
One the Parfum will be available at Samir Grey starting August 25th.