the industry
We love this industry. We also think it can do better — be safer, more skilled, more honest with the people who trust it. That's what we're working toward.
Driven by passion, accountable by choice
In the United States, becoming a hair professional means completing a state-accredited cosmetology programme — typically 1,000 to 1,500 hours of training — and passing both written and practical board exams before you can legally touch a paying client. Standards vary by state, but the principle is consistent: the industry is licensed, regulated, and accountable.
The UK has no equivalent system. There is no licensing requirement, no governing body with the power to set or enforce professional standards, and no mandatory qualifications for anyone wishing to work as a hairdresser or colourist. A person can complete a weekend course — or no course at all — and open for business the following Monday. Clients have no straightforward way of knowing whether the person handling chemicals near their scalp has any formal training whatsoever.
This isn't a minor oversight. Colour chemistry involves developer strengths, processing times, and product interactions that, handled incorrectly, cause real harm — scalp burns, structural damage, allergic reactions, hair loss. The absence of regulatory oversight doesn't make these risks disappear. It just makes them invisible.
Hair for the People exists, in part, as a response to this. The training, the continued education, the care taken with consultation and patch testing — none of it is required. It's the standard we've chosen to work to because we think clients deserve to know exactly what they're getting, and why it matters.
Sanitation & Hygiene
In the US, salons are subject to regular health inspections carried out by state boards. Towels, capes, tools, surfaces — all of it is held to enforceable standards, and businesses can be shut down for failing to meet them. In the UK, no equivalent system exists. There are no routine inspections, no mandated sanitation protocols, and no consequences for corners cut. The result, across parts of the industry, has been predictably poor — shared towels used across multiple clients, tools that are never properly sanitised, equipment that carries bacteria, fungal spores, and worse between appointments.
At HFTP, we follow US state board sanitation standards because we believe they're right, not because anyone is checking. Towels and capes are washed between every client. Brushes, combs, clips and tools are sanitised in Barbicide between uses. Workspaces are cleaned down between appointments. These aren't extras — they're the baseline, and every client who sits in our chair deserves to know that's what they're getting.
Training & Experience
Lou Johnston's training is rooted in the US system this page describes. It began with 1,200 hours of theory and practical education in West Palm Beach, Florida — the kind of formal, structured programme that forms the basis of state board licensure — completed alongside an assistantship with a respected Palm Beach stylist. From there, a two-year formal apprenticeship at a prominent Boston-area salon, followed by a year as personal assistant to an award-winning hairdresser. Then Soho, New York City — working as a junior stylist and advancing through every stage of the craft until reaching full stylist, then colour specialist, then mentor to assistants of her own.
That pathway — rigorous, incremental, accountable at every stage — is exactly what the UK industry doesn't require. HFTP exists because Lou knows what that standard looks like, and won't work to anything less.