# Tracee Ellis Ross Spent Ten Years Chasing a Yes Before Pattern Beauty Ever Reached a Shelf > The actor first pitched what became Pattern Beauty back in 2008 and spent a decade being turned down before a conversation with Ulta's then chief executive finally opened the door to a 2019 launch. - Source: Continental - Canonical URL: https://continental.today/article/tracee-ellis-ross-decade-pattern-beauty - Author: Continental Newsroom - Section: Business - Published: 2026-08-22T06:39:58.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-22T06:39:58.000Z - Tags: Tracee Ellis Ross, Pattern Beauty, Entrepreneurship --- Tracee Ellis Ross had the idea for Pattern Beauty years before it existed as a company. She began pitching the concept not long after she finished filming Girlfriends in 2008, drawing on her own lifelong frustration with hair care products that were not built for textured and curly hair. It would be more than ten years before any of it reached a store shelf. Ross has said that the long stretch of rejection ended up sharpening rather than discouraging her, describing the years of hearing no as what forced her to articulate her vision with real clarity. What started as a personal grievance about her own hair only became a viable business once she worked out how to turn that experience into a clear story and a system that partners and retailers could actually get behind. The breakthrough came through a connection with Mary Dillon, who was then chief executive of Ulta Beauty, along with Monica Arnaudo, the retailer's senior vice president of merchandising. That meeting led Ulta to point Ross toward three potential operational partners, giving her the manufacturing and business infrastructure the idea had lacked for a decade. Pattern Beauty finally launched in 2019. Since then the line has grown well beyond its original shampoos and conditioners to include masks, heat styling protectants and a blow dryer designed specifically for curly and coily hair types. Pattern is now sold through major retailers including Ulta, Sephora and Amazon, as well as the UK drugstore chain Boots, giving it a retail footprint that extends well past the United States. Ross has continued to describe the company as something closer to a personal mission than a typical celebrity beauty line, built around serving a Black and textured hair community she felt existing brands had long overlooked. The ten years between her first pitch and the product's arrival on shelves have become a central part of how she talks about the company, framed less as a delay than as the time it took to get the idea right. --- Originally published by Continental. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://continental.today/article/tracee-ellis-ross-decade-pattern-beauty.