Having curly or frizzy hair, accepting it without pretending to look like someone else, it’s a hair choice that is anything but trivial. Countless women are saying thank you today to Kelly Massol, founder and CEO of Secrets de Loly. It is in particular thanks to its products, its shampoos and its treatments that they now love their hair. Today, these products are sold in numerous networks such as Sephora, Monoprix and Nocibé.
franceinfo: Kelly Massol, you achieved a turnover of 17 million euros in 2022. And yet, you were all alone when you launched in 2009, can you tell us?
Kelly Massol: Les Secret de Loly is a brand of natural hair cosmetics that I started in my kitchen at the time with my 13th month of Social Security, that is to say 1,500 euros. I learned cosmetic formulation on my own, because I couldn’t find products suitable for my hair type on the market and so I decided to create them myself.
“I launched my website. And then the machine took off. I manufactured the entire range by hand, until 2015.”
Kelly Massolat franceinfo
You were 25 at the time. Did you also, before creating your own treatments, your own shampoos, straighten your hair?
So I don’t. I didn’t straighten my hair on a daily basis, but I had a tendency to mistreat it.
Have you suffered from hair discrimination?
Hair discrimination is an important topic. I was in the Assembly last week with a deputy, Mr. Serva, who wants to pass a law against hair discrimination.
“Yes, of course, I’ve been asked to straighten my hair or tie my hair up before.”
Kelly Massolat franceinfo
It’s not easy today in 2023 with the appearance of social networks, but for a woman to be presentable, well dressed, well-groomed, she is asked to either tie her hair up or straighten it.
Is it expressed?
It was expressed. Today, I am 40 years old, so I have been in the working world for quite some time. But at the time, it was expressed, quite simply that we were in the way “to see the picture”, or because quite simply “your hair takes up too much space”.
And you have the impression that today it happens less.
It happens less, but it still happens. From the schoolyard, children already make discriminating remarks about other people’s hair, other people’s bodies, other people’s skin, other people’s skin color. And this is indeed one of the discriminatory remarks that we can have, starting in primary school.
I read that 60% of the world’s population has textured hair, that is to say not straight hair, while 70% of hair products today are dedicated to straight hair. It seems incredible.
There was a niche distribution, for a market that is more than mainstream: six out of ten people in the world do not have straight hair. And there were no suitable products in traditional distribution environments.
You recently advertised with “My Hair, My Power”: TV spots, posters on the Champs-Élysées. That was in September 2022. But before that, you “recruited” your customers through word of mouth.
Yes, I started on the internet, with my small online store. Then a small store in the 12th arrondissement. I started to cross-pollinate the Paris region a little. Satisfied customers recommend our products nine times out of ten, so that’s how it happened. And today, it’s a secret that is shared among friends or simply by sisterhood. Whether between men or between women, but mainly between women.
What is also interesting is that your strategy on the internet, via social networks, was carried out with influencers whom you ultimately did not pay.
Indeed, what is very important is authenticity. We’ve all seen great ads. In fact, these were wigs that were promoted to sell you shampoo. So I applied an influencer marketing strategy. Back then, there was no name for influencer marketing strategy.
“I went to see content creators, with small accounts that ranged from 5,000 to 10,000 followers, at the very beginning.”
Kelly Massolat franceinfo
I offered them the products. They were satisfied and so they shared it with their community. We did not do any paid “social media”, whether Instagram, Facebook or other, until the end of 2022.
And it’s not just for financial reasons.
No, it’s really because authenticity is important. We help women to convert to naturalness, so they need to have sincerity and authenticity. And so we went from 15,000 followers in July 2019 to 250,000 followers.
You say natural products, there are no chemicals at all?
Indeed, our products contain at least 98.6% natural ingredients. The rest is mainly a preservative, which is authorized in organic and eco-certified, but which is of synthetic origin.
You opened your capital last year. For what reason and why did it take you so long to do it?
We were self-financing until June 2022. At the beginning, it was not a desire, but no bank wanted to lend me money. Because in France the banks do not finance the stock. And I had a request, I just needed stock. I didn’t need anything else, so I managed to do it self-financing, by managing my business like a good mother, with my general manager. And then I felt at one point that it was time and that the most deserving should receive the results and rewards. So, that’s when I decided to bring in a minority investor. I did what we call an LBO, a fundraising, which allowed me to sell some shares in my company, to receive support.
“I went looking for mentoring more than money.”
Kelly Massolat franceinfo
Thanks to this financing, you launched into export. I saw that you sell your products outside of France now.
So since we were born on the Internet, we already deliver to 57 countries. But it’s true that there are countries in the process of opening up. We opened up Poland in particular, which is a very big market, which is perhaps number two or three in Europe. And then we opened the United Arab Emirates. For a start in 2024, it took us a year to complete the regulations and so this is how we will continue to open up between Europe and the United Arab Emirates.
What is the next step ?
Now that we have brought in Sephora, which was one of our objectives for distribution in France and internationally, the next step is to consolidate the United Arab Emirates. Continue to recruit and structure. We went from a company of 17 people, when we had 17 million euros, to more than 20 million euros in turnover. And there, there are 32 of us this year and we will continue to recruit.
“We do a lot of things with a small, very motivated team.”
Kelly Massolat franceinfo
You are also going to launch an academy to train hairdressers, because that’s the other part, we didn’t have any care and we don’t know how to do hair either.
It’s a subject. We managed to convert women to good products. Then, we created the market distribution. And so now we have to go to the beginning of the chain. Concretely, if you have good products, which are not at the hairdresser, it is of no use.
“Out of 100,000 hair salons in France, there are only 100 that are trained in textured hair.”
Kelly Massolat franceinfo
So even if they are changing the diploma – and it is a paid option, there are 100,000 hair salons that are not suitable. They are the ones who need to be trained, because while waiting for the new ones to leave school, there are 100,000 people to train.