4 minute read
Interview with Mark Woolley
the interview
Creating a Vibe
Mark Woolley is the founder of Electric, a brand that encompasses salons, photo studios, a product range and, more recently The Electric Space in the heart of London. We caught up with Mark to find out more.
Concept Hair: Where did you train and what was the best thing you learnt?
Mark Woolley: I started at Saks when I was 16 through a YTS (Youth Training Scheme) at a salon in Yorkshire. I moved to London with Saks a year later. The best thing I learned during my training was the importance of mixing creativity with the commercial side of hairdressing. It’s vital to realise the importance of having a busy column as well as expressing your creativity. You can have thousands of Instagram followers, but that doesn’t mean much if you aren’t earning any money.
CH: Did you have any mentors in these early days?
MW: I met Antony Mascolo (multiaward-winning hairdresser and International Creative Director for the TIGI brand) when I was 17 and we got on. He started to take me on photoshoots with him. He became something of a mentor.
CH: When did you open the first Electric Salon?
MW: I opened the first Electric salon in Brighton in 2006. I was involved with five Saks salons at the time, including one in London where I looked after a lot of clients. With this in mind, I opened Electric in Marylebone, London in 2008.
CH: How would you sum up the Electric brand?
MW: My ethos has always been to train team members in both cut and colour. This way one expert can take a client through the whole salon journey.
At Electric, we focus on creating a great atmosphere – hence the name Electric. Every salon has a real vibe. We also look after our people and help our team members meet their career objectives. This way we create a team of accomplished but nice people.
In the early days of Electric I was also doing a lot of session work, which wasn’t synonymous with salons at the time. I felt I didn’t need to be a freelancer in order to do my own thing. I wanted to bring the excitement of session work to the salon.
CH: Do you employ your team members or are they self-employed?
MW: The Electric Space which just opened in London is a totally new concept where we welcome freelance creatives, but in the other Electric salons everyone is employed. We believe in education and investing in our people.
We don’t go down the rent-a-chair route with the rest of the salons. We employ 96 hairdresser across five salons. MW: The biggest part of the company now is the products. We are in 90 salons in the UK and some 500 in North America.
I’ve always travelled to the States for session work so I knew some hairdressers out there and started to get them into some salons along with education.
What’s different about Electric products is that we manufacture them ourselves and have done for the past 13 years. From day one we have sourced every ingredient and raw material.
CH: So, tell us about the new Electric Space in London and what makes it different?
MW: The Electric Space is aimed at creative freelancers who need a space to look after clients.
A client will feel they are walking into a top salon, with a highly professional front-of-house team, but the hair artist looking after them will be self-employed. We provide the space and the Electric vibe.
The Electric Space is run like a members club. Members pay a monthly members fee plus a fee for booking out a chair for the day.
Why is now the right time to launch The Electric Space?
MW: The trend among young hairdressers now is to have multiple streams of income. It’s hard to do that if you work 9-5 in a salon. They want to be hair ambassadors, have their own social media channels that they earn money from and look after clients in a creative space. There is a real entrepreneurial spirit in this generation.
