By Tatiana Pile ·Updated March 4, 2026 < /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… The first time I spoke with Monique Rodriguez was two years after Mielle had been acquired by Proctor & Gamble in January 2025. She was measured and purposeful—every word landing like it had been considered long before the interview began. When we reconnected recently, she was navigating through jet lag, but you’d never know it . The warmth was the same—and so was the conviction.
This time, she had something new to talk about: Mielle’s new Lavender & Lychee scalp care collection. The new line is the brand’s second product innovation since the P&G acquisition and its first-ever dedicated scalp care system.
“[A lot of] brands don’t cater to women who have textured hair,” Rodriguez tells ESSENCE. “Which is why when you think about high-quality ingredients that focus on scalp care, there’s not a lot of accessible [products] for our [diverse] hair textures,” she explains. “That’s what I thought about when I created this collection—no matter how wedecoding="async" src="https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/LL-1.png" alt="Mielle Dropped The New Lavender & Lychee Collection–And We’re Obsessed" width="400" height="352" />
While Mielle has never been a brand that feeds into the trend cycle, the timing of this new launch couldn’t be more perfect. Scalp care has become a cultural moment as conversations about buildup, irritation, and the true cost of protective >Substack to dermatology appointments. However, Rodriguez, whose background is in nursing, was careful to distinguish between chasing a moment and answering a need.
“We pride ourselves in being solution based,” she says, which is how the brand landed on this collection. Through her own journey as a consumer first, Rodriguez kept coming back to how healthy hair starts with a healthy scalp.
The Lavender & Lychee collection, which officially dropped in February, consists of five products: Lavender & Lychee Scalp Moisturizing Shampoo; Lavender & Lychee Scalp Soothing Conditioner; Lavender & Lychee Daily Scalp Moisturizing Lotion; Lavender & Lychee Scalp & Hair Build Up Remover; and the Lavender & Lychee Scalp Soothing Daily Refresher. The products are available for purchase wherever Mielle products are sold and are all priced at $13.99.
The differentiator for this line are the ingredients. One of the key actives is zinc pyrithione (ZPT), which fights scalp concerns such as dandruff, soothes irritation and manages the scalp’s pH. Niacinamide, another hero ingredient in the collection, helps strengthen the skin barrier and reduces dryness and inflammation.
“We’re the first brand to create a scalp system that’s formulated specifically to help with itchiness and dryness” for textured hair, Rodriguez says, adding, that it’s also clinically backed, with the guarantee that the products deliver twice the moisture compared to other dandruff shampoos on the shelf.
With scalp the target focus of this collection, naturally, we speak about protective styling. “When your scalp is suffering, you’re actually defeating the purpose [of protective styling],” she says. To combat that, she encourages consumers to the Daily Refresher mist if they have braids or locs. And for buildup, applying the Buildup Remover can be precise enough to “lift any dirt or build up from having your protectiverel="tag">Mielle Organics
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