In our 30 Second Interview, we are talking to businesses which have either been built during the pandemic or changed their business model to cope. This week, husband and wife team Matt & Gail Waterman discuss their luxury hair growth product business Watermans.

How and why did you start the business?

The idea for the business was developed when we both began suffering from different variations of hair loss.

After trying lots of pricey products on the market, we could not find anything that did the trick and decided to come up with our own formula.

We started to see great results and mass-produce. The business has gone from strength to strength ever since.

What were you doing before?

Matt worked in digital marketing and Gail was a salon owner. Gail owned a small salon in Yorkshire.

How has Covid-19 affected your business?

With more customers spending more time at home and with most salons closed during Lockdown. We had more people purchasing products as a way to look after their hair.

We saw an increase in sales for our most popular product which is GROWME shampoo, and we also saw an increase in sales for our hair loss concealer and our hair masque. Many people just wanted to look after their hair while at home. As a small business, we were very fortunate to keep on going.

We also launched a new hand sanitizer which we donated to NHS hospitals, The police and Key workers. Here at Watermans we believe in giving back and good karma. We understand how the pandemic affected others so we did what we could to help out.

What are your plans for the future?

We would love for our brand to be in more retailers, We had a goal last year for the brand to be featured in Boots. Watermans is now stored in Boots which we are very happy about. We would also like to continue to raise awareness on hair loss and expand with more products. 

Our intention is to aim to double our export opportunities in the next coming year, doubling our turnover.