Moda Moda's Pro-Change Black to be sold in the U.S.

An employee at Planet Beauty, a beauty retailer based in California, holds up Moda Moda's Pro-Change Black shampoo. [MODA MODA]

Moda Moda, known for its popular hair dyeing shampoo, said Monday it is entering the U.S. retail market despite the Korean government's pending ban on its hit product.

The cosmetics company plans to sell Pro-Change Black hair dyeing shampoo at five big retailers in the United States — Target, H-E-B, ABC Mart, 99 Ranch Market and Planet Beauty. It will be available this month at the earliest, starting with Target's online shopping mall.

The Pro-Change Black is marketed as the world's first hair dyeing shampoo using the "browning reaction" caused by polyphenol, which is similar to the mechanism that turns apples brown after being exposed to air, according to the company.

Pro-Change Black is sold for 34,000 won ($28) per 300-milliliter bottle in Korea, a price point inhabited by premium shampoos. Sales totaled more than 50 billion won in January, and 1,000 bottles available were sold on the first day the product was sold through Amazon.

In January, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) said it would be prohibiting the sale and production of the shampoo citing the presence of a possibly toxic chemicals.

Moda Moda needs to halt production this year, and sales will be prohibited in Korea from 2024 at the earliest, though the company plans to file a protest against the ministry's decision.

The use of 1,2,4-trihydroxybenzene, a substance which the ministry concluded to have potential toxicity, is not prohibited in the United States.

"The interest in hair dyeing products is especially high in the U.S. market," said Moda Moda CEO Bae Hyeong-jin.

Bae explained that Moda Moda's shampoo "has already gone through the assessment and registration process of WERCSmart," a system of Underwriters Laboratories that checks whether products meet regulatory compliance.

"We will accelerate our entry into the offline retail market in the U.S.," Bae added.