After 18 months of development, countless samples and more conversations about curls with anyone who'd listen than you can imagine, I finally got to watch the first batch of Untameable being made.
It felt a bit surreal.
I took a good pal along with me to help capture the day, but I think he mostly came to find out what I'd actually been banging on about for the last year and a half.
The first thing I was handed on arrival wasn't a tube of curl cream. It was a hairnet. Luckily, no beard snood required.
In my head I’d been imagining something between Willy Wonka's factory and one of those oddly satisfying factory videos you can't stop watching.
Turns out, I wasn’t far off.
I studied product design before moving into advertising, so I've always been fascinated by how things are made.
Watching empty aluminium tubes disappear into one end of the production line and emerge filled, sealed, double-crimped, checked, weighed and boxed a few seconds later was strangely mesmerising. I could have happily stood there all afternoon. Bring on the ASMR videos.
Most of the last 18 months had been spent behind a laptop. Pantone swatches. Packaging proofs. Ingredient lists. Tiny tweaks that probably nobody else would ever notice, so wonderful to see all of that come to fruition.
I donned some gloves and got involved with some of the quality checks. Every tube was inspected. Every crimp checked. Every finished tube weighed before it left the line.
Watching that level of care was incredibly reassuring. So much of creating a product happens behind the scenes, and seeing every step up close reminded me just how many people, processes and tiny details go into making something you're proud to put your name on.
Safe to say, I left even more excited than when I arrived.