Creating a viral product that has remained successful for more than two decades is something beauty entrepreneurs dream about but is hard to achieve, which makes GHD’s Styler story so impressive.
The British company hit the market in 2001 with its flat iron hair styling tool, packed with new technology which enables beauty lovers to both curl or straighten their hair fast and with ease, and it quickly took the hair care world by storm.
Fast forward 24 years and the brand is now available in 30-plus countries, with one GHD Styler sold every 20 seconds, but that’s not even the best part.
Colloquially, GHD is now used by consumers as a verb to describe hair styling (particularly straightening), solidifying its cult status – and this all started with the humble Styler.
It was a technology that was revolutionary at the time because you could style hair without permanently changing the shape of it
“The Styler is our Chanel No5 and it wasn’t long before people would say, ‘I GHD-ed my hair’ or ‘Do you have GHD’s?’,” says GHD CEO Jeroen Temmerman.
“And we have testimonials from people who bought their first Styler [with us] and they still have it [to this day] because we really drive and invest in quality.
“We invest in superior performance and have evolved the technology over the years with new versions and that is the key to our success.”
But how did GHD manage to take the beauty industry by storm with its Styler and build it into a broader – and extremely successful – flat iron franchise in a category that is rife with competition and challenger brands?
Temmerman reveals all in the latest instalment of Cosmetics Business’ ‘Untold Story’ series.
How GHD’s Styler came to be…
GHD, which stands for ‘good hair day’, launched in 2001 with the aim to revolutionise how UK consumers and hairdressers style hair on a daily basis.
The company was started by three hairdressers – Martin Penny, Gary Douglas and Robert Powls – who on a trip to Korea in Asia spied an invention which could deliver poker-straight hair in seconds.
They acquired the production and distribution rights for the flat iron and brought it to the UK – and GHD was born.
Sold through hair salons and hairdressers' word-of-mouth recommendations, it rapidly became a
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