Today we’d like to introduce you to Ishan Dutta.
Ishan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Yes, sure. We launched towards the end of 2015. I started in the professional beauty industry way back in 1993, and my career allowed me to work in Europe and in Asia as well as the US. I started Ugly Duckling because I wanted to bring out a professional range which could satisfy the needs of the most fashion-forward hairdressers and their clients. There was this big movement towards ultra-white blonde hair, Nordic blonde hair which I wanted to be a part of. It’s very big in LA, but it’s also very big all over the US as well.
In the beginning, the company was run only by me, then my wife joined the venture as well. Now, only a few short years later, we have customer service people, distribution people, website designers, and developers – and of course hairdressers who work with our product and do the tutorials. In general, this is a good time to be in the hairdressing industry – things are really moving fast. Hair color, in particular, is booming like never before. There are a lot of new products and new brands out there. Hairstylists are doing very challenging color correction almost on a daily basis, so it’s normal that they are going to be very very demanding about having the right products.
Our business is located at Carson. We keep everything there, and we ship everything from there. Carson is a very convenient location for us and I couldn’t wish for anything better. It means we can deliver very easily & quickly to all our salons in and around the LA area, from Irvine all the way up to Ventura and beyond. Carson is also right near a major FedEx hub, which means we can ship all over the US very quickly.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We were lucky enough to get a really good response right from the start, and we could see that some of our products started making their own niches in the market from early on. We were very encouraged by that. We were also tremendously lucky in getting the support of some really well-known hairstylists like Elona Taki. That really helped us a lot.
Being internally funded, we have always had to be very very careful as regards cash and profitability, and we have had to make very thoughtful choices as to where to put our money. In many ways, the struggle of being very cash conscious has been a good discipline for us. It has forced us to really think hard before launching a product & really focus on the products that could make a big difference to hairdressers. We never launch a product until we’ve tested it thoroughly & feel convinced that the formulation is as good as it can be.
Ugly Duckling Hair Color – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
What we do really well is “Ultra White Blonde”. This is one of the big color trends at the moment. Women want to go pure white blonde, and they want zero yellowness, zero brassiness. Just take a look around LA, and you’ll see what I mean.
We’ve managed to make a really strong name in this area. We have a lot of extra cold, extra ashy blonde colors which kill yellow & neutralize brassiness. Our lighteners work even on very dark bases. Our toners work incredibly fast, in under 10 minutes. Our purple shampoo and mask, again for toning blonde hair have made a real name for themselves.
Our newest innovation, Brilliant Blondexx, is a really interesting product. It’s the only Bleach or lightener in the market with Bond Protect built in. As a result, it’s really gentle and protects the hair while it’s bleaching. It’s got a beautiful creamy white mix which is more like a color cream than a bleach. So it’s comfortable on the scalp and it doesn’t itch.
At the same time, it lifts seven levels which is a basic requirement these days. It’s totally geared for hairdressers. It’s the only lightener of its kind on the US market today.
I think I’m proud of a couple of things that we have achieved, other than the products.
Our color education is pretty unique. Whereas a lot of brands just show the end results on a model, we go deep into the type of color correction issues that hairdressers face in the salon. So, it’s very real-life.
Secondly, we do work very hard at giving an exceptional customer service to our clients. I can’t say we always succeed, but we do work hard at it. We reply to all manner of questions every day of the week, including Saturday and Sunday on Facebook, Instagram and on email.
Sometimes the question is “Where’s my order tracking number” and of course we deal with those. But other times people send in pictures and say “How can I achieve exactly this color?” “How can I get rid of these brassy roots?” And we try and respond to these questions as best as we can.
We’ve got over 25,000 hair stylists purchasing from us now. Many of them buy very regularly from us, month in & month out.
What were you like growing up?
We had a lot of freedom growing up. Our parents didn’t place us under any particular pressure. At the end of every school day we would just head out and see who else was outside (This was the time before iPads, internet & the mobile phone!) We all had bikes and we used to drive up and down our neighborhood doing all sorts of things. It was totally random fun!! I feel slightly sorry for kids growing up these days, they’ve missed all that.
Pricing:
- Brilliant Blondexx, our new Bond Protect Lightener, is available to hair stylists at $32. More details about our new product can be found here: https://www.uglyducklingcolor.com/brilliant-blondexx-/152-brilliant-blondexx-lightener-.html
Contact Info:
- Email: support@uglyducklingcolor.com
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