What Ghd is known for
Founded in Leeds in January 2001 by Martin Penny, Gary Douglas, Susan Powls and Robert Powls, ghd built its business on a ceramic-plate hair straightener licensed from a South Korean inventor, now used in more than 50,000 salons worldwide.
Ghd (Good Hair Day) was founded in Leeds, England, in January 2001 by Martin Penny, Gary Douglas, and married couple Susan and Robert Powls. The founders acquired the rights to a hair-straightening iron design from an inventor in South Korea and refined it into the ghd Original Styler, whose ceramic plates delivered even heat at a consistent 185°C — reducing the hair damage associated with earlier metal-plate irons. The product was initially aimed at professional hairstylists, who began selling it directly to salon clients; growth was driven almost entirely by word of mouth within the trade rather than advertising, and by the time the company ran its first ad campaign roughly two years after launch, salons had already bought some £12 million of stock, well past the founders' original forecast. Ghd went on to become a mainstream consumer brand sold in more than 50,000 salons internationally, later expanding into curling irons, hairdryers and haircare products, and its original founder Susan Powls subsequently left to launch a separate heat-styling brand, Cloud Nine.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — The British flat iron that professionalized at-home hair styling.
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Hand-curated for ORBIS · no paid placement