Mushroom Boom Comes to Luxury Hair Care, With Ted Gibson

We’ve seen the shroom boom largely in foods and skin care — Ted Gibson and Jason Backe are bringing it to prestige hair.

“We’re excited to share the efficacy and sexiness of what mushrooms are,” said Gibson, the celebrity hair stylist whose clients have included Lupita Nyong’o, Angelina Jolie and Debra Messing.

He and Backe, his husband, business partner and a celebrated hair colorist, have been mixing ingestibles consisting of chaga, rishi, tremella and lion’s mane as part of a daily ritual these last few years and seen the benefits, they echoed.

“I take them every single day for, basically, my clarity, for my stress, for my hair and skin health, and then also, just, my sanity,” Gibson went on.

Working with a lab in California, they’ve been formulating a patent-pending complex of mushrooms for an upcoming wellness and beauty line called Ted Gibson, which they originally launched in 2005 (as well as a Starring line) with hair goods that were sold at Saks Fifth Avenue, Sephora and Target before being discontinued. For its return, they look to disrupt the market by bringing a wide range of mushroom-centered products melding wellness, beauty and science in the luxury space.

“We’ve been seeing adaptogenic mushrooms popping up in a whole bunch of different places, but where we’re not seeing it is in premium beauty or wellness,” added Backe. “We’ve been working with scientists, mycologists, in Oregon who spent 30 years studying adaptogenic mushrooms and algae.”

Available for pre-order now on tedgibson.com, the first product coming in April is a $55 “Daily Mushroom and Blue-Green Algae Supplement” that’s an all-organic powder made with medicinal mushrooms. In July, they’ll release the $75 “Hypershroom Peptide Mask,” made to penetrate the hair cortex and reinforce strand integrity, and following in September, a $52 shampoo and conditioner, as well as $75 “All Over Oil” product.

Sales projections for 2025 are approximately $750,000, with expectations to reach $5 million in 2026 with a major retail partnership, which is in the works. The duo is seeking strategic investment partners.

“We recognize a real opportunity to be a trusted resource — because this is just the tip of the iceberg; we’re just learning so much more and more about adaptogenic mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms that other cultures have used for centuries, and we’re just barely tapping into it here,” Backe continued. “And we’ll be able to bring this to the consumers that we’ve been catering to superficially for the last almost 30 years together.”

The couple, married in the summer of 2014, ran four salons including in New York and L.A., before shutting doors and making Palm Springs, Calif. their full-time home. Through the years in business, and with past product launches, they’ve gathered a roster of clients and followers.

“We really wanted to put our foot into wellness,” said Backe of the first launch. They’re looking to bring the new brand into curated concept shops like Violet Grey, as well as professional salons. “We really appreciate and respect the stamp of approval from the salon professionals.”