The Contour of Luxury Spring/Summer 2018 | Page 101

Q A & Your knowledge of men’s hair is extensive, and in 2005 you opened a men’s hair ­salon and took on the big guys by formulating the most high-performing, luxurious range of men’s hair products. Now your company, Patricks, produces an array of award ­winning supreme men’s hair products. In what way do you think your previous k ­ nowledge helped propel you to such an impressive level of success in the men’s hair product market? I ’m not a hairdresser but my extensive knowledge of men’s hair developed in 2005 when I opened a men’s hair salon. Through a lot of hard work I built it up into a really successful business, even winning Australian hair salon of the year. I couldn’t find any standout men’s haircare brands so I decided to develop my own. I think having the combination of being an industry outsider combined with running a hair salon for many years, enabled me to develop a product range that was completely new but also performed best in class. I take the p ­ erformance of each product very seriously, it has to do what is says it’s going to do. I did not ant to be confined by what had been created before or what I was told was possible, I wanted to push boundaries. So we re-engineered the formulations for maximum performance, re-designed the packaging to combine luxury and efficiency, and set a new standard in active ingredients and haircare fragrance. The research and development stage took a really long time as I am a perfectionist. I think I was a pain in the ass with my constant tweaks and need for perfection. I pushed our chemists, engineers and designers to their limits, but I believed in my vision and didn’t want to settle. I am sometimes torn between being the nice guy and being a business guy. Negotiating hard on margins or asking for a design revision for the hundredth time but still remaining friends is always challenging!