“I Am 100 Per Cent Confident In Saying That We Lead The Way In Extensions”

Victoria Lynch has been ‘doing hair’ since she was 13. But spotting a gap in the extensions market back in 2003 propelled her to the forefront of the industry, running a hair extensions business, Additional Lengths, worth millions. Creative HEAD sat down with the North East-based entrepreneur as she embarks on the next ambitious phase of her business.

by CATHERINE | DOCUMENTS

There’s a page on the Additional Lengths website called Victoria Lynch’s Hair Story and it makes fascinating reading. It’s a look back at the brand founder’s journey from doing family and friends’ hair at age 13 in her parents’ spare bedroom to building a UK-leading hair extensions empire in a global market that’s projected to grow from $4.8bn in 2024 to $10.78bn by 2032. It’s a tale of ingenuity, bravery, sacrifice and resilience that few would be capable of – and sends out a clear message that Victoria Lynch is a force to be reckoned with.

When you look back on your business, what do you see?

I’ve seen the journey go from nothing to absolutely blowing up globally. Aesthetics have become part of our DNA and we’re living in a world now where there’s no taboo about anything. It’s okay to have a face lift and a nose job. Hair extensions and wigs have become part of normal life. I can leave the house in the morning without make-up so long as my hair looks good.

You launched Additional Lengths in 2003 selling hair extensions directly to consumers. At what point did you decide to supply to hair professionals?

Additional Lengths was started as a small business primarily to cater to my own needs. Ten years down the line, when hair extensions were still very much in their infancy, I wanted to expand, but Additional Lengths was known as a budget range and I knew I would need something different to attract high-calibre trade professionals.

And the only way I could achieve that was to create something new that could hit the ground running because of the knowledge, experience and supply base that I had built up by then. I knew how to research and develop products, I knew what to look for in terms of quality, delivery, specifications. And I knew I could tailor everything to a professional audience and show up with what they needed before they knew they needed it! So, that’s how and why Remi Cachet came about. I let it look as if Additional Lengths was the official authorised distributor of this amazing new brand on the block, but in reality Remi Cachet is not a business – it’s a brand that I own under the Additional Lengths umbrella.

You started Additional Lengths with a £1,500 loan from the Princes Trust and went on to report sales of £17.6m in 2023. What has driven that growth?

Our innovations lead the way. And I am 100 per cent confident in saying that we do lead the way in extensions. If there is something we don’t do, it’s because it’s a gimmick; it’s not a longterm solution for clients and stylists. I’m very big on sustainability and recyclability, especially when it comes to raw hair. It takes five years to grow 20-inch hair, so if someone removes it after a few months, disposes of it and buys new hair, that’s not okay. I could sell twice as much if I encouraged that cycle of replace, replace, but for me it’s not about the money, it’s about how I impact and show up in the industry. My background is extensions, I’m a Level 3 hairdresser, I’m a qualified educator and I’m very industry-focused. I see it as my responsibility, as an industry leader, to help the next generation flourish in their business by delivering a product that makes their clients feel like they’ve got a return on investment too. The priority for me is quality and creating a product that is reusable time and time again.

As the market grows, does it get more cut-throat, too?

It has become very competitive. I’ve had to get design protections on certain products I’ve created because we add new products colours to our portfolio, but then people copy us left, right and centre. But that doesn’t bother me because it sits well with who we believe we are, which is the natural born leader of hair extensions. Everyone in the industry knows we’ve been the first to launch major changes.

The market has become saturated with so many new brands coming in, but at the same time, some of what used to be the bigger names have faded into the background because they didn’t evolve in the way their customers needed them to. These businesses are not being run by hair professionals but by business people who don’t understand the needs of their customers.

Your extensions brand Remi Cachet is currently going through a major rebrand. Why now, and what do you hope to achieve?

Over the last eight, nine years we have evolved, but not from a colour palette or logo point of view and so we needed an update there. But in terms of sustainability things had to change, too, and we’re looking at our packaging and asking ourselves what materials we can tap into so we can meet our sustainability targets. But in all honesty, this is less about what the packaging looks like – as a brand we don’t need to put glitter or polish on anything – it’s about the product inside, and we’re keeping our customers updated as we go along about the changes they can expect.

You’ve posted a video on your socials that deals with your supply chain and how Remi Cachet products are sourced and produced. This full transparency approach is quite rare in extensions, so why have you gone for it?

I think being honest and transparent is the best policy and it’s why I am respected by and have such a good rapport with hair professionals. They don’t just want me to inspire them, they rely on me and my brands to grow their businesses, and they’re able to do this because we offer them an ethical, transparent alternative that their clients want and need. It’s why I focus more on the trade side of things because consumers are not loyal – they will buy from wherever they see the best deal is. Whereas, when you give  professionals what they need and they know they can’t get anything better, they will keep coming back. And that’s how businesses grow, so collectively we’ve grown together.

Training is such a big part of extensions but traditionally usually paid for by the salon owner. With so many hair pros freelance now, are your training programmes taking a hit?

Far from it. What we’re seeing is individuals coming on our courses who want to invest in themselves or their business because it brings so many rewards. The benefit of having hair extensions within your offering is that when a business gets challenged – for example, by clients stretching out that time between appointments, or when something like the Budget adds extra costs to your overheads – you will always have more bums on seats because you deliver more services and you can cater to a wider audience. So, extensions are going to help you get through those economic downturns. If you don’t evolve as an individual and offer more, you’re always going to restrict your own growth.

You’ve come a long way since setting up in your parents’ spare bedroom. What does a working day look like for you nowadays?

Well, I’m busy leading a senior leadership team, a board, 40 employees… I have meetings coming out of my ears right now [laughs]! I’m focusing on our growth in the US, which is where I need to be, where the business needs me, so we’ve just taken on a brand ambassador, Sarah Ashley, who’s been advocating Remi Cachet for years now, and we’re doing lots of the trade shows – we launched in Orlando and we’ve just done San Antonio, then we’ll do Anaheim in February, Chicago in April, then it’s back to Orlando in June. And so the cycle begins again!

Have you ever taken on investors within your business?

I do have investors, but not because the business needed money. Our investors are Growth Partner and they have a minority stake in the business, so I’m still very much in charge and driving the business. But the reason I went with Growth Partner is because it’s headed up by [HomeServe founder] Richard Harpin, who recently sold his business for £4bn. His entrepreneurship is very different to how private equity look at things, which is to strip everything back to the bones, remove the people, the quality, the culture, and then sell it on. And I wouldn’t allow that in my business because for the last 20 years I’ve been about quality and delivery and no price tag is going to determine my choices there.

But especially now where we have our sights set on the US, and it’s about deciding when we register our entity, what’s the trigger point for getting a distribution base out there and all these big decisions… I was thinking, ‘I can’t keep banging this drum on my own forever’. So, at some point I had to let someone in the door.

I’ve never worked in a business or corporation where I’ve been mentored and coached, and the reason I’ve let Growth Partner into my business is to tap into their experience, their networks and to be able to share my thoughts and ideas with a board or pick up the phone and ask for help or advice.

And the reality is that working with Richard, having exposure to a whole new world of people that I simply didn’t have access to being trapped in my own world up in the North East, it’s given me a new level of aspiration. I really do need to think about the future now. I am getting older, and what does the future look like? If I could achieve a fraction of what he’s achieved, and be able to have that true work-life balance one day, be able to repay my family for all the sacrifices they’ve made by investing in them, that would be incredible.