Co-founded Redken Laboratories

In 1960, Paula Kent Meehan, then a working actress frustrated by the damage professional hair treatments inflicted on her own hair, partnered with chemist Jheri Redding to found Redken Laboratories in Los Angeles. The company's name was a portmanteau of "Redding" and "Kent."

Redken was among the first companies to apply rigorous scientific principles—particularly pH balance and protein technology—to professional hair-care formulations, at a time when many salon products were harsh, alkaline, and damaging. Kent Meehan championed the philosophy that hair should be treated with the same care and scientific understanding as skin, an idea that was revolutionary within the beauty industry.

She took over sole leadership of the company after buying out Redding's stake in the mid-1960s, steering Redken through decades of growth, innovation, and expansion into a multimillion-dollar enterprise sold directly to professional salons rather than drugstores, elevating the status of hairdressers as trained specialists.

Her leadership broke significant ground for women in business: she became one of the few women to found, run, and scale a major beauty-industry corporation during an era when female CEOs were rare. Redken's success paved the way for future women-led beauty enterprises and cemented Kent Meehan's legacy as a pioneering businesswoman and innovator in cosmetic science.