Jared Briggs has been cutting hair since 2002 and owns the Lunatic Fringe salon in Park City, Utah. After a stretch of health problems, which he linked to exposure to chemicals found in plastics, he changed how he saw the products on salon shelves. “And I knew right then, because of what a terrible experience I had, that I would never want to create something in a product that would do that to another human being,” Briggs told the Park City public radio station, KPCW.
In 2016, Briggs launched Cult+King with Robin Whitney, a longtime client and now company CEO. The Park City company is centered around three commitments: “defending the planet, supporting independent salons and barbershops, and making people look rad without poisoning them in the process.”
Photo Courtesy Cult+King
Cult+King packages its products in glass, aluminum, bamboo, and wood, which the company says is “made to last a lifetime,” and while plastic may have its place, “that place is not CULT+KING.”
Refills have been part of the plan from the start, Cult+King says, and they argue they save customers money while cutting waste: “It’s cost-effective for you, and planet-effective for everyone.” Refills ship in lined aluminum containers whenever possible, the company explains, because aluminum is lightweight and infinitely recyclable. Travel-size bottles share the same neck size as full-size bottles, so customers can refill the minis with the same funnels and spray pumps.
When a pump wears out, the bottle can stay. The company’s online shop lists free replacement spray pumps for its TONIK and SUPERWATER sprays, free refill funnels, and a free glass dropper for JELLY, with the customer covering postage. Other replacement pumps cost between $2 and $7. The same shop sells a $25 aluminum cutting comb and an $80 boar-bristle styling brush under the description, “reject throwaway culture.” Even the logo carries the theme. The pyramid on some of the packaging borrows from ancient Egypt and signifies “strength and duration.”
Photo Courtesy Cult+King
Cult+King keeps its lineup short. Its goal is a minimal product line that “accomplishes all your grooming needs with simplicity and style,” adding that the “products are so pure and amazing that each one of them replaces two or three different things.” “Seriously. Less is more.”
BALM ranks second in sales, the company reports, and because “a little bit of BALM goes a long way, people don’t need to buy refills very often even if they use it every day.” The product doubles as a leave-in hair conditioner and a skin moisturizer and sells for $18 to $40, depending on the size. WASH, a biodegradable, small-batch bar, serves as a shampoo, face bar, body bar, and shave bar.
For years, Cult+King sold no traditional shampoo. That changed in June 2025, when the company introduced ASTRAL AMINO SHAMPOO and CONDITIONER, calling the shampoo “the first-ever CULT+KING Shampoo.” “Because the masses of people use Shampoo and Conditioner constantly,” the company explained, putting people first meant that “we need to offer a Shampoo and Conditioner we stand behind.” The conditioner launched in a 10-ounce pouch, with refillable packaging announced for October 2025.
Pouches hold thicker products that cannot be poured, and they reduce “carbon emissions and material use by more than 80 percent compared to traditional packaging.” However, those pouches mix aluminum and plastic and are not typically recyclable through local programs, the company acknowledges, so it partners with Green Circle Salons to collect them. As a result, Green Circle Salons reported that its members kept over 1.1 million pounds of beauty waste out of landfills and waterways in a single year.
Photo Courtesy Cult+King
The products are meant to be good for the human body. Cult+King makes every formula in the United States in small batches and tests it on guests in the founders’ own salons. Its published ingredient standards rule out parabens, phthalates, silicones, sodium lauryl sulfate, and synthetic fragrance.
Customers help shape the formulas. In November 2022, the company removed palm oil from WASH after a customer, Grace Anne Bradford, raised concerns about the certification behind the oil it had been using. The company cited its own concerns about rainforest deforestation and orangutan survival.
Cult+King also supports local barbers and hairdressers. It does not sell on Amazon, at Sephora, or at Ulta, and when it awards wholesale accounts, it favors businesses with 20 or fewer locations, the company states, and all its retailers are small, independent, local businesses. “We don’t sell on Amazon or at any retail location with more than 20 outlets, because our idea is, why can’t the best products in the world be sold at the smallest stores in the world?” Whitney said. The company explained, “The training and mentorship that small salons and barbershops offer their staff are what drive the industry to excellence, and we want to foster and encourage excellence and independence in all things.”
Additionally, online shoppers can name the salon or stylist who recommended the products, and that business receives a referral commission. “As we grow, they grow. Period.”
Photo Courtesy Cult+King
Through the Alkhemy LLC umbrella, Cult+King belongs to 1% for the Planet and donates 1% of its gross sales to environmental causes. Members of the program give at least 1% of annual sales directly to approved partners and submit receipts for third-party certification each year.
Customers help choose where the money goes. In 2019, they voted for a Puget Sound habitat project for salmon and orcas, and the company planted 1,782 trees there. Utah recipients over the years have included HawkWatch International, Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter, and Recycle Utah, KPCW reports.
The company also offsets all its monthly power use through Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky program, which lets customers match their electricity use by purchasing renewable energy credits.
Some of the giving arrives in the box itself. In spring 2023, the company added a free container of wildflower seeds to every order, while supplies lasted, to encourage customers to plant food for bees and butterflies. “Feeding the pollinators is everyone’s business,” the company wrote.
Photo Courtesy Cult+King
Whitney sees the company’s purpose in every purchase. “You can change the world with the things you buy,” she told KPCW. As the company urges customers, “Look good. Be good. Join the Cult.”
