OLAPLEX, the brand that created the bond building hair category, is excited to launch new artificial intelligence in the form of a Virtual Team Member to interact and engage with their community of professional hair stylists and consumers on its website and social media platforms to debut on May 9, 2022.

She/He/They was created by taking the images of more than 240 brand advocates and employees, as well as the emotional quality of each person, to merge into a composite that is an accurate, bias‐free visual representation of the entire team. The voice is a synthesis of about 15 of team members that accounts for differences in accents, gender and tone of voice. To bring the AI image to life, it was overlayed onto a real person using visual effects and facial compositing to ultimately create a lifelike portrait. The resulting Virtual Team Member captures the hope and happiness of the OLAPLEX team while holding the same passion and excitement who can engage digitally to educate on OLAPLEX products and campaigns, as well as answer questions digitally.

“Research shows that consumers want to see themselves and feel connected and engaged with the brands and companies they do business with,” said JuE Wong, chief executive officer of OLAPLEX. “The new OLAPLEX Virtual Team Member is the synthesis of us – the people that built the brand from the ground up, mirroring the community of professional hair stylists and consumers that we serve. As unique as we are as individuals, we are united by our passion for OLAPLEX.”

The OLAPLEX Virtual Team Member will make its debut on the OLAPLEX Instagram feed on May 9, 2022, where followers will have the opportunity to participate in a poll to give the team member its name. The name options are:

• CIGI: The name Cigi makes you a visionary, original in your ideas, inventive, ingenious, and creative in dealing with practical aspects of life. You have a desire to provide a humanitarian service to others, but the circumstances you are drawn into are generally too limited to fulfill your ideals.

• KAI: Kai is primarily a gender‐neutral name with multi‐national origins (Hawaiian to Scandinavian) that means the Ocean or Sea.

• RUMI: Rumi while it is of Japanese origin and traditionally for the female gender, the adoption of the name has evolved and adopted by other cultures it has taken on a more gender neutral perspective. The meaning of Rumi is 'beautiful,' 'lapiz lazuli.' In its Korean origin, the meaning of Rumi is 'gift of god,' while in its Latin origin, Rumi means 'amazing and beautiful creature.'

All OLAPLEX products contain a revolutionary bond‐building technology with over 100 worldwide patents that created the bond‐building hair care category and is exclusive to OLAPLEX. This technology penetrates the hair shaft working on the entire hair structure to rebuild the hair throughout. It builds a permanent bridge between the disulfide bonds. At the same time, it lessens and/or eliminates damage caused by molecules that eat protein from the hair by working faster than the damage can occur.