Here we speak to Anthony Mascolo, TIGI Founder & International Artistic Director to discover more about TIGI, one of UK’s most popular hair care brands. We find out how TIGI began and the innovative trends they’ve helped form within our industry.

Tell us more about how TIGI became industry innovators in the business of hairdressing?

In the late 70s/early 1980s, I was doing lots of hair shows, creating shapes with braiding and gel and beginning to shoot my own hair collections with step by step books to support the education we were offering.  

When I couldn’t find the products to style and finish my hairstyles, my brothers and I decided to develop our own products. What began as a small number of products for our own usage, quickly grew as we expanded our education across the globe. When my brother, Bruno Mascolo, moved to Dallas in 1983 that was the beginning of the real growth of TIGI.  His focus on innovation, marketing and education led to the fast growth of the company, whilst I worked with my wife Pat on the imagery and advertising concepts.  

Tell us about your hair care brands…

Hairdressing and hairdressers are always at the heart of what we do. Bed Head was created in 1986 with the Bed Head Stick. It was inspired by ‘London Street Style’, the music genres of that time, film, and art. It’s grown to be the world’s top styling and finishing brand with a range of hair care products for every hair type. It’s very much about styling your hair the way you want it.

Catwalk was created from our experiences at fashion weeks. It’s aimed at a fashion-led person whose hair is part of an overall style statement and is often more classic in style, whilst remaining effortlessly fashionable. We describe Catwalk as perfect to create “ready to wear hair”.

S Factor has luxurious ingredients and is about glamorous hair. The S is suggestive of shiny, soft, shapely, sleek, smooth looks, loved by many women the world over.

How has TIGI remained innovative against their competitors?

It starts with the hairdresser. We have our own team who work closely with our 600 strong R&D team who in turn, has access to incredible technology and can create products to meet our needs in an incredibly short time-space.

What are your best selling products?

TIGI Bed Head remains our strongest brand, and Masterpiece is the number one selling product. Other much-loved products include Bed Head Headrush, and session stylists absolute favourite: Bed Head Superstar Queen for a Day.

Describe a TIGI customer…

We create our products for the professional hairdresser who wants to constantly progress their work.  I firmly believe in sharing everything I do as soon as I do it. My team does this through our education and in doing so, we also progress our own work.

Our products are developed to make a great haircut and colour look amazing. We work with hairdressers who have the passion for what they do and want to be the best….and in turn, we create products for people who want their hair to look fantastic and enjoy styling and finishing their own, personal look.

 

What trends have you seen within the industry recently?

Clients are tending to visit salons less frequently, so it’s important we offer them a great cut and colour, designed to last ….and the products to maintain their hairstyle. This means retailing has to be valued by salon owners. However, education is also key.

Stylists need to be confident in explaining how to use products and to have the skills to recommend and retail. The other trend that’s not going away is social media. If you aren’t promoting your brand on Instagram and Facebook, you’re in danger of getting lost these days.

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