STORY SO FAR

I started Tots Crops almost by chance; my daughter, Ellie, was attending a nursery in the city while I was working at a barber shop. One day when collecting Ellie from nursery, I looked at her friends and realised they all needed a hair cut. I asked the nursery manager and their parents for permission to cut their hair in the nursery and they all agreed, so I gave it a go. The business flourished from there. It took a few years to develop a system that worked for everyone, but it has been so much fun from the very outset.

One major challenge was the hairdressing chairs. As a hairdresser and a Mum, I can say with absolute certainty that most of the chairs which are commercially available are rubbish and, in my opinion, not safe enough to be used in a nursery environment. If the child is uncomfortable, it creates difficulties for cutting hair and that is where errors are made. With this worry in mind, I embarked on designing and manufacturing my own cutting chair. It was a difficult task to undertake, as I had no expertise in designing chairs, but through consultation with industry experts I got there in the end, and the chair we came up with turned out amazingly; the children love it and more importantly it’s great to work on. It’s made in the UK and has a High Chair Safety Certificate, and since its conception, has been an invaluable asset to the business.

Another business product we can't live without are our bespoke cutting gowns.  When we started out, I quickly realised that none of the children's cutting gowns which were available were really suitable for kids.  So my Grandma used to make all our cutting gowns with my daughter Ellie trying them out and and giving feedback. Over time, we developed the perfect cutting gown for kids.  Cutting gowns are such an important tool to ensure the comfort and cooperation of the child, so designing the perfect gown was an important milestone for the business.

Over the years, TotsCrops has evolved and now we are established and have a fantastic reputation with many repeat customers. Before the pandemic, we were a nursery-based children’s hairdressing service, then Covid struck and the business shut down. Not one to feel sorry for myself, I took the time in lockdown to design and write a children’s hairdressing book, which my daughter illustrated. Mellie's Haircut on the Magic Chair" was really designed to promote the services we offer, and it explains what TotsCrops is all about.  It's available on Amazon, and we recommend that parents whose children are nervous buy the book and read it with their child to familiarise them with the concept of having their hair cut.

The pandemic also led to us developing a mobile family hairdressing service, which we built up by offering services at home to some of our existing nursery client families.  This has received a very positive response from parents who value being able to organise the whole family's haircuts on the same day from home.

For new parents, we specialise in children’s first haircuts.  In our experience, if you get the first haircut right the rest will follow. It's incredibly satisfying for our stylists to give children a positive experience from their first haircut and is one of the most rewarding aspects of what we do.

We are now offering "Hair Up" house parties for kids where our stylists come round and get the party started. They braid, plait, blow dry, tong and curl creating a really lovely experience. With disco lights, a Spotify playlist & fun resulting in great hair up parties! This is a new aspect of the business I never imagined we would move into, but I have to say I’m loving it!

The launch of our franchise business in 2023 has taken the business in an exciting new direction.  Working with industry experts to develop a franchise model which provides experienced hairdressers with the opportunity to run their own successful businesses, whilst taking the TotsCrops experience to a new generation of kids, is an exciting new adventure for me.  It's still early days, but our first few franchisees are achieving great results and we're building an amazing team to help propel the business forward.