Sabrina Boissiere Knows What Beauty Consumers Want: Substance, Education and a Reason to Come Back
The New York-based PATTERN Beauty Sales Education and Events Lead has spent more than a decade building natural hair communities, producing experiences and helping retailers better understand the textured-hair consumer.
By Black Beauty Founders Staff
Sabrina Boissiere has seen the natural hair industry from nearly every angle.
She has been the consumer searching for better information. The community builder creating spaces for women to learn about their hair. The event producer connecting brands directly with customers. And today, as Sales Education and Events Lead at PATTERN Beauty by Tracee Ellis Ross, she is helping retail teams across the United States and Canada better understand how to serve the textured-hair consumer.
That range gives Boissiere an unusually clear view of where beauty has been, where it is going and what consumers are no longer willing to accept.
“I consider myself an OG in the natural hair industry,” she says. “A consumer first and educator second.”
That distinction matters.
Long before textured hair became a major growth opportunity at prestige retail, Boissiere was building community around the everyday realities of caring for it.
Her own natural hair journey began in 2011. As she started attending natural hair events, she noticed something missing.
“I felt they lacked what the everyday consumer who really wanted to experience quality Black-owned brands needed,” she recalls.
So she created what she wanted to see.
Through Natural Partners in Crime, the natural hair and lifestyle social media platform she founded, Boissiere began producing events designed to feel accessible rather than aspirational for aspiration’s sake.
“I created a space that wasn’t pretentious,” she says. “That gave the everyday consumer an opportunity to truly let their hair down and learn and also gave vendors the opportunity to showcase their products and gain new consumers.”
Since 2013, Boissiere has produced more than 50 events across the United States, ranging from intimate gatherings to experiences attracting more than 1,500 attendees. In 2016, she expanded that vision with HUE Affair, a New York beauty marketplace connecting consumers with brands, education and experiences. It grew into one of the largest beauty marketplaces in New York, and it is still going strong.
Her approach was intentionally different from the perfectly styled imagery dominating natural hair social media at the time.
“I didn’t want to be a hair page just reposting pretty girls with perfect twist-outs,” she says. “Boring!”
Instead, she put her own experiences into the platform.
“I had to be who I was and intertwine my personal experiences and my natural hair care journey,” she says. “People love authenticity.”
Consumers Can Tell When It’s Just Pretty
After more than a decade of producing events, Boissiere has a simple standard for brands and event producers: do what you said you were going to do.
“I believe in showing up and showing out,” she says.
That means doors open on time. Promised talent actually appears. Vendors are thoughtfully selected. Sponsors receive what they were promised. And yes, the swag bag better deliver.
But beneath the fun is something more important: trust.
“There are so many events and event producers out there that unfortunately are producing subpar or just visually pleasing events with no substance, and brands are burnt out,” Boissiere says.
She has watched brands respond by bringing more event production in-house, giving them greater control over how their products and stories are presented.
For independent event producers and platforms hoping to work with those companies, aesthetics alone are no longer enough.
“Relationships are everything,” she says. “People want to know that your word is your bond and that when you are asking for big sponsorship money, you’re going to deliver above and beyond.”
It is a lesson that extends beyond events. Boissiere says she no longer judges an opportunity simply by the immediate check attached to it.
“I always look at the big picture,” she says. “Long gone are the days that I only look at the dollar amount and the partnership and immediately say yes.”
Now she asks what the relationship could become over the next two to five years.
“I no longer want to do one-and-done activations or experiences with brands,” she explains. “I want to build a relationship so that consumers see that the partnerships and the relationship are authentic.”
From Building Her Own Platform to PATTERN Beauty
The pandemic changed the events business, and it also changed Boissiere’s career.
As brands adjusted their strategies, many of the major clients that once relied on her event management and brand strategy expertise no longer needed those services in the same way. Boissiere knew she needed to pivot.
“I thought the next step in my journey would be working for one brand,” she says.
Then PATTERN Beauty entered the picture. In 2023, as she shifted her own platform from a brand to a more personal one, Boissiere joined PATTERN Beauty by Tracee Ellis Ross as Sales Education and Events Lead.
A beauty industry leader personally referred her for the opportunity, something she sees as another example of why reputation and relationships matter.
“When you are good, people will keep you top of mind,” she says.
The role gave her a way to take years of consumer education, event production and community work and apply it inside one of the most recognizable textured-hair brands in beauty.
“It has been amazing,” Boissiere says. “I continue to be able to educate, but now on the retail side and still engage with consumers.”
She also gets to keep creating.
“I still have the opportunity to use my creative brain when it comes to launch events and experiential experiences,” she adds. “It is a win-win.”
Today, Boissiere works with retail partners including Sephora, Macy’s, Nordstrom and Ulta Beauty, training employees on PATTERN and textured hair care. And she believes there is still enormous opportunity ahead.
Textured Hair Education Is Still a Retail Opportunity
Despite years of growth in the textured-hair category, Boissiere sees an education gap at retail. The problem, she says, is not necessarily that beauty advisors do not want to learn.
Many are overwhelmed.
“Textured hair is still a category in retail that has major growth potential,” Boissiere says. “The beauty advisors and staff want to learn about textured hair, but a lot of them feel so overwhelmed about the subject matter.”
Her solution is not to throw more information at them.
“I train for retention,” she says.
Rather than beginning with complicated routines or an exhaustive product education, Boissiere teaches beauty advisors how to engage the customer, ask simple questions and determine what that individual actually needs. And then she goes back to basics.
“Everybody that walks into a retailer needs a great base, which starts with a shampoo and a conditioner,” she says.
Once beauty advisors are confident in those fundamentals, she says, they can more naturally introduce treatments, deep conditioners and styling products.
“It really is about speaking confidently to the client so that they understand that you have knowledge on textured hair,” Boissiere explains.
The Textured-Hair Consumer Has Changed, Too
Brands cannot assume that Black consumers or consumers with textured hair will buy from them simply because of who owns the company. Boissiere sees that shift firsthand.
“The consumer is looking for innovation, and they are not necessarily always shopping Black,” she says. “So your products have to speak to a bevy of needs while, of course, being of value.”
It is an important message for emerging Black beauty founders. Identity can introduce a consumer to a brand. It cannot replace efficacy, innovation, positioning or product-market fit.
At events, Boissiere sees a similar appetite for something new. Consumers want to discover emerging brands. They want experiential activations. They want to hear from newer CEOs with interesting products, retail strategies and ideas. They do not necessarily want the same companies and the same conversations appearing everywhere.
That gives smaller brands an opening, but Boissiere cautions founders against becoming overly distracted by competitors.
“Run your own race,” she says. “Time and time again brand founders look left and right at what other brands are doing, but have no brand voice or tone that a consumer can gravitate to and relate to.”
And before racing toward a major retailer, she believes founders should pay close attention to what they own.
“Community is important and that starts with your direct-to-consumer platform,” she says. “Before you jump into bed with a major retailer, you have to build your DTC.”
What Wins Next
Nearly 15 years into her own natural hair journey, Boissiere has tried more products than she can count. Her conclusion?
Less is more.
She believes the brands positioned to win will solve real consumer problems without forcing customers into unnecessarily complicated regimens.
Her own bag follows the same rule. The product always in it is EADEM’s Le Chouchou Lip Softening Balm in Butter Mochi. The one she can’t live without? The Yummy Skin Water Powder Serum from Danessa Myricks Beauty.
“The brands that are solving concerns and issues while still providing hydration and moisture and definition and shine are going to win,” she says.
But product performance is only part of it. “The brands that have a true voice and tone and understand their community are going to win.”
That same philosophy applies to the experiences she wants to create. For Boissiere, the everyday consumer remains the center of the conversation.
“Those are the people who actually spend the money,” she says.
Looking toward 2027, she is excited about what is ahead at PATTERN, including expanding marketplace visits, retail trainings, education and in-store events.
When she talks with founders, her advice comes back to the same few ideas. Deliver what you promise. Think in years, not checks. Run your own race. Build your direct-to-consumer business before you chase a major retailer. And keep it simple, because the customer wants her concerns solved, not a complicated regimen.
There may also be another platform in her future.
“I would love to start a podcast,” Boissiere says with a laugh. “I just don’t know if the industry can handle what I have to say!”
Considering she has spent more than a decade listening to what consumers have to say, beauty might want to hear it.
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