Meet Lucie Macleod, Founder of Hair Treatment Brand: Hair Syrup

Hair Syrup is the home of vegan, cruelty free and nutrient rich pre-wash hair treatment oils. Founded as a way to combat her own hair struggles, Lucie’s Hair Syrup went viral and the rest is history! Find out the story behind that TikTok video, and where Lucie hopes to take the brand in the future.

Tell us about Hair Syrup, how did it start?

 
Hair Syrup was founded towards the end of 2020 during my second year studying at The University of Warwick. I never set out to actually create a business – or even create a product to sell. Instead, I initially created these products to combat some of my own personal on-going hair problems including breakage, dryness, dandruff & slow growth. I formulated hair oils that collectively alleviated all of these struggles & literally transformed my hair over the space of a few months.

When lockdown hit & TikTok started gaining popularity, I – like many others – downloaded the app to see what all the fuss was about & distract myself from my looming second-year assignments. In Spring of 2020, I noticed “hairtok” began trending – it was basically a section of the app that was devoted to all things healthy-hair. I saw lots of people showing their hair transformations & detailing the routine that helped them restore their locks & I decided to do the same.

At the time I had a total of 3 followers – which included my Mum, Boyfriend & Sister-in law. I really enjoyed using the app though and had fun playing around with it & filming my haircare routine. I recorded my step-by-step wash routine – including the most important step which was the pre-wash oil treatment (now known as Hair Syrup) & posted the video; barely expecting to get more than 10 views. However when I woke up that next morning, the video had in fact gone viral and over the next few weeks amassed a viewing of over 600K. I trawled through hundreds of comments and was surprised to see hundreds asking for more info on the oil, many even offering to pay upwards of £30 for me to post them a bottle!

I was pleased that my video had gone viral but didn’t give it anymore thought until a few months passed and I was still being sent DM’s from people asking for me to share my PayPal details with them, so they could pay me a sum in exchange for a bottle of this magical oil. I of course refused & didn’t send anyone anything – I found this quite a strange request at the time – ironically. After receiving yet another pleading message late in bed one night, my boyfriend jokingly said to me “Imagine if you actually did sell that stuff though”. From then forward, the seed was sown and the creation of Hair Syrup began.

What challenges have you faced?

 
So many challenges come with being an entrepreneur – there are so many trials and tribulations I’ve faced that I could talk about, but I try not to dwell too heavily on them. I would say the biggest challenge comes when the time to up-scale arrives every few months. Most businesses take many years to get to where I’m at now and although I’m super grateful for the accelerated success, it has come at its price.

I’m often left feeling like a rabbit in the headlights – when my tiny hand-poured products suddenly spiralled into an internet sensation & I had thousands of units to ship & retailers contacting me, it was very overwhelming at times! Moving into a business premises was challenging – dealing with solicitors, contracts, it was really challenging and super stressful – but necessary for the business to grow & thrive.

I was pleased that my video had gone viral but didn’t give it anymore thought until a few months passed and I was still being sent DM’s from people asking for me to share my PayPal details with them, so they could pay me a sum in exchange for a bottle of this magical oil. I of course refused & didn’t send anyone anything – I found this quite a strange request at the time – ironically. After receiving yet another pleading message late in bed one night, my boyfriend jokingly said to me “Imagine if you actually did sell that stuff though”. From then forward, the seed was sown and the creation of Hair Syrup began.

What can we hope to see from Hair Syrup in the future?

 
I’m hoping that the future for Hair Syrup holds lots of retail partnerships & lots more employees. The vision I have for the company is to take it down the retail route – I’ve got 2 major online retailers that I’m launching with this year, which is amazing. My absolute dream is to be stocked on the shelves in Boots, so fingers crossed!