COMMENT
Business Buzz
with Harry Pearson
How my business career started and ended with a bang
Not all young entrepreneurs follow Victoria ’ s path from bedroom to boardroom ...
These days , when I get my barnet trimmed , the woman who does it invariably says , “ You have lovely thick hair ” in the same tone of voice you ’ d use to compliment a dog for walking on its hind legs .
I fear the time when I sit down in the chair and deliver the instructions my grandfather used to give to Jack Hyde , the demon barber of Marske-by-the-Sea – “ Short back and sides and if there ’ s owt on top , leave it alone ” – are not far away .
It is perhaps for this reason that I was delighted to see that the cover star of this issue is Victoria Lynch . Victoria started her hair extensions business Additional Lengths as a 15-year-old in her parents ’ spare bedroom in Stockton . It now turns over £ 20m .
Sadly , the business I started in my parents ’ spare room as a teenager – making wine in lemonade bottles using fresh yeast , sugar and grape juice – never took off in the same way . Although , to be fair , that business did explode . Literally . Never use screw top bottles when you are fermenting alcohol is the lesson there .
When it comes to beauty and fashion , nothing helps promote a business quite so well as a celebrity using your product . The hair extensions industry got an early boost in this way when they were popularised by Queen Cleopatra of Egypt around 30BC .
Cleo favoured extensions of human hair dyed a vivid peacock blue , interwoven with gold thread . Admittedly this is not a look that would work for everyone even if , like me , you have the bone structure .
After a fall off in popularity during the Black Death , hair extensions made a strong comeback in the 17th and 18th centuries , aided by Frenchman Leonard-Alexis Autie , one of history ’ s first celebrity hairdressers .
Monsieur Leonard was the favourite stylist of Queen Marie Antoinette . He designed for her towering hairstyles featuring extensions made from horse or goat hair held in place with beeswax , flour gum and sometimes plaster of paris .
Monsieur Leonard was sentenced to death by the French revolutionaries ( not for his hairstyles – but simply because he was such big pals with the king and queen ).
Trend-setter – Marie Antoinette ’ s towering hairstyle featured extensions made from horse or goat hair .
Happily , he escaped the guillotine and later set up a successful salon in Saint Petersburg . Since then , hair extensions have had continual support from the rich and famous , with switches , clip-ons and weaves being sported by everyone from Jackie Kennedy to Christina Aguilera and Brigitte Bardot to a load of reality stars off the telly that I have to ask my daughter to explain to me and then wish I hadn ’ t .
Sometimes a celebrity has such a big impact on the sales of a product they leave an indelible imprint on it . A good example of that is a jacket called the G9 . First designed by the Manchester firm of Baracuta in the 1930s , the jacket became a global fashion sensation when it was worn by actor Ryan O ’ Neal in the 1960s ’ US TV soap opera , Peyton Place . The name of the character O ’ Neal was playing ? Rodney Harrington , hence the Harrington Jacket .
My favourite story about the power of a celebrity endorsement comes from Italy in the 1970s when shoemaker Diego Della Valle took steps ( see what I did there ) to popularise his new design of suede loafers fitted with bobbly rubber soles .
Enlisting the help of a pal , Della Valle had a pair of his new loafers smuggled into the shoe closet of Gianni Agnelli of FIAT ( who was named by Esquire as one of the Five Best-Dressed Men in the History of the World ). One morning Agnelli came across the shoes and put them on .
They were stylish and comfortable . Soon he was wearing them all the time . Men ’ s fashion magazines took note . Today Tod ’ s loafers generate revenue of close to a billion euros a year .
Harry Pearson ’ s latest book The Farther Corner – A Sentimental Return to North-East Football is out now .
170 | Tees Business