Transforming Hair Care with House of Hair UK

Ayanda Soares transforms salons, infusing emotional confidence in textured hair at Home of Hair UK. Be a part of her journey from redefinition to new ventures.

Ayanda Soares, proprietor and founding father of Home of Hair UK, is setting the usual on the town. Her west London salon has turn out to be the place to go for textured hair extension companies of every kind, attracting clients from far and large

PASSION & CAREER

What does your typical inventive course of seem like?I opened my first salon after I was on maternity go away with my twins. I began to get my hair achieved by the intern or stylist and began to really feel the expertise as a shopper. Whereas I used to be sat down, experiencing that salon feeling I assumed ‘we’d like higher cups for our tea and occasional, it must be cute, we’d like our hair on show, a wall show, do away with these white mirrors’ – it was that have.

It drew me again to after I used to go to a salon to get braids, relaxers or weaves achieved and what I skilled from these areas is that there was no luxurious. It was only a necessity, you are available in, you get your hair achieved and you allow. You’ll really feel good as a result of your hair has simply been achieved, however it wasn’t simply in regards to the expertise. I felt that extra European areas have been giving their shoppers these experiences, however not the salons I used to be visiting.

The salon decor provides shoppers an opulent expertise

What impressed you probably the most if you have been first beginning out in your profession?A buddy of mine had micro-links and that’s how I got here to grasp the world of other hair extensions. I made a decision I needed to have the hair extensions demographic and shopper base. Once I first began out, I had plenty of strippers, dancers, escorts and a giant transgender group; individuals who didn’t usually need to go right into a salon setting, so I used to supply it cell.

My shoppers have been the driving pressure to get the enterprise to the place it’s right this moment as a result of the extra folks I labored with, the extra I began to see the way it was professionally arrange and the way it differed from the traditional salon arrange. I realised that folks with textured hair have been excluded from the market and, as a result of they have been excluded, I noticed a means in to scale my enterprise.

What’s the largest problem you confronted in your profession?If you go from a contract individual right into a full-on enterprise, it’s positively funds and your workers workforce. It’s not simply in regards to the cash that is available in, it’s in regards to the cash that you just save and the cash that goes again out. You may make £1M however for those who spend £1M you’re by no means going to scale, and also you’ll at all times really feel such as you’re poor. I nonetheless work with an unbelievable accountant and my enterprise improvement individual to grasp all that comes with working a registered enterprise.

These kind of hair extensions are new to our demographic; we have now to have endurance. In the event you rent the improper workers it’ll translate to your clients – if they don’t produce nice customer support, your corporation will probably be ruined.

MY HAIR AND ME

How does your hair play an element in the way you categorical your self?My hair is my absolute every part! Don’t get me improper, I used to be raised by a Rastafarian mum, so I can throw on a scarf and a few earrings and look cute. However when my hair just isn’t achieved, I take a look at my pores and skin and suppose: ‘Is that how my pores and skin seems?’, ‘Is that how my eyebrows look?’.

When my hair is completed, my temper is totally completely different.

I modify my hair quite a bit as a result of I’ve entry to stylists who at all times need to strive various things, so I’ll have the braids, the bob, the half-up-half-down, the kinky- straight, the straight, the curly.

I get to experiment with every part and I really like that as a result of my hair is me.I’ll strive something and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work and I consider that in enterprise as effectively, if it doesn’t work, return to the drafting board. That’s my character.

What has your relationship along with your hair seemed like?If we return to my teen years, I struggled with my hair, I didn’t

like my hair. I grew up in Studying, Berkshire, and went to a prominently white and Indian college. There weren’t many individuals who had hair like mine. I began experimenting with my hair in my late teenagers after which created kinds I appreciated for myself.

If I’m actually sincere, I might nonetheless say I’ve a problem with my hair. I’m a type of individuals who nonetheless suppose that straight hair is extra accepted, extra company, welcoming and I really feel extra put collectively.

I had a interval after I had my kids –I shaved it off and went fully pure. There have been moments I felt cute and moments the place I felt I didn’t look stored. I believe that’s nonetheless a psychological factor I’ve to take care of myself. I’ve had plenty of ups and downs in terms of my hair. My hair is an extension of me, however it isn’t all me. There may be much more to me than simply my hair. Loads of emotional and psychological confidence comes from my hair.

THE FUTURE

Are you able to inform us about any thrilling initiatives you’ve developing?We’re going to launch all of our merchandise on Superdrug.com. It received’t be in shops simply but however it’s large for our model. I really feel like we’re the girl-next-door kind of brand name. I’m not the Tracee Ellis Ross who has her model in Boots. She is a family title and movie star. So to get my model recognised and authorized, I believe that’s large! Into 2024, we’re taking a look at opening up a second location and worldwide pop-ups in South Africa, the US and Dubai.

ADVICE

Any recommendation for black ladies and non-binary folks?We’d like extra enterprise house owners. If you wish to get into the world of enterprise, you need to cease overthinking. We’ve got so many assets at our fingertips, you simply need to go for it and never be scared to fail. I believe we’re raised to suppose failure is such a foul factor and never be taught from it.

Successful and reaching is my greatest buddy, however failure is my second greatest buddy. It actually teaches us and helps us to develop. As soon as we’ve made a mistake, we all know precisely the place we don’t need to go once more or how we don’t need to really feel once more so we’ll make higher decisions. It’s okay to come across hurdles, to fail at issues, it factors you within the route of what’s for you.