Ouai founder Jen Atkin’s 10-year-old editorial hair care site Mane Addicts has effectively shut down.
The company eliminated all editorial roles related to Mane Addicts this week. Some non-editorial roles were eliminated as well, with an estimated total of five layoffs, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Mane Addicts was founded by Atkin in 2014 as both an editorial site dedicated to hair care and a talent agency. Her hair-care brand Ouai soon followed in 2015, and was sold to Procter & Gamble in 2021.
In 2023, Atkin’s new beauty venture, hair tools brand Mane, launched for sale on the Mane Addicts editorial site. In addition to editorial content, the Mane Addicts team began working on brand content for Mane. Mane launched at Sephora in February 2024.
In early 2024, Mane was moved to a separate standalone e-commerce site. The Mane Addicts site is still online, but official communications by the company’s representatives refer to it as “Mane (previously known as Mane Addicts).” According to a representative for Mane Addicts, its talent agency portion was transitioned to Highlight Artists, which was announced in March 2024 with Atkin, Justine Marjan and Mary Phillips as co-founders.
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