I was 20 and at uni when I started my side hustle… now it’s worth £3 million, I’ve bought a house & a Tesla
MANY of us have thought about starting a business – but at just 23, Lucie Macleod has already done it, with her company now worth an astronomical £3million.
The 23-year-old, from Pembrokeshire, Wales, came up with the idea of starting a beauty brand in October 2020, after she was struggling to find treatments that would bring life back into her hair.
According to the young woman, just 20 at the time, she had spent a fortune on expensive treatments that frustratingly made no difference at all.
After researching into the powers of pre-wash hair treatments, the Welsh beauty lover scoured the high street and local salons to find something suitable – but with no luck.
However, rather than giving up, Lucie decided to take matters into her own hands.
Lucie, still a university student at the time, got crafty in her student kitchen and created her own pre-wash hair treatment, one that was packed with all the ingredients she’d come across during her thorough research.
Despite being an experiment, Lucie was thrilled to see that it had actually worked – and this is the moment Hair Syrup The Original was born.
The stunner then shared the story and the secret formula on TikTok where, at the time, she had just a handful of followers – and the rest of Hair Syrup is history.
The video blew up overnight, winning over a whopping 500k views, with a seemingly never-ending stream of comments.
Both Lucie and her haircare syrups had gone viral, and soon fellow beauty lovers began begging the young woman to share the recipe and were even desperate to get a sample of the product.
Chatting with Fabulous earlier, Lucie said: “In the beginning, I didn’t do that, because I thought it was completely wacky, but after a few months I was still getting a lot of comments and messages from people, with many saying to me that I should really consider selling this stuff.”
Then, around four months later, the beauty lover decided to give it a shot, especially as she wasn’t working due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
”So I got all the products certified and ready for sale and I genuinely thought it would be a tiny little side business that I could do whilst I was studying and that was it.”
But little did she know it would go completely crazy and within half a year TikTok had made her a viral sensation within the beauty community.
When it was really busy, Lucie would be working a 90-hour week, sometimes staying up until 2am packaging and sending out the orders.
Her very own team – and first home
However, the stress paid off, as since then Lucie’s Hair Syrup has expanded from just her in the parents’ conservatory to more than a dozen members of staff in the team.
Less than three years later, the brand has become the Holy Grail of pre-wash treatments, with the business set to make a staggering £3million this year.
Lucie’s products – which use a number of raw oils, including argan oil, papaya seeds and pomegranate seeds – are also stocked on some of the biggest sites in the world, such as PrettyLittleThing, ASOS and Sephora.
Thanks to the success of her business, with Lucie raking in £350,000 in December 2022 alone, the young woman has been able to buy her home.
She’s also splashed out on a Tesla and has big plans for the future, including fancy holidays and getaways.
Feeling inspired by this story? The 23-year-old urged to simply go for it and not pay attention to anyone trying to put doubt in your mind.
“I would definitely say social media is your best friend when you’re trying to start something like that out, because you’ve literally got the whole world at the click of the fingers.”
There will be rejection, Lucie warned, but don’t let that put you off and continue working towards your goal.
“Not everyone’s gonna like what you do, not everyone’s gonna like your brand, not everyone is gonna like your products, so it’s really important, as hard as it is, to try and be objective about it.”