Overview
Alex Brownsell went from bleaching and colouring friends' hair (initially in her flat's kitchen sink) to co-founding Bleach London with friend and client Sam Campbell (Teasdale); they scraped together £6,000 for a chair, mirror and laptop in the back of Sharmadean Reid's WAH Nails salon, opening a dedicated Dalston colour salon in 2010.
History
Founded; first chair in the back of WAH Nails salon, then dedicated Dalston colour salon opened↗
Topshop pop-up↗
Full product line launched with Boots↗
Los Angeles salon opened↗
Partnership with Walmart expanded to 3,500 US stores↗
Available in ~16,000 stores globally; secured CVS; soft-launched in China via Taobao/Douyin; sales predicted to grow ~40%↗
"No Bleach" permanent colour range launched (7 products)↗
Expansions planned in South Africa and the Netherlands↗
Signature products
"Reincarnation Mask 200ml" - £10 (Bond restoring mask)↗
White Toner Kit - `/products/white-toner-kit`↗
Developed Alex-Plex, a bond treatment that "goes into the coloring process and helps strengthen it"↗
plus a Hair Elixir that "seals those splits and protects them."↗
2024: "No Bleach" permanent colour range launched↗
Ingredients & philosophy
Bleach London champions bold, unconventional hair colour as self-expression, deliberately staying polarizing rather than diluting itself for mass appeal, and aims to bring professional salon-standard bleaching, toning and colour to home users.
Controversies
Controversy
The brand's name drew criticism for sharing the title of Nirvana's 1989 debut album 'Bleach'; the Nirvana-linked copyright criticism was publicly rebuffed by Courtney Love, who defended Bleach London.↗
Sources
T1 primary · T2 secondary · T3 note- [1]T1bleachlondon.comhomepage
- [2]T1bleachlondon.com/our-storyabout
- [3]T3dazeddigital.com/beauty/article/67029/1/bleach-london-at-15-how-alex-brownsell-started-a-hair-dye-revolutionexternal_other
- [4]T3forbes.com/sites/angelalei/2023/07/17/bleach-londons-popular-diy-hair-dyes-are-about-to-get-even-bigger/external_other
- [5]T3intothegloss.com/2017/09/alex-brownsellexternal_other