What Haircare Innovation Actually Looks Like — with Nathan Puksta

We hear the word innovation constantly in beauty. A new ingredient launches. A familiar technology gets a new name. A product claims to repair, rebuild, strengthen or transform — and consumers are left to figure out which breakthroughs are real and which are simply very good stories.

This week, Carmine sits down with Nathan Puksta, founder of Filament Sciences, an R&D company developing proprietary technologies for professional haircare.

Nathan brings an unusually broad perspective to the conversation. Before becoming a founder, he spent nearly two decades inside beauty — including leadership roles at L’Oréal and Kiehl’s — and trained as both a stylist and an esthetician. Today, his work at Filament combines molecular development, consumer research and feedback from salon professionals to create technologies designed around measurable hair performance.

Together, Carmine and Nathan explore what genuine innovation actually looks like, why large beauty companies often optimize products for the average consumer rather than the outliers, and what smaller companies can learn by looking where the biggest players aren’t.

They also unpack how Filament develops proprietary molecular technology, why product format matters as much as the active technology itself, what consumers should ask when a brand claims to “repair” damaged hair, and why testing methodology may be more important than any percentage printed on the packaging.

The conversation also gets personal as two former Kiehl’s insiders revisit the brand’s unique approach to education, community and luxury — and consider why human connection may ultimately be one of beauty’s most valuable forms of scarcity.

Finally, Nathan shares where he believes haircare is heading next, from scalp health and hair growth to longevity and the changing biology of hair itself.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why Nathan believes luxury is increasingly about knowledge, experience and human connection rather than price;

Why Nathan believes beauty has become increasingly commoditized;

Why big beauty companies often optimize innovation toward the average consumer;

Why the outliers in consumer data may reveal where an entire category is headed next;