Inside Crown Affair with Dianna Cohen, slow rituals for real hair

For Dianna Cohen, better hair starts with slower hands. The Crown Affair founder talks tsubaki oil, air drying, scalp care and the handmade tools that turned wash day from a chore into a daily practice worth keeping.

In spring 2019, Dianna Cohen lay back in a head spa in Shibuya while someone washed her hair the way a facialist treats skin. The touch was light and unhurried. Water temperature felt considered. Strands were lifted, not pulled. The scalp got the attention. She had flown in with stressed, brittle hair that had changed texture, and she left thinking about fiber, time and care.

Cohen had spent her working life inside startups. Art history at NYU, internships at Valentino and Into The Gloss, first non engineer hire at Spring, work with Tamara Mellon and Away, then her own agency Levitate with clients including Outdoor Voices and Flamingo. She knew how to build desire for other people. Her own hair was telling a different story about stress and overwork.

Crown Affair launched in 2020 from what she learned next. Sessions with hairstylist Teddi Cranford taught her to skip sulfates and polyethylene glycols. Japan taught her about lightweight tsubaki seed oil and ritual. The brand now pairs clean, air dry friendly formulas with handmade tools, sold direct and at Sephora since February 2023. What others miss is the discipline underneath the calm. Cohen does not sell fixing, taming or managing. She sells practice.

You first noticed stress showing up in your hair while you were running Levitate and building brands for other people. What did that change in texture and brittleness teach you about what your hair needed?

Concurrently, I was seeing changes in my hair because I was stressed. My hair is such a reflection of my inner self, so I could see it before I could name what was happening at work. It felt drier. It broke more easily. It did not hold a style the way it used to, and air drying left it flat in some places and rough in others.

For me, haircare is a daily practice, a part of being well and caring for myself. That sentence came later, but the feeling started there at the sink. I started paying attention to ingredients with Teddi Cranford, and we took out sulfates and polyethylene glycols. I learned to handle wet hair more gently and to give the scalp the same respect I gave my face. You want to figure out how to care for your hair versus constantly fixing, repairing, and taming it.

You spent spring 2019 in a head spa in Shibuya where the work felt like a facial for the scalp. What did you watch them do with water, hands and oil that you still use in your own routine?

Then I went to a head spa in Japan during the spring of 2019, and that changed my life. It was like a facial for your scalp, and they were so delicate with the strands. They did not rush the rinse. They massaged in sections. They kept the water warm, not hot, and they kept checking in with pressure.

That visit introduced me to lightweight tsubaki seed oil. If I wanted something that was luxurious and beautiful, my options were either prestige salon brands or like, pure oils, which do not deliver for fine hair. Tsubaki felt different. It spread easily and sank in without coating. I came home and started treating wash day as scalp first, lengths second. Cleanse well, condition where hair needs slip, detangle with a wide tooth comb, press water out instead of wringing. Take your time became practical, not precious.

Your promise is your hair, better, one ritual at a time, and you refuse language about fixing, taming and managing. Why does that wording matter when someone stands in the shower with two minutes and a tangle?

As a culture, we are all about fixing, taming, managing, and achieving a look. But after years of conversations, I realized it was much more frustrating than relaxing for so many people in my life. That frustration follows you into the shower. You rush, you pile hair on top of the head, you rake through knots, you blast heat to correct what the rush created.

So I decided to create a new kind of haircare brand, one with clean ingredients, effective formulations, and beautiful handmade tools you will look forward to using every day. Crown Affair is all about daily rituals and high quality ingredients that transform the health of your hair over time. In practice that means sectioning. It means combing from ends upward. It means using enough product to get slip and rinsing fully at the roots. Care first, style second. The look comes after.

You launched Crown Affair in 2020 with air dry friendly formulas and handmade tools. For a reader who wants to put the dryer away, how do you set up an air dry that holds waves without crunch?

Start with a clean, calm base. Shampoo twice if you had product in from the day before, using the pads of your fingers for one full minute each time. Rinse well. Condition mid lengths to ends, then comb through in the shower with our wide tooth comb. Pat and press water out with the towel. Do not twist.

On damp, not dripping hair, take a small amount of mousse and work it through in sections. I like two pumps to start for fine to medium hair, then add as needed. Scrunch gently to encourage wave, smooth the canopy with open palms, then leave it alone while it dries. If curls need definition, twist a few pieces around a finger. Give it 20 to 30 minutes before you judge it. Once dry, shake at the roots with fingertips. The goal is soft movement that still feels like hair.

The Towel at 59 dollars is your signature tool, a waffle knit microfiber towel in white, black or green. Show us exactly how you use it after washing to protect strands and cut drying time.

Use it to dry hair after washing to protect strands. After you rinse, stay bent slightly forward and gather hair over one shoulder. Lay the towel flat in your hands and press and squeeze down the length. Work in two or three passes. Pat the roots, press the lengths, then wrap loosely for five to ten minutes while you do skin or get dressed.

What not to do matters as much. Do not pile hair into a high twist and crank it. Do not rub back and forth at the crown, which tangles fine hair and roughs waves. If hair is thick, section into two and press each side separately. If hair is fragile or bleached, keep the wrap shorter and detangle before wrapping. The towel speeds things because it pulls water without friction, so your leave in and styler can do their work on damp hair instead of wet hair.

You want to figure out how to care for your hair versus constantly fixing, repairing, and taming it.

Dianna Cohen

The Dry Shampoo at 48 dollars is a non aerosol powder you tell people to apply to clean, dry hair or to roots before bed. Why before bed, and how much is the right amount in the morning?

Non aerosol powder needs time and warmth to settle, which is why bedtime works. Tap a small amount along the part and at the crown on clean, dry hair, about one light shake per section. Massage in with fingertips, then sleep on it. By morning the powder has had hours to absorb oil at the root instead of sitting on top of it.

If you wake up still shiny at the hairline, add a pinch only there, wait two minutes, massage again, then brush through from scalp to ends to distribute. Before you need a refresh is the other window. If you know day three is usually flat, apply a light layer on the night of day two. For very fine hair, keep it to roots. For dense or textured hair, lift and apply in rows. If scalp itches, flakes or feels sore, pause styling products and see a dermatologist.

You formulate without sulfates and polyethylene glycols and talk about tsubaki seed oil as lighter than argan or coconut for fine hair. How should someone with fine hair oil without ending up flat by noon?

Fine hair shows every extra drop, so dose and placement do the work. Warm one to two drops of oil between palms until you barely see it. Start two to three inches away from the scalp and smooth down the mid lengths and ends. On wash day, apply to damp hair before air dry cream or mousse. On dry days, use half a drop on ends only to seal.

Tsubaki seed oil is popular in Japan for hair care and is molecularly more lightweight than argan oil or coconut oil, which can feel heavy on fine hair. That lightness is why I reach for it when I want shine without weight. If hair still falls flat, you likely applied too close to the root or layered oil over a heavy conditioner. Rinse conditioner fully at the crown, keep oils off the part, and add volume at the root with mousse rather than oil. Time is the ultimate form of luxury here. A slow, light hand beats more product.

You started Seedling in 2020 and moved between Miami, New York and Los Angeles while entering Sephora in 2023. How do you keep the routine message steady when the business gets bigger and faster?

I have only ever worked in start ups, I love working with visionaries who are on a mission to transform the way people move through the world. That pace can pull you toward more steps and more claims. I try to hold the line with ritual.

One ritual at a time means we teach one change until it sticks. Wash gently. Dry gently. Style for your texture. Rest is part of the routine too. Between Miami and teams in NY and LA, I keep the same kit and the same order. Towel press, comb, leave in where needed, air dry styler, hands off while it sets. Seedling reminds me why steadiness matters. New founders need time and honest feedback, the same things hair needs. Your hair, better does not mean perfect hair. It means a calmer way of caring that you can repeat on a Tuesday morning with a child, a partner and a bus to catch.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is the sound of slower hands. Press, not rub. Section, not rake. A minute of scalp massage, five minutes in a towel, twenty minutes of leaving hair alone. Cohen learned those moves under stress and under the light touch of a Tokyo head spa, and she built tools that make them repeatable.

Crown Affair set out to make haircare relaxing again, one ritual at a time. No fixing language, no heat dependent finish, formulas without sulfates and polyethylene glycols and objects kept for years. For a household buying for waves, coils, beards and babies, that steadiness is the point.

Product spotlight

The Towel, 59 dollars for one towel in White, Black or Green. A waffle knit microfiber wrap that lifts water with less friction than cotton terry. Press damp hair in sections, wrap loosely for five to ten minutes, then detangle and style. Wash often and skip softener to keep absorption high.

The Dry Shampoo, 48 dollars Standard, with Travel at 28 dollars and Refill at 32 dollars. A non aerosol powder that absorbs oil at the roots and extends time between washes. Shake lightly onto clean, dry roots before bed, massage in, brush through in the morning. Add only a pinch at the hairline if needed.