Courtney Adeleye, founder of The Mane Choice, launches new brand in Target post-DEI debacle

Courtney Adeleye, founder of The Mane Choice, has returned with a new hair care brand, Watch & Sea. The brand is available online and, though it may surprise some to learn, on the shelves of Target.

The new brand contains over 40 products geared toward hair growth styling and beauty, including supplements, perfumes, body oil, an LED beauty mask, and multiple haircare lines including one dubbed “The Flourishing” collection.

The collection, which ranges in price from $16.99 to $139.92, features both a pre- and regular shampoo, conditioner, a hair mask, styling products, hair oil, and more.

“The Flourishing” collection’s “Sea How Clean” shampoo, which smells like a beachy, fruity bouquet, is infused with seaweed and sea kelp to provide extra nourishment upon cleansing. Meanwhile, the “Sea the Repair” deep conditioning mask aims to restore moisture while preventing damage.

Adeleye is excited for consumers to try “Slick Back Glaze,” a shimmery iridescent styling gel enriched with biotin.

“It’s a very pretty shimmery glaze that has an amazing hold,” Adeleye said. “It looks so pretty, people are like, ‘Oh my god, does it really work?’ And then they use it and are like, ‘Oh my goodness, my hair is not moving at all.’”

Adeleye, who was on Target’s shelves with The Mane Choice long before the big box chain launched its DEI programs (and who in 2023 launched a direct selling program) embraced a “pivot” to launch Watch & Sea.

When she spoke with theGrio about what prompted the new brand, Adeleye said it was time to transition away from direct selling.

“I’m really used to operating with a lot of control over how my brand is presented, you know, how the marketing is, things of that nature,” she explained.

She noted that “a little disconnect” arose for her along the way when it came to managing marketing and other aspects of a brand she’s used to controlling. 

“I definitely decided to pivot and go back to what I know best, which is retail,” she said.

Adeleye said consumers can expect more of what they’ve come to love about her approach to haircare and beauty but with even “more science” and “more resources.” From the lush ingredients to beachy aromas to the luxe pastel packaging with crystal tops, Adeleye described Watch & Sea as “elevated.”

Similar to how The Mane Choice’s name was a pun—a play on the brand being someone’s “main” choice and the top choice for someone’s mane—Watch & Sea is no different.

“[Watch & Sea] is also making a statement of me coming back into the industry,” Adeleye said. “You know, a lot of people say, ‘Can you do it again?’ So my thing is, ‘just watch and see.’”

However, she’s aware that the brand launched on the shelves of Target at a time when there have been widespread calls to boycott in response to the corporation’s decision to roll back its DEI programs.

In January, Target announced it was joining a growing list of corporations and brands scaling back or completely doing away with DEI programs. The list now includes Amazon, Walmart, Meta, McDonald’s, Ford, Lowe’s and more.

Adeleye expressed disappointment with Target and empathized with those who wanted to protest by taking their money elsewhere or purchasing only Black and brown brands at the retailer.

“I can definitely understand everybody’s concern because it is a concern,” Adeleye expressed. “If something was implemented to better a community that wasn’t served as it should have been, and then taken away, that’s something that we’re going to need some answers for.”

The haircare entrepreneur noted that many people upset at corporations scaling back DEI programs might also be becoming disillusioned about who those programs impacted in the first place. 

“A lot of people are really upset which they have the right to be,” she continued. “But the unfortunate piece is [Black consumers are] upset over something that never really contributed to us in the first place.”

In May 2023, Forbes reported the myriad ways white women benefited from DEI initiatives the most; examples include gaining more access to corporate spaces and inclusion programs being tailored to them over others.

“So my thing is, we should have been upset,” said Adeleye, who added that a formal sit down with the company is needed next.

“I am sitting down with Target to find out what exactly this all means?’” she said. “Because I think right now, a lot of people don’t know, and sometimes, when you don’t know, it creates even more chaos.”

Adeleye also said that in the meantime, she intends to do something that’s been the foundation of her entrepreneurship: help others. She plans to continue finding ways to help other entrepreneurs, especially as the rollback of DEI leaves many entrepreneurs of color uncertainty about what’s next.

Of her plan to help other entrepreneurs, she said, “I don’t have to sit back and wait for [what’s next at the corporate level] to not only empower my community but impact them directly.”