A Brand New World By Zoe Richards

He’s one of the biggest names in British hairdressing but Phil Smith’s success extends beyond the UK. Having bought and sold multi-million-pound salon empires, launched his own best-selling product range and achieved some of the industry’s most significant accolades, Phil has run salons and sold products globally. And now, his sights are once again set on Australia!

Phil Smith’s resumé is stuffed with successes most other hairdressers could only dream of. By his early 40s, he owned 28 TONI&GUY franchise salons globally, with over 600 staff and annual sales of £16m. He went on to launch his own independent salon and two product ranges. He has a list of celebrity clients that includes rock star royalty and primetime stars, became a daytime TV regular himself, was nominated eight times for British Hairdresser of the Year and has scooped a clutch of other awards besides.

Unusual for someone whose name has hit the big time, humility and a self-effacing normality are two of Phil’s most notable features. By his own admission, Phil says he’s not the best hairdresser. “I know there are better hairdressers out there. But I do have a million per cent determination.” Perhaps it’s that quiet drive, coupled with a reluctance to get swept up in his own hype that has kept him at the top of the game for over 35 years.

Phil’s first foray into hairdressing was a YTS apprenticeship at Raymond’s in Guildford, Surrey under the leadership of the infamous ‘Mr TeasyWeasy’. The salon was old school in every sense and brought with it a strict dedication to discipline. Phil recalls that how diligently you scrubbed the toilets was the manager’s benchmark for quality in your work. A commitment to small details would translate to how well you cut hair. Even today, it’s a philosophy he lives by. “If you ever think you’re too important or too powerful to do the little jobs, you’ve lost it,” he says.

Phil got his first real appetite for business success when he went to work at John Carne, also in Guildford. “John had a Porsche and a swimming pool and it blew me away. I saw what hairdressing could offer.” He credits Carne as being a savvy businessman with a great work ethic. Eager, enthusiastic and showing signs of an emerging entrepreneurial spirit himself, Phil was keen to open his own salon and when a first attempt to launch in Guildford failed, he was introduced to Toni and Anthony Mascolo. TONI&GUY was on an upwards trajectory, taking over the British hair scene and looking for franchisees to capitalise on the potential of its lucrative salon brand.

Despite the safety net of TONI&GUY, the route to success didn’t come easily. Phil struggled to make his first salon in Salisbury pay the bills. “The day Salisbury opened, I had just three clients,” he recalls. “I had to build the business from literally nothing. I was 23 years old with a loss-making salon and I was living in a house share.” Opening up another salon in nearby Bath soon after was both a risk and a masterstroke. He borrowed the money he needed to take on the extra franchise and it turned out to be a gamble that reversed his fortunes. Bath was a different story. Busy and profitable (taking three times as much as the Salisbury salon, in fact), it benefited from the cool factor TONI&GUY was enjoying in the 90s.

Phil was the first TONI&GUY franchisee to have two salons and he was the youngest franchisee in the company. Eternally grateful to the late Toni Mascolo, Phil admits, “most of what I know in business came from him.” One such lesson Phil stands by is that “people never work for you; they work with you. Anything else creates an ego.” Today, he’s generous to his staff and gives and expects fierce loyalty in return. A scrupulous approach to money management was also a masterclass that shaped Phil’s way of doing things. “Toni would do anything to make 10p,” Phil laughs. During the 90s, Phil’s empire was steadily growing - Swindon came next and he had soon opened up a string of salons across the South West of the UK. Hungry for creative recognition too, Phil won Wales & South West Hairdresser of the Year three times and then a campaign for British Hairdresser of the Year began. He was nominated eight times. Much to his astonishment, Phil was also invited to appear on stage alongside his hairdressing heroes. One such highlight being on stage at Sydney Town Hall alongside Dennis Langford (head of TONI&GUY in Australia), Trevor Sorbie and Richard Thompson. He also had a regular slot on the Lorraine show on UK daytime TV. “Opportunities like that would make me sick with nerves,” Phil confesses, “but they are some of my real ‘pinch me’ moments in life.”

At the peak of his success, Phil had 28 TONI&GUY salons, not just in the UK, but also in Australia and Canada.

He recalls opening up his first TONI&GUY franchise in Manly in 2000. “I had a member of staff working for me in my Bath salon called Casey Vincent. She was keen to open a TONI&GUY in Australia and so I contacted Dennis Langford, who was responsible for salon growth.” Phil describes an instant love for Australia as soon as he touched down. “The lifestyle really appealed to me. The fact that you could catch a boat from the city centre and be on this cool and very beautiful stretch of surfer’s beach in minutes, travelling past the Sydney Opera House on the way… Well, it just blew me away.”

Before long, Phil had teamed up with Grant Norton, whose boss when he worked in the UK was a good friend. They hatched a plan to launch more salons together and over the course of the next three to four years, the pair had seven salons in the Sydney suburbs and one in Melbourne. The dynamic clearly worked and Phil describes Grant as “the guy on the ground - very creative and great in business.” Meanwhile, Phil raised the finances and kept the formula ticking over. With business expanding rapidly, there were numerous long hauls from Heathrow – a punishing commitment but regardless, Phil retains a fierce devotion to Australia.

“It wasn’t just the lifestyle I loved,” Phil explains. “The whole mentality of business felt less formal too. For instance, never once did I have a meeting in a bank – business was conducted in a café or by the beach. I felt like there was a more optimistic, outdoorsy, upbeat perspective on life to be found on every level.” The next few years were fast-paced and the reality of running a huge portfolio of salons meant that life was a juggle of spreadsheets and staffing issues and yes, those long-haul flights. The big success had become a big stress and it was while doing a show in Russia in 2009, a final wake-up call coupled with a health scare made Phil rethink his priorities. The Australian salons – along with the rest of Phil’s going concerns - were put up for sale. In the meantime, there was another enterprise that Phil had set his sights on. A chance encounter with the legendary Umberto Giannini while on holiday with his family made up his mind. “A chat around the pool made me wonder if I could create my own product range. Umberto really was the inspiration,” Phil admits. “We got on like a house on fire and he became one of my best friends in the world.” It’s ‘happy accidents’ like this that Phil believes have shaped his destiny.

While his profile was flying high off the back of his British Hairdressing Awards nominations, Phil had secured a deal with UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s to endorse a product range with his name on it. When the range looked set to be dropped after 18 months, Phil was given the chance to fund his own line and sell it in. Originally a licensed deal with a product manufacturer, in 2007 Phil Smith Be Gorgeous – a range of haircare, electricals and accessories - was born. Craving more control, Phil went on to buy out the range to acquire exclusive ownership and today maintains full control of it. Overseeing every single detail of their production, he pours his heart and soul into every bottle.

Never more has this commitment been tested than over the last 18 months. “Every single thing about my business has changed,” explains Phil. Explaining stock issues and cost of goods increases, Phil’s dedication is being pushed to its limits. But he’s not giving up. “Seeing my products stocked in Australia is a massive goal of mine,” Phil confides. In fact, he made a vow not to set foot back in the country until his products were on the shelves. It’s a big ambition, but Phil is steadfast in his determination, “There is no other territory in the world I want more to be,” he says. And anyway, if there’s one thing Phil has learnt from his time in Australia it’s that business doesn’t have to be stressful, adding, “we all face everyday problems, it’s how you handle them that is the making of you.”

Closer to home, less than three years after giving up all but one of his TONI&GUY salons (his wife, Louise still runs the original one in Salisbury), Phil set about restoring a small, old woollen shop in his hometown of Salisbury. Midway through the project and craving a new challenge, he decided it would be the perfect location for a salon. Opened in 2013, Smith England was an opportunity to finally compensate for all of Phil’s years of being a salon owner with a frustrating lack of say over the brand. “I didn’t want this to look like a typical salon environment,” Phil says. Influenced by the aesthetic of Soho House, he’s incorporated details such as wooden floors with oak beams, a beautiful writing bureau as reception desk, free-standing, oversized mirrors, antique leather chairs and pieces from his personal art collection on the walls. It doesn’t just look good, it’s already winning awards for its fresh approach and enlightened commitment to creating a community spirit too.

The salon is headed up by Phil’s daughter Ellie. In fact, both his children have followed the same path as their parents into hairdressing. “Ellie has a great work ethic,” he says proudly. “As well as running Smith England, she’s instrumental in the product range.” Meanwhile, his son George is displaying a real talent for men’s hairdressing, having already won an award at the Wella Trend Vision Award and been nominated for several more. Phil’s advice for his kids is the same as he’d give to anyone else starting out, “Whatever you do in life, you’ve got to work hard. There’s no quick or easy way to success.” The hard work shows no signs of stopping for Phil anytime soon and there are no plans to retire, “I’ll keep working forever, albeit at a slower pace maybe,” he confesses.

Having enjoyed the fortunes of his success over the years (“of course you get into business to buy nice things,” he admits) he claims he’s not motivated by money anymore. Smith England is the first not for profit salon in the UK. He shows up there twice a week to see longstanding clients, some of whose hair he’s cut for over 25 years, and he still just charges a modest fee for a haircut. So, what does drive this quietly determined hairdresser then? “It brings me joy to see my products on the shelf and to work with a talented team of people,” he admits. It seems pretty sure to say that we’ll be seeing Phil Smith’s name back on the map in Australia soon.

Phil Smith

I KNOW THERE ARE BETTER HAIRDRESSERS OUT THERE. BUT I DO HAVE A MILLION PER CENT DETERMINATION.