The Doux, A Haircare Brand That Reached $38M In Sales In 2025, Receives Investment From VMG Partners – AfroTech

The Doux is a haircare brand founded by husband-and-wife duo Maya Smith and Brian Smith. Maya, a trained cosmetologist, started the company as a hair salon in Germany, filling a void in services for curly hair, WWD reports. At the time, Brian, a third-generation service member and U.S. Air Force veteran, according to his LinkedIn profile, was on a military assignment in Germany.

The brand expanded to Target, its first retailer, and later to Walmart, Sally Beauty, CVS, and Walgreens. It is also stocked in the U.K. at Boots and Superdrug, Beauty Independent reports.

The Doux hit $38 million in sales and $7.3 million in earnings in 2025, per the outlet. These figures do not include interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.

“…It snowballed from there. We’ve grown exponentially, and the businesses stayed profitable,” Smith told WWD.

Now, The Doux has received a minority investment from VMG Partners to accelerate the brand’s presence in the U.S.

“When you get into mass, you have your distribution, you have materials, and inventory, and so being able to get the brand to a place where we can scale has always been a challenge, watching what’s happening just in the competitive space,” Smith explained to WWD. “We were able to just keep the brand healthy long enough to be able to pursue looking to do some fundraising.”

She added, “It was important to us that we’ve always moved really smartly when it comes to what’s next for The Doux. VMG has been just such an incredible partner, because they let us be founders. They let us be us. They don’t touch our brand. The most important part for me was just maintaining the integrity of The Doux, and we’ve been able to really thrive so far in this partnership, and grow the brand to ultimately what we want to see it to be.”