The Making of Larry King London: Being Brilliant Together

Every great hair story starts with the hair - but Larry and Laura King’s story started with something much bigger: a decision to build something together.

Once working in separate careers, the couple were focused on creating a good life for their family when they had a conversation that changed everything. Instead of trying to be brilliant individually, they decided to combine their strengths and make something brilliant together. What began as a blog, Larry’s World, soon became a salon in South Kensington, followed by the launch of Larry King Haircare just two years later.  

Today, Larry brings decades of hairdressing instinct and an understanding of what makes hair work, while Laura brings a different perspective - one that notices the small details others might overlook, from the backstage tricks that inspire products to the packaging, interiors and experience that surround them. Together, they have created a brand built around great hair, beautiful things and, above all, making people feel at home.

We sat down with the founders to talk about where it all began, and the stories behind some of their most-loved products.

Where did it all begin?

Laura: We were both in separate careers and trying to do well for our kids and give them a good life. And we had this one chat - that I think we both remember really clearly – where we thought, right, let’s just stop trying to do our own things and be brilliant on our own and let's just do it together and make that brilliant. We called it Larry's World: the blog that started it.

Larry: And then not long after that, we started to plan opening our first salon which is in South Kensington. Laura designed all of the interiors and also works designing the website, the products, the packaging. I'm just responsible for the hair side of things - along with a great team.

And then we launched Larry King Haircare two years after opening the salons.

Having someone like Laura working with me, and the other guys from the Larry King Haircare team, is that she tends to see things that hairdressers don't spot.

Laura: Yeah, there's a few things that hairdressers do because they've been hairdressers so long that they just do it without thinking. And so when I'm in the salon, I'm picking up on those little tricks that they know and then trying to turn those into products. As a prime example our little best selling Flyaway Kit.

Larry: And, you know, Laura came up with that idea because she'd seen us on backstage on shows using smaller brushes to define people’s hair.

What’s your process for developing products?

Larry: All of our products gets brought into the salon and the whole team is trailing it to see what they think. And it's only when they come to us and go, “Wow”, this one's amazing, is when that one sort of gets its little moment.

Laura: I want the products to be brilliant. I want people to open it and love the smell, love the packaging and actually make a difference to your hair. It’s so important to me that you can trust in that it's going to work.

I also really tried to avoid plastic wherever we possibly could - and sometimes making those decisions is more expensive - but for me, it's just let's just think about the fact that it might not get recycled. People might not put it in the recycling bin, and then what's going to happen? So for me, it's about sustainability, looking beautiful and putting those two things together.

Who comes up with all the product names?

Larry: We always run through different names for the products with the team. A Social Life For Your Hair is our hero product and that is the ethos behind the salons. And so we both agreed that the first product should be named this.

I actually came up with My Nanna’s Mousse. Because it has a distinctive scent of my Nan and it reminds me of that smell growing up.

Laura: And then we had Liquid Hairbrush. We came up with that because we had our daughter, Nancy, who was around six or seven at the time, and she would be out all day in the garden, climbing trees, she’d have twigs and bits in her hair and she'd never brush it. So then when I actually got her in the bath and I was trialling this formulation and I put this conditioner through and I was like, ‘Oh my God, it's like a liquid hairbrush’, just what I needed.

Larry: Our newest product, Spoilt For Choice Hair Oil, came from came from Aniah our colourist who works in South Kensington.

How do you want salon clients to feel?

Larry: I want clients to have that feeling of being at home. Our whole salon is all about that welcoming smile. A social life for your hair is what we started, and I think we always wanted to identify like barbershops where you get a group of people all chatting amongst each other, and that is the vibe that I want to run through our salons.

Have you ever had a bad hair day?

Laura: I mean, I went through school not knowing that I had curly hair, and so it was just always a crazy, weird mess that I could never get right - I just didn't know what to do with it. And then I met Larry when I was 20, and he diffused my hair on the first appointment. And I it was just like a revelation. I had no idea. And then I've worn it curly ever since.

Larry: I’ve just gone grey over the years. 

Laura: That’s living with me!

Larry: I had a couple of shockers. One being our wedding day. It was like something out of the Good Life. It was like a throwback to the seventies. I had a flare pink suit on as well. I mean, it was shocking!

Laura: Yeah, mine was just bad from birth to 20. 

What would be your desert island product? 

Larry: A Social Life For Your Hair. 

Laura: Oh the curl cream. I'd be lost without the curl cream. 

Larry: I'd take A Social Life For Your Hair. I use the clay mostly, but I'd just, it would be my Wilson. I just talk to it. I just sit it there on the rock and he would give me a social life. It's perfect.

For Larry and Laura, Larry King Haircare has never simply been about creating products that make your hair look good. It is about the feeling that comes with great hair - confidence, ease and the freedom to be yourself.

That philosophy runs through everything they do, from the salons designed to feel more like a home than a traditional hairdressing space, to products inspired by real life and tested by the people who work with hair every day. It is why a backstage styling trick can become a bestselling Flyaway Kit, why a conditioner can earn the name Liquid Hairbrush, and why a hair oil can be inspired by a member of the salon team.

At the heart of it all is the same idea Larry and Laura had at the very beginning: make it brilliant together. With Larry’s hairdressing expertise, Laura’s instinct for design and detail, and a team who genuinely care about what they create, that idea has grown from a blog into a whole world of hair - one with a very clear invitation at its centre: a social life for your hair.