A Welsh woman has spoken of her success after one of her videos went viral on TikTok and prompted her to launch her own business. 22-year-old Lucie Macleod from Newport, Pembrokeshire is the owner of the Hair Syrup Original, which has captured the attention of thousands of people seeking hair care products.
Lucie's story began back in 2019 when she was desperate to revive her dry and damaged hair. Little did she know back then that her personal quest to find a product to nourish her hair would become an online phenomenon.
"Running a business wasn't something I intended to do," she told WalesOnline. "I’ve never expressed any interest in hair care or the beauty industry either. I always thought that I’d have a sort of corporate or academic job, and I never thought this was the route I would go down.
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"Basically, it all started when I was younger and I had almost completely ruined my hair by always back combing it and straightening it while it was wet - I had made a complete mess of it. As I got older, I became self-conscious about the condition of my hair and started looking into different hair products that could help back in 2019.
"I spent a lot of money on a lot of different products. I found that what they were doing was making my hair look nice for the day, but nothing that I was using was having a real long term effect on my hair."
After trying several expensive treatments that didn't seem to do the trick, Lucie stumbled across an article citing the benefits of pre-wash hair remedies and decided it was worth giving them a shot. She scoured local salons and high street stores for these elusive pre-wash treatments but to no avail.
A university student at the time, Lucie drew together her DIY skills and concocted her own product in her student kitchen. The treatment was a success and from there Lucie decided to share it on her TikTok account as a way to help others who were facing the same issue.
With only a handful of followers on the social media platform, Lucie posted her secret for achieving healthy locks and much to her surprise, the video blew up overnight and gathered over 500K views. "I had never gone viral before," she told WalesOnline. "I felt completely overwhelmed. I kept getting these messages from people asking if they could buy it from me and encouraging me to start selling the product. At first, I said no because I was completely baffled.
"A few months later, I was still receiving these messages. From then, I thought, why not? I thought, this could be something - a tiny cottage industry perhaps and I could see how it goes. It cost me a few hundred pounds to set up and I thought if I can sell one batch then that would be enough. I had two jobs lined up following university but then once I started trading it went mental."
Lucie is now running a six-figure company and her successful brand has garnered over 100,000 followers on TikTok. When asked what it was like to run a successful business, she said: "I feel definitely overwhelmed. I spend most of my days working, I’ll be in the office, packing, helping out in the warehouse, helping the staff with deliveries and orders.
"It never feels like you’re doing enough. Every day, it feels like there is so much to be done. The bigger it goes, the more that needs to be covered. You want to oversee everything, but I’ve had to learn to let go of things, accept that some things may go wrong and just trust the process. I have learnt and grown a lot as a person thanks to this experience. Luckily, I have a supportive boyfriend and people around me."
Despite her massive success, Lucie has said that one thing has remained the same and it's her love for her home county of Pembrokeshire. The businesswoman said living and working in the county was a "very important factor" to her.
She said: "There’s always been this stigma that there is no work or opportunities around here. I’ve always been told that in order to succeed you need to move to a big city like London. I like the fact that I’ve gone against the grain. Of course, I got trained and I studied elsewhere but I don’t like people telling me I can’t achieve because of where I live.
"Of course, Pembrokeshire doesn’t have the same resources as somewhere like London, but there are so many talented, good people here. I love Pembrokeshire, I live right next to the sea and in the summer you can’t beat it. I love the fact that I am able to offer jobs for people that are so different. I hope that in 10 years that there will be hundreds of businesses like mine in Pembrokeshire. In the age of technology, we are more connected than ever, so regardless of where you are in the world, I want people to realise you can succeed."
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