Black Beauty Room
Sadiaa Black Beauty Room: April Holt Is BBRA ‘Corporate Ally’ Of The Year
The CosmoProf exec has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to bring equity and diversity to the beauty world.
Sally Beauty executive April Holt has been a powerful force in helping make the beauty industry more equitable on a national scale for people of color and people with textured hair. When we think of someone who moves in silence, Holt embodies that get-it-done persona without all the fanfare — except she deserves all of it.
She is a seasoned corporate executive, working across various fashion and retail companies, including Sally Beauty, as group vice president for Beauty System Group, better known as CosmoProf. For the past three years there, she has created institutions for behind-the-chair and on-the-shelf that will last long past her tenure.
That is why Sadiaa Black Beauty Guide was so thrilled to honor Holt with our first-ever “Corporate Ally” award at the inaugural Black Beauty Room & Awards presented by Legacy West. This award recognizes an executive in the beauty, fashion and retail industries who has impacted beauty diversity, equity, and inclusion by providing groundbreaking education, resources, and marketing support.
When we first learned about Holt’s initiatives within Cosmoprof to bring education, opportunity, and awareness of texture disparities to the professional styling industry, we knew we wanted to know more about her journey. And, when the BBRAs were being seeded, she was tops on our lists for her impact.
Her efforts for hairstylists with such activations as “World Of Texture” and “Texture Tuesdays” have not gone unnoticed, helping to address so many pain points that people with textured hair have experienced when sitting in a salon chair. She has also created space for ALL stylists who want to actually learn how to style all textures of hair.
Prior to joining, she served as Executive Vice President, Stores, and Operations for Victoria’s Secret, as well as worked in GAP and Old Navy for 10 years prior. In addition, Holt has longstanding ties to beauty with her family owning a cosmetology school for many years. And now, her work leading CosmoProf strategies to push more than 10,500 professional brands for salon use has given her a powerful position to help redirect how Black beauty is approached and stocked on shelves.
She raised the bar even higher during her acceptance speech, sharing how she transformed her position of often being the “only one” of color in the room into a place of empowerment to push forth new ideas and initiatives and increase diversity at all levels. She also shared that the “World of Texture” event grew in its second year from a few thousand to tens of thousands of hairstylists taking courses to level up their hairstyling education.
