Lacey Hunter-Felton is revolutionising the beauty industry with tech concepts. When you think beauty, and specifically beauty salons, might not think of technology, payments, and booking systems, but that’s how Hunter is different.
Like all industries, being digital is becoming a big part of the beauty business. Lacey Hunter-Felton is leading the beauty tech revolution with her co-working space Hunter Collective, based in Farringdon.
After quitting her job as a hairdresser, she set herself up in a WeWork space, surrounded by countless tech start-ups and entrepreneurs. “All these entrepreneurs and tech businesses started moving in, saying I’m building this thing and getting this investment. I was really inspired by what they were doing and their ambition,” said Hunter-Felton.
Seeing how these entrepreneurs interacted gave her a spark of inspiration. “I thought, I’m a freelancer, I have my clientele and all these amazing contacts, I just don’t have anywhere to do it. So, I started building the concept of Hunter Collective: flexible memberships for experts in fashion and beauty,” she explains.
Opened in late 2017, the Hunter Collective is all about modernising the old-school beauty industry; taking tech concepts like hot desks and online booking and using them in beauty. Members pay a flat rate of £100 a month, and then a standard rate of £20 per hour for a chair or £10 per hour for a table, and you pay only for the time you use. Usually, beauticians rent a chair in a salon and work on a commission basis.
Hunter’s Membership is growing, with hairdressers, barbers, and nail technicians joining the organisation. The collective focuses on events too, bring in experts in finance or PR, to help the members grow their businesses. It’s all about the connections that can be made in a space where entrepreneurs come together.
