A mother-of-two who started out her career making £4-an-hour crimping pasties has revealed how she racked in £17,000 within hours of launching her ‘miracle’ anti-hair loss shampoo.
Aimee Kidd, 40, worked part-time in a Cornish pastry shop near her home in Penzance to put herself through her law degree at King’s College in London from 2002 to 2005.
In 2006, the newly-qualified lawyer relocated to Sydney to work, where she met her salon owner husband Patrick, 43.
Although she originally moved across the world for her job as a Business Development Manager for Australian brand Maddocks, Aimee always dreamt of starting her own business one day.
Seeing Patrick’s salon go from strength-to-strength, the mother came up with the idea of starting their own haircare line which they could sell to their pre-existing customers.
Aimee Kidd, 40, and her husband Patrick, 43, share two children. The couple – pictured in 2020 with their daughter – met after Aimee relocated from the UK to Australia in 2006
Aimee – who grew up in Penzance – revealed it took the couple seven years to develop their first shampoo. Pictured viewing her products in a store in Australia
The couple’s £28 SH1 Daily Thickening Shampoo is stocked in Selfridges and won an Esquire’s award for the best thickening shampoo in 2021.
To begin with, Aimee gave their chemist an ‘open budget’ to create a strengthening shampoo which treats thinning hair while the pair concentrated on creating the luxury packaging.
She explained: ‘It took us seven years to develop and launch our first product, because we were obsessed about every single detail, consciously combining performance, design and sustainability.
‘We even did a recording of the lid clicking closed to perfect the sound, in the same way Audi manufacturers do with their car doors!’
The first product the couple launched was their £28 SH1 Daily Thickening Shampoo, which is now stocked in Selfridges and Harrods.
Before and after: Impressed customer shares what their hair looked like before trying the shampoo and three months after using it daily. The product contains Capixyl, a biomimetic peptide combined with red clover extract, which has been clinically proven to strengthen hair
Before and after: a customer shared this photo of his hair regrowth after using the strengthening shampoo for six weeks. It took the Patricks founders seven years to develop a hair product they were happy with
Aimee – pictured in the company’s Sydney headquarters – recalled how she gave the chemist who created the shampoo an ‘open budget’
The shampoo contains Patricks’ patented lab formulated PRC PLUS compound, with 20 active ingredients, including high percentages of four key, clinically trialled blends.
Aimee continued: ‘In 2021 we won Esquire’s award for the best thickening shampoo with SH1. We were over the moon.’
Well aware that they needed to keep developing products to keep up in the beauty industry, the couple set about creating a follow-up to their highly successful shampoo which specifically targets hair loss.
The mother added: ‘The day after the awards the first thing we did was call our laboratory to tell them we wanted to make an even better shampoo, money no object.’
Earlier this year, the couple released their SH Plus ultra thickening shampoo – which costs £52 for a 200ml bottle.
The couple – pictured with their two children on holiday – have now launched their second shampoo, which they claim sold over 325 in just a few hours.
Commenting on the high price point, Aimee added: ‘SH1 is still the best (reasonably priced) anti-hair loss shampoo on the market. [Our Plus shampoo] is what you get when you put SH1 on steroids!’
The two products both contain Capixyl, a biomimetic peptide combined with red clover extract, which has been clinically proven to strengthen hair.
However, their new product – which costs almost double the price of their original shampoo – contains eight extra actives.
Within hours of their launch, the couple claim to have sold out of their 325 units which made them a cool £17,000.
‘Innovation is our passion,’ Aimee added. ‘And the Plus range is our most impressive passion project yet.’
Having already launched in Selfridges, Harrods and Mr Porter in the UK, Aimee has broken into the international markets in recent months too – signing deals with US companies such as Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdales, Nordstrom and Saks.
The mother has also secured a lucrative deal with Warner Bros. and DC Comics to developed a £137 custom capsule skincare collection for Wayne Enterprises – which shares the name of Bruce Wayne’s fictional company.