The Interview: Edward James, Hairstylist & Co-founder of The Hair Consult

Edward James is an experienced hairstylist, with his own London-based chain of luxury salons. His 25 years' in the hair industry has seen him take on the role of General Manager for celebrity stylist Nicky Clarke, style celebrities including Joanna Lumley, Cara Delevingne and members of the royal family, and collaborate with luxury brands including Stella McCartney, Chanel and Tom Ford.

His latest business, The Hair Consult, helps address the growing complexity facing his clients when it comes to haircare. Co-founded with Cara Johnson and Stephen Rowe, the company offers consumers personalised advice and tutorials online, as well as access to a variety of hair products and tools on the market.

In this interview with TheIndustry.beauty, James speaks about the inspiration behind The Hair Consult, how his previous industry experience has helped with the business, the benefits of personalised haircare advice, and his ambitions for the company.

What inspired you to launch The Hair Consult?

The idea for The Hair Consult sprang out of the COVID-19 lockdowns, where salon clients were desperate for advice on colour maintenance and styling. We also founded the platform because we understand how confusing haircare can be! The hair industry provides consumers with a vast array of hair products, tools and technologies, but many of us are just too busy or too confused to track down the most suitable products for our specific needs.

Whilst most salons are affiliated with specific haircare brands and most e-commerce platforms focus on sales and product promotion, The Hair Consult is brand agnostic and is focused on education and providing solutions to consumers' specific hair and scalp needs.

How has your previous industry experience helped with the business?

My 24 years' experience in the hairdressing industry has definitely helped to shape the focus of The Hair Consult. I've worked with many different brands both here and abroad, and have seen first-hand how products and technologies have developed and how consumer requirements have changed.

Consumers now expect a lot more from their salon experience, whether it is the perfect colour they've seen on Instagram or learning how to manage their style at home. Salon stylists can often run short on time to properly educate the client on how to style their hair at home or provide advice on maintenance routines for colour or bespoke haircare needs.

In addition, hairdressers often don't want to feel like salespeople in their day-to-day roles, particularly where trust has been built with a client over time. The Hair Consult provides an independent platform where professional hairdressers can give advice and share their knowledge without feeling like they're just trying to sell product.

Can you tell me about The Hair Consult and everything that it offers? How has this developed since launch?

The Hair Consult is a fully immersive website that enables consumers to book bespoke virtual consultations, connecting them to hair experts for face-to-face assessments, recommendations for optimum hair health, and guidance on the most suitable haircare products and styles. Additionally, it provides access to educational e-books and how-to video tutorials. 

Our focus is shifting to expanding the editorial content element, creating a community of hair experts who work with a huge range of products and tools on a daily basis to help consumers answer their most pressing questions. In addition, consumers can also choose to either shop live with the assistance of an expert or browse our e-commerce element at their leisure.

What do customers typically interact with the most?

People want to access haircare knowledge in different formats. Some of our customers love the face-to-face interaction that we provide through individual virtual consultations, whilst others want bite-sized information in a faster way through tutorials, blogs and advice forums.

We also have a strong core audience of consumers who simply want to browse the website and enjoy a luxurious e-commerce experience with their purchases arriving beautifully gift-wrapped and with a lovely product sample.

The Consult Concierge is currently used more frequently by consumers with specific haircare issues or concerns. We also want to develop our engagement with those who have their tried and trusted products – many people may be completely unaware that they aren't using the best products available for their particular hair type or texture.

The Hair Consult, Consult Concierge

What are the benefits of the Consult Concierge and accessing personalised haircare advice?

Our community of hair professionals have an incredible wealth of knowledge about scalp and haircare, maintenance and styling techniques. Many also have adjacent specialisms, such as nutritionist qualifications, so they can provide a very holistic 360-degree approach to haircare.

A face-to-face virtual consultation allows an expert to really get to the heart of what the client is looking for or experiencing. So, the advice can be tailored to take account of the most personal lifestyle factors. The virtual nature is also advantageous for people who prefer not to talk about more sensitive concerns in a salon environment. For example, a number of our consultations have focused on scalp issues such as psoriasis. Also, for those that book our consultation and co-shopping experience, the cost is redeemable against any products or tools across our site - so the virtual consultation is complimentary.

What are the benefits of opting for a virtual haircare experience over an in-person experience?

The pandemic lockdowns highlighted just how much people value accessibility to haircare advice. We are now in an age where people want accessibility from their own home, in their own time and space.

I know from my own experience that some salons may be tied to a certain brand or brands, which may not necessarily be the best products for an individual’s hair or scalp concerns.

In a broader retail context, a shop assistant may not have the depth of training and knowledge to be able to provide the best advice, which can result in the most popular brands being promoted instead of the correct solution. The Hair Consult addresses these challenges by bringing together hair experts in a very personalised virtual environment for the ultimate accessibility.

What is your customer response like? How do they respond to the virtual haircare experiences?

Starting a new e-commerce business in an uncertain economy is always challenging, and in today's world we're dealing with very sophisticated consumers and consumer needs. However, we've been overwhelmed by the response from our customers, and are working hard to build our community of hair experts to address this demand.

Our customers are often very pleasantly surprised by how much more than just product advice they receive in a virtual consultation. Our hair professionals really engage with each customer to find out more about what they are struggling with when it comes to their hair, and aim to not only suggest products that work but also give tips on achieving the best results for both maintenance and styling.

In a crowded marketplace, we really believe we are offering something different – more personalised, more specialised, more technologically savvy and more focused around education than sales – and our consumer base is recognising this.

What are your ambitions for The Hair Consult?

We want to become the leading independent platform for scalp and haircare advice. TikTok is full of information but that doesn't make it correct, and sponsored influencer content isn't always authentic. The key to our vision is that we remain expert-led, brand agnostic and focused on providing the best solutions for our audience's specific hair and scalp requirements.

Not everyone will want to have a virtual consultation, and we're currently expanding our editorial content with new blogs and how-to videos, and exploring alternative ways to share knowledge and experience. Rather than compete with the in-person salon experience, we want to create more showmanship for hairdressers, safeguarding their expertise and knowledge.