Experts say that the multiracial population is growing three times faster than the general population and more of these consumers, many more, are on the way. According to Estée Lauder research, Generation Z, consumers, born after 1998, have accounted for a 50% increase in the multiracial youth population since 2000.

 
In a time where multiracial hair is much more prominent than in the past, people are still left with few options to care for their hair. Straight, coarse, curly and dry, consumers cannot rely on a single product. Dr. Ena Hennegan, MD and CEO of Three Daughters of the Doctor, has taken up the task of providing a hair solution to all those falling into the niche market. Her line, Many Ethnicities, are for parents and children alike dealing with the pains of daily hair care.

 
The daughter of an interracial couple, Hennegan recalled how her mother would take her and her siblings to a nearby city to get their hair properly cared for.

 
“It was an ordeal!” she explained. “(My mom) was so frustrated in dealing with both of us, because our hair was and is super thick, dry, and curly, which was so very different from her strawberry blonde, super-straight hair.”
 

According to Hennegan, many of the traditional “black hair care” products that she grew up with were extremely harsh. Even today, too many top-of-the-line formulas have a number of ingredients in them that simply aren’t optimal for hair, in her opinion.

 
“If it was a mid-level or higher-priced brand, I tried it and just never found anything that worked well for me or my girls.”
 

But rather than throw up her hands, Hennegan threw herself into finding a solution. Working as a full-time physician and mother of three, Many Ethnicities was born was made on any free time possible. The idea first came to mind in Chicago’s polar vortex of 2014.

 
“It was like -20°F here in Chicago,” she recalled. “My hair and my daughters’ hair was about as dry as dry gets without falling out.”

 
Hennegan had paid nearly $30 for a color-safe shampoo that had worked for her in the past. She read the ingredients while her kids splashed about in the tub and noticed the formula contained sulfates.
 

“As I was looking at the label of the bottle in one hand and researching the ingredients on my phone in the other, my husband walked in and asked why I had so many bottles of shampoo and conditioner around the tub—there were more than 70 of them! I told him that nothing worked for me and the kids, and he suggested that I create my own,” recalled Hennegan.

 
Hennegan certainly had a willing audience. Her oldest child has thick, straight hair that’s somewhat oily. Her middle daughter’s hair is like her own—a 4a curl.

 
“I was having flashbacks to when I was a girl and my mom was ready to tear her (and my) hair out. It's difficult enough to get my own hair ready in the morning!”
 

Finally, Hennegan’s youngest daughter has red, coil-ringlet curls, “like Little Orphan Annie,” mused Hennegan.

 
“And of course, my husband Chris, is white and bald; so he’s not much help—except for counting bottles!” she joked.
 

Chris did, however, come up with the company name. He also convinced Hennegan to put her face on the bottle; just one more reason why Hennegan worked three years to make sure that the formula was perfect.
 

Pulling from her own experiences as a multiethnic child of the 1960s and her struggles with finding products for her own daughters, Hennegan set off to create a product that was both safe and natural. The formulas are all ingredient driven.

 
“We knew from the start that we wanted to be a small-batch manufacturer and that we wanted to go after a very specific part of what already is a thin slice of the market” recalled Hennegan. “So aiming for an ultra-premium space in the multi-ethnic market gave us a bit more liberty to go premium on ingredients than the mass-market brands.”
 
 
Three Daughters of the Doctor opted for higher levels of natural ingredients with no unnecessary fillers. According to Hennegan, hydrolyzed pea protein is an incredible ingredient.
 
 
“It's the closest thing in the array of ingredients out there to the natural keratin in hair,” she insisted. “The hair types that are in our target customers crave moisture, and the conditioning and moisturizing properties of the hydrolyzed pea protein are amazing.”
 

An ample amount of hydrolyzed pea protein is in the invigorating shampoos and the moisturizing conditioners products.
 

“We didn't want to participate in the ‘fairy dust’ approach to claim ingredients, so part of our timeline included actual inclusions and exclusions of different kinds of oils. We wanted to capture the value of the oil, not only something that was trending,” explained Hennegan.
 
 
Ultimately, Three Daughters of the Doctor selected argan, avocado, moringa and sweet almond oils for the line. For the leave-in conditioners for grownups and kids, Hennegan was adamant about using efficacious levels of shea butter and jojoba oil in order to obtain manageability without leaving a greasy residue. 
 

“I also love the surfactant blends that RITA helped us develop,” added. Hennegan. “They clean without stripping hair like so many other surfactants.”
 
 
The end result was powerful but gentle formulas that would be a great match for anyone with drier, thinner hair, she explained.

 
Launched last month, Many Ethnicities products include both adult and children’s shampoo and conditioner.  A separate leave-in conditioner is also on the market as well as product bundles and samplers.
 
 
 
“If you are a multi-ethnic person, you know how challenging it is to care for your hair; you’re left out of that conversation, because your hair is different,” explained Hennegan. “You are part of a small group of consumers whose needs aren’t addressed. Your hair is typically a combination of textures. It’s curly. It’s kinky. It might even be straight. It’s dry and it’s oily.”
 

Hennegan and her team of formulators wanted to use ingredients that would give their customers real results. For instance, chemists relied on shea butter and jojoba oil for the leave-in moisturizing conditioner.

 
In the market for ethnic hair, there are few high-quality brands, and some contend the lack of marketing and awareness in the mass market hinders those looking for more hair care options. Many Ethnicities’ is focused on small quantities to be able to provide quality and precision without draining a consumer’s bank account.

 
“The target customers are urban and suburban multi-ethnic women, men too—people who read labels and care about what they put on their heads and their children's heads. And, for our children's products, we wanted to appeal to everyone who has multi-ethnic kids, but especially to moms like mine, who were just in over their heads and dealing with hair on their kids that was very different than their own,” explained Hennegan.
 

Hennegan wanted to be confident that her product was market ready and worth the time and effort spent on creating it.

 
“I wanted it to be right, and we wanted to test it, and we did that extensively. We have multiracial people on both my side and my husband's side of the family, and we iterated a lot. We panel tested several times outside of the family, too,” she explained.

 
Working primarily online, the company relied on family to help get the word out about the products. Asking family to share posts and promoting their own, Many Ethnicities’ Facebook page has now more than 1,000 followers. With a growing following, the company has branched out into Instagram, receiving requests to review their products online from different users.

 
“Consumers are naturally skeptical. They're searching for something, and they are label-readers—that's to our advantage. Side by side, we make incredible products that don't yet have the name recognition of the products that we someday hope to rival,” insisted Hennegan.

 
Hennegan hopes to branch out and get Many Ethnicities into salons. Noting that the was a great amount of interest in the products before and after the online launch.

 
While working hard on her own products, Hennegan and the Many Ethnicities team has found time to help out others. In April, the company launched “Back the Doc + Back PAC,” a Kickstarter campaign to benefit its non-profit distribution partner,Planet Access Company. PAC employs intellectually-disabled citizens of greater Chicago, creating a new and safe workspace for them to thrive. PAC works with Many Ethnicities and helps fill orders and manages the company’s e-commerce business from its headquarters in Des Plaines, IL.
 

Now, Three Daughters of the Doctor is working on the next of its product lineup. Focused on the unmet needs of multiethnic women, the future holds an array of different situational moisturizing products for hair. Hennegan aims to keep creating safe and satisfying hair care with natural ingredients.