How Luke Hersheson Built a Hair Empire With His Dad

Welcome to Big Break, where some of the most influential figures in the beauty industry reflect on the moments that made them — from the good to the bad and everything in between. Here, hairstylist and Hershesons chief executive Luke Hersheson talks about his journey from Saturdays spent absorbing the atmosphere in his dad's salon as a 7-year-old to going against convention when choosing between being a session stylist and a salon-based career.

Luke Hersheson quite literally grew up in a hair salon.

Immediately, he lights up reflecting on his time spent in his father Daniel Hersheson's salons as a child. "He had two salons: Sloane Square and Kings Road. Sloane Street was a real scene at that time in the '80s, and Kings Road was full of punks," he tells POPSUGAR. "Unusually for an 8-year-old kid, I was exposed to a lot of fashion and popular culture, coupled with the vibe in the salons." And unlike a lot of kids, Luke always thought his dad was cool. "I always thought he was really cool, and he was very unlike other dads. It wasn't boring and was a bit off the beaten track." This is especially true when a lot of other dads that Luke knew at the time had much more "traditional jobs".

That's not to say this journey came easy for Luke, though — and Daniel made sure of that.

"I wouldn't say [Daniel] didn't want me to do [hair], but he really wanted to make sure that I was doing it for the right reasons. So he would kind of deliberately put obstacles in my way. He wouldn't really encourage it, he'd almost do the opposite of it to test me in a way," Luke explains.

Luke always wanted to go to the salon on a Saturday but explains that Daniel had some requirements: all chores and schoolwork had to be done. So that's exactly what Luke did, and he learnt a lot from observing the salon whenever he got the opportunity. "Eighty percent of [hairdressing] is watching. So I would just watch and watch and watch and watch, because the more you watch, the more you learn."

Once Luke finished school, he went to uni to study business. He didn't last long, because the classroom setup wasn't for him and he was already learning about business from his dad. So, Daniel sent Luke to Sassoon, where many hairdressers are trained. "I was 17 and I was a cocky little sh*t," Luke admits. He learnt a lot from the experience but ultimately found the strict hair rules difficult to abide by. "I was really frustrated that you couldn't break the rules," he says. Luke eventually returned to his dad's salon with a better appreciation for Daniel's approach. "It was all about fashion and continually evolving trends."

When it came to Luke's personal career, he found that hairdressing was boxed into either salon hairdressing or session styling. The two weren't linked as they are now. "I think we were one of the first people to start breaking free of that. We brought in people that wanted to do a bit of both. Hairdressers travelling through different environments is a bit expected now, whereas then, it really wasn't," he adds. That's where Luke started, continuing his salon work and entering the world of session work, too.

"I started going out and assisting every amazing hairdresser. I went to model agencies and I started working with Sam McKnight and Neil Moodie," he says. "But I suppose I was a bit strategic; I always knew I enjoyed [session work], and I also wanted to bring that back to the salon. I wanted the salon to be synonymous with something that felt really relevant and ultimately what women wanted, which, bizarrely, was what my dad's work was, but it wasn't necessarily being amplified."

Luke's first "big break" came courtesy of renowned hairstylist Guido Palau. Luke had been assisting Palau for a while when he got called up last minute to cover for him on a big shoot with photographer Matt Marcus and makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury. "I was so nervous. I've never been so nervous in my entire life. I hadn't worked with any of them before." But despite the nerves, Luke got there and did the job well. "It was super intimidating, but it was amazing," he reflects. Not long after, he got a call from an agent, who said, "When you come back, we need to sign you."

Luke admits that, at this point, he was young, really young. In fact, "probably a bit too young" — his technical abilities still had a way to go. But he recognised that technical abilities are only part of the job. "People aren't booking you to cut the perfect line; they're booking you for an opinion and a vision."

With this ethos, Luke continued bringing this strong vision to every job, and with the encouragement of photographer David Sims, he built his library of looks to develop his technical abilities even further. "Guido's really great at that. There's the bowl cut, there's the '60s cut, there's the undone style. They become this library of your go-to styles." Luke explains that a lot of people nowadays focus solely on one technique (particularly a very polished one) rather than expanding their skill set and library of looks to "knock them out" when necessary on a variety of jobs.

Alongside thriving in his career as a session stylist, Luke was also working to help build and grow the salon side, which would become the now hugely popular Hershesons. "Me and my dad work quite well together because we have quite different skill sets. My dad's really good at visualising a really big picture, so he can see the A and the Z, but he can't really necessarily see the 24 letters that come between that," Luke explains. "Whereas I'll probably dream slightly smaller, but I'm quite good at doing the detailed stuff in between. So we're quite complementary in that he doesn't see the details, that allows him to dream bigger, and I see the hurdles, or I'm more responsible for dealing with the detail. It's really good in that sense, but obviously it can also be quite challenging at the same time."

These characteristics are what make Hershesons a constant evolution and thus a huge success. "We started out in 2017, and then we opened [Hershesons on Berners Street] in mid-2018, and it was a great moment because it felt like we had changed the dialogue of what the hair space was," Luke says. "We had dropped the word 'salon' and we went out and asked people what they hate about the salon experience. It's interesting because you start questioning everything. You don't realise how much stuff just gets built and done [in a salon] simply because that's just how it's always been done."

Although Luke never questioned whether he should be doing hairdressing as a career, "I questioned if I was any good a lot early on." He explains that getting thrown in at the deep end, whilst a great experience, can be challenging. "When you're young and full of insecurity and there are a lot of really difficult characters, you end up spending a lot of time questioning yourself, and it's quite mentally hard." He recalls telling his agent after 10 years, "Oh, I'm really starting to feel confident," noting that this takes years.

Aside from confidence, Luke found that at the beginning of his career he was often told he'd have to "choose" between salons and session work. "I deliberately never wanted to do one or the other. I loved the energy of the salon, I loved the family business, I loved the idea that we were kind of doing something different with salons," he says. "And I also loved the session stuff, and I loved the juggle, and I loved the different disciplines." To Luke, that multidiscipline approach is what made Hershesons different.

Luke wants to be remembered for something simple: "giving people great hair and allowing people to get great hair at home." He adds: "I hope [Hershesons] gets seen as disrupters and innovators. I never want us to stand still. That's something my dad's done from day one; his work always changed. You've got to keep evolving, and I think that kind of constant evolution is really part of Hershesons's DNA."