larry says

When I opened my first salon in 2017, it was incredibly important to me that it spoke to all hair textures. I've been surrounded with curls my whole life, my mum, wife, daughter and brother all have curly hair so I've been immersed in curls my whole life. In the UK, the NVQ system that trained me - and the generations of hairdressers in the UK - have had curls entirely missed out of its curriculum until very recently. This meant that hairdressers were not trained to understand how to work with curls and coils - so a lot of people were having bad experiences in hairdressers with their curls and it meant curls were being hidden, straightened and misunderstood.

Shortly after we opened Larry King in South Kensington, we launched our "Hair Remedies" which were all about understanding your natural texture and embracing it. We created "The Curl Remedy" which meant clients could come in, have a hair cut that would support curl patterns and we could show clients how to dry their curls effectively. Back in 2017, hardly anyone talked about curls. But fast forward to 2022, curls are a massive point of discussion on platforms like TikTok and in magazines worldwide. And I am proud to think I might have played a small part in this movement.

I think another huge part of clients resisting the urge to embrace curls is the way they are portrayed in the mainstream media. Like with most things, I refer to the movies. If you look at most teen movies, the main characters always had that straight, swishy, organised hair whilst curls were often depicted as scatty or troublesome - think Rizzo in Grease, or even Sandy's final bad girl curly alter-ego. For me, curls do feel a bit more wild and free, but for me that's something to embrace. Rizzo was always my favourite anyway.

Historically, curl creams I’ve used have left hair feeling crunchy, stiff, unmovable, and worst of all, unable to move your fingers through it. These were all things we wanted to avoid when formulating our Nourishing Curl Enhancer so that those who are nervous to embrace, or have been put off embracing those curls previously, learn to love their curls. So when Laura and I decided to create our own curl cream, we wanted it to be a product that curl-phobes would be able to completely trust in taking the journey to embracing or unleashing their natural texture.

Our formulations don’t only go through a strict testing regime in our laboratories, but they are also tried and tested in our salons by our huge team of experts. We only release a new product when we start hearing them shout that they are wild for it and that it’s the best they’ve used. So who else would we use to launch this product but our own gang of curly experts? You might recognise a few familiar faces from the salon from this shoot, but also my two daughters, my wife and business partner Laura, my mum and my little bro

founder & DIrector

Larry King photograper

Olivier Yoan

founder & creative director

Laura King

creative Assistant

Cait Dearlove

Editorial assistant

Kirstin Lowe stylist

Rachel Williams

Production Assistant

Katelyn Demaine

Helen Cowley at Whiteheads

Illustrations

I can't wait to share this product with you that has been in the pipeline since we launched the brand back in 2018! @larrykinghair location

Megan Last

@_ruby.studio_