Tangle Teezer has been one of our most popular selling products and we now couldn’t imagine life without it! However it wasn’t always plain sailing for the brand and has a very interesting history as to how it came about….
After years of working in salons, Shaun Pulfrey realised the need for a quick and easy hairbrush which detangled hair without tugging and pulling. He had a lightbulb moment in 2003 which kick started his research and development for the first professional detangling hair tool.
In 2007 Shaun entered the Dragon’s Den to present his idea for the world’s first detangling hairbrush. Not entirely successful, the dragons turned him down, with Peter Jones branding the idea as “hair-brained” and James Caan calling it a “waste of time”. Despite the criticism, viewers loved the brush and he website was flooded with visitors after the show.
All his hard work paid off and in 2008 he officially launched ‘The Original’. This was a real turning point for the business as it offered the innovation a commercial seal of approval, and was soon followed with launches into high-profile salon chains Toni & Guy and Regis.
In the next 12 months professional and consumer sales in the UK showed rapid growth and Tangle Teezer began exporting brushes worldwide. A whopping 35,000 brushes were sold in the company’s first year. At the time, The Original only existed in two colours; pink or black. Rumour has it that the pink was only made because the factory ran out of black plastic. Serendipity indeed.
Not stopping at just one hairbrush, Shaun continued to invent and in 2010 after listening to customer feedback he created two new hairbrushes; the Compact Styler, a smaller, handbag-friendly version of The Original, and a children’s detangling brush that they could hold and use themselves, the Magic Flowerpot.
In 2012 Tangle Teezer the company was also awarded a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation. Following on from its first Queen’s Award win in 2012, in 2014 Tangle Teezer won another one! This time for International Trade and Shaun had the honour of meeting Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace to receive it.
In 2016 Tangle Teezer was awarded Cool Brands status for the fifth year running and was also named on the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list for the third year in a row. With more innovations launching, The Ultimate Finishing Tool and the Blow-Styling Round Tool the company is showing no signs of slowing down.
