adventures of a TREND SETTER

Alex Brownsell built her salon brand, BLEACH London, from her apartment, alongside being a session stylist with a celebrity clientele. Here’s how…

“I come from a family history of female hairdressers.” That was the first thing Alex Brownsell told us on a Teams call, as she made her way to a wedding dress fitting. Not, ‘I built a successful, influential brand in my early twenties’. Which is exactly what she did from her apartment in East London – you’ve heard of BLEACH London, right? Going back to her early roots, Alex tells us: “My Nan always wanted to be a hairdresser. She encouraged my mum to do it, who ended up with a salon in the Midlands.”

It was here that Alex grew up. From 12, she started as a Saturday girl. By 13, Alex was working on clients, and by 14, she had her own column. “I was already experimenting with bleach at 12 – and after I’d screwed up my friend’s hair (my Mum had to fix), she was like, 'I’ll teach you',” she laughs. “But she wouldn’t teach me how to cut, because she uses the wrong finger!” So, at 16, Alex took herself to London, with an issue of HJ. “This issue had all the best hairdressers in London, and I went to all the salons.”

From there, Alex got an apprenticeship at Daniel Hersheson’s and moved to London with plans to move back to the Midlands. “I didn’t realise the breadth of the industry,” she says. “Hersheson’s was great – it had old school Sassoon people, session people, technical colourists. I finished my apprenticeship within a year, and I wasn’t ready to go home.”

Alex began assisting on fashion shoots and soon became Lindell Mansfield’s assistant. “The session world is complicated and amazing. Nobody teaches you, it’s trial and error,” she says. “It takes you a year to learn on-set etiquette, who your peers are, how to sort someone’s kit out, and then there’s the hairdressing side of it.”

But it was her colour work that was getting noticed. “I was doing a lot of BLEACH London style colour”, (think creative, wild and bold), “which didn’t really exist then,” she tells us. Remember the grey hair surge? Or how about dip dye? “Every person that came in that had a transformative hair colour would be big on Tumblr or get picked up by a magazine.” And it wasn’t long before celebrities caught on. “I was a huge Florence and The Machine fan and then I became her hairdresser. I worked with Lily Allen too and we’d do amazing looks. Sometimes I’d be like, let’s do straight hair and she’d say ‘Alex, I want something out there!’.”

Next came a salon and the launch of BLEACH London on Tumblr. But being only 22, navigating a new brand was hard. “There are so many positives – you’re spontaneous, brave and ambitious. But there are negatives. You make mistakes, you overspend. Managing a company that was growing at speed was stressful.”

Now, with two salons in London and one in LA, Alex describes a typical day in the life as varied, busy, but fun. When we asked her about her proudest moment, she replied: “I feel quite proud now actually! Having the business established and I’ve managed to stay in the fashion world.”

Coming up? Alex tells us there are big things in the pipeline. “I’m meeting with some American retailers, we’re launching in Holland in July, and we’re also launching in South Africa and hopefully other places in Europe next year!” she shares, excitedly. “And for my fashion work, I’m just seeing what happens!” All while juggling two children, and planning her wedding in September. Speaking of which, we wonder if she said yes to the dress…