‘Cute Girls Hairstyles’ YouTuber Mindy McKnight Launches Affordable “Hairitage” Line at Walmart

Mindy McKnight didn’t intend to do hairstyling on YouTube. In fact, she’s not even a hairstylist by trade. The mom of six started her YouTube channel, Cute Girls Hairstyles, as an educational tool for moms from her former Utah community who were interested in learning her intricate braiding techniques. Flash forward 10 years, and her channel has become the number one destination for women seeking hairstyling tips, with 5.6 million subscribers and more than two billion views across almost every country. And now, McKnight is venturing into a new entrepreneurial space.

Having a diverse family with vastly different hair types, McKnight has always been frustrated by the lack of affordable products that catered to all of her family’s needs; inclusivity has never been just a trend to McKnight, but a value in her life. So she decided to do something about it. And thus, her first-ever hair care line, Hairitage, was born.

With a lineup of 16 products that are truly inclusive of every hair type and texture, the brand is disrupting the hair care industry with its clean and budget-friendly formulations. It features two shampoos, three conditioners, two leave-in conditioners, six styling products, and a hair mask, a hair rinse, and a hair oil. Each bottle costs $7.94, is color-coded based on its purpose — cleanse, condition, moisturize, restore, or style — and can be mixed and matched based on personal hair needs, several of which skew more toward textured hair.

McKnight believes hair tells a lot of stories about who we are, which is how she came up with the name for her brand. “We all have very visceral reactions to hair stories,” she said in an interview with PEOPLE magazine. “We all have these moments where we can think of our moms doing our hair, whether it was a bad perm when we were teenagers, a bad haircut, or we went to prom and loved our updo. We have all these touch points to our hair. Hair for me tells a lot about a culture.” She chose a tree for her brand’s logo because heritage is often associated with our family trees, but what really makes it special is that the tree is made up of her family’s initials.

McKnight’s family was especially inspirational when it came to crafting Hairitage’s clean formulas. Not only is each product color-safe, vegan, and cruelty-free, but it’s also free of sulfates, phthalates, parabens, silicone, and mineral oil — and that’s clearly shown on the front of every bottle. Also listed are all of the healthy hair ingredients the brand puts into every formula, like shea butter, jojoba oil, and aloe vera.

Hairitage is using a new proprietary packaging ingredient, an additive that’s put into plastic bottles to help break them down faster and therefore shorten their lifespan, at mass in all of its bottles. “I want to leave the world a better place for my kids than was maybe handed down to my generation,” McKnight said.

It’s been two years in the making, but Hairitage is now officially available for pre-order at Walmart.com, with products shipping on January 2. By the end of January, you’ll see Hairitage in Walmart stores nationwide on nearly 1,700 end caps, but for now, you can find McKnight on YouTube and Instagram educating you on your own hair type and how to reap the benefits from her products in your personal hair care routine.

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