Victoria Lynch, founder of worldwide hair extension model Remi Cachet, had a ardour for styling hair from a younger age. As a 14-year-old within the UK, she braided artificial hair and styled household and mates; her dwelling salon had a six-month ready listing at one level. She continued to hone her craft over time, doing hair part-time alongside a morning manufacturing facility job, till an accident at 18 modified the trajectory of her life.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Remi Cachet. Victoria Lynch.
”I had a street site visitors accident with a bus,” Lynch tells Entrepreneur, “and that left me with some accidents that affected my decrease backbone. I ended up with degenerative discs in my decrease backbone. I solely had two weeks off work, after which I went again to work on the manufacturing facility.”
Lynch’s accidents made it tough to be on her toes all day on the manufacturing facility and the salon. She started to contemplate what the subsequent part of her profession would possibly seem like. Individuals usually requested Lynch to show them how one can do hair, however she knew that if she was going to make her mark on the trade, she wanted {qualifications} on the skilled degree. So she attended school for these {qualifications}, then dove into entrepreneurship.
“That model was particularly for that client market.”
Lynch used cash from her financial savings account to start out her first hair extension model, Further Lengths, in 2003.
“ Extensions weren’t widespread in the identical capability we see them immediately,” Lynch says, “and I created that model with that end-user in thoughts as a result of I used to be nonetheless working and doing hair. I used to be nonetheless supplying merchandise on to my shoppers. In order that’s how I arrange the enterprise — that model was particularly for that client market.”
In an period earlier than social media helped facilitate enterprise progress on a bigger scale, Lynch targeted on word-of-mouth advertising and marketing inside her group.
“I used to be very a lot chatting with my local people at the beginning,” Lynch explains, “and I used to be engaged on boundaries that they dictate and put in place based mostly on their disposable earnings. What’s my local people trying to pay? How can I enroll salons in my space for them to cater to their wants? Further Lengths was constructed on a low price, however making an attempt to realize top quality.”
Lynch grew Further Lengths for the subsequent 10 years. However the model wasn’t simply widespread with customers; commerce professionals began to buy the merchandise too, leading to a “very combined message” between the 2 buyer teams, Lynch says. Lynch needed to create a line of high-end extension merchandise that may cater to the skilled market particularly, and felt that constructing a wholly new model id was the way in which ahead.
“It was a model by an expert, straight for an expert.”
So, in 2013, Lynch launched her subsequent hair extension model: Remi Cachet.
“Being a hair skilled and understanding the viewers, particularly from the trade facet in addition to the tip consumer, that was simply the correct path for me,” Lynch says. “And it paid off as a result of Remi Cachet turned the primary commerce skilled model within the UK. It was a model by an expert, straight for an expert.”
Lynch made Further Lengths the only approved distributor of her new model to make the most of the logistics and information that had been already in place, she notes. Then it was a matter of utilizing that current infrastructure to develop Remi Cachet’s distinct model id and tone.
“ I by no means positioned that I owned that model,” Lynch says. “I needed the commerce area to suppose, Oh my God, what is that this model?”
Remi Cachet did resonate with trade professionals, and as she’d achieved along with her first enterprise, Lynch harnessed the facility of word-of-mouth advertising and marketing to develop the model.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Remi Cachet
“I’ve constructed a commerce viewers that now depends on our service and product to function.”
Now, Remi Cachet continues to see success within the UK, and in January 2025, the model launched within the U.S. on the purple carpet, partnering with hairstylists to get its product on celebrities together with Ellie Goulding, Margaret Qualley, Mikey Madison, Kim Kardashian and extra. The model boasts $35 million in gross sales, per the corporate.
“If social media [went] offline tomorrow, the foundations that I’ve constructed and established my enterprise on can be firmly in place it doesn’t matter what occurred,” Lynch says. “I’ve constructed a commerce viewers that now depends on our service and product to function and retain their very own enterprise progress and objectives.”
What’s extra, after greater than 20 years as an entrepreneur within the haircare trade, Lynch solely lately employed her first gross sales staff.
“Not many companies can say they’ve achieved the income numbers and dimension that we have now with out having a gross sales staff, however I’ve achieved it,” Lynch says. “And I dare say that’s in all probability right down to how I maneuvered the enterprise, the selections I made within the enterprise: Let the product do the speaking. Let the product construct the relationships and belief in what you are doing.”
“I need it to be the model that is on everyone’s lips for the correct causes.”
Like many companies, Remi Cachet bumped into issues with U.S. growth resulting from latest tariffs, inflicting the model to “put a bit of pin” in a few of its plans. Nevertheless, the model nonetheless intends to prioritize world growth on the entire. Within the brief time period, which means focusing exterior of the U.S. on markets the place it may go after “low-hanging fruit and fast wins.”
Lynch appears to be like ahead to Remi Cachet’s progress on a worldwide scale, assured that at the same time as white-label manufacturers proliferate like by no means earlier than, her firm’s dedication to understanding its product and buyer will proceed to set it aside.
“Everybody needs a slice of that pie, however that pie is getting smaller and smaller,” Lynch says. “Being established and figuring out the market and with the ability to serve individuals [gives us an advantage] whether or not we’re there [on the ground] within the U.S. or not. Long run, I wish to place Remi Cachet [for] world domination. I need it to be the model that is on everyone’s lips for the correct causes.”
This text is a part of our ongoing Ladies Entrepreneur® sequence highlighting the tales, challenges and triumphs of working a enterprise as a lady.
