Color Your Hair Like a Pro
Written by Mary Welch Wednesday, June 23 2010
Snapshot: Kelly Van Gogh
Kelly Van Gogh is the former creative director at Vidal Sassoon. She went on to lead the education and product development teams for industry giants Bristol Meyers Squibb, Clairol, Logics, and Aveda.
A blossoming entrepreneur, Van Gogh moved to South Beach in Miami, where she opened her first salon in 1996. Celebrities and supermodels such as Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and Naomi Campbell flocked for Van Gogh’s signature customized color. Van Gogh created a “color bar” at the center of the salon where she whipped up color cocktails right in front of her clients’ eyes. In just six months Van Gogh grew her client base to more than 3,000. Following the success of her South Beach salon, she opened two salons in Atlanta and continued to travel around the world to cater to her A-List clients.
Still not satisfied with her success and determined to advance her knowledge of the chemistry of color, Van Gogh sold two of her salons and enrolled in Columbia University. While earning her degree, Van Gogh continued to fly to Atlanta on a monthly basis to meet with clients. With her home base in New York City, she took up the position of co-color director at the Warren-Tricomi salon, allowing her to continue building an influential Manhattan client base. She graduated in 2005 with a degree in science and world religion and then created her own collection of products.
Womenetics: You had a successful business of hair salons, why did you venture into creating your own hair products?
Kelly Van Gogh: Over the past 10 years, I have been fortunate to have traveled all over the world taking care of VIP and celebrity clients’ hair color. More often than not, these clients needed to maintain their color every two to four weeks due to gray or dark roots showing. The challenge was that our travel schedules and timing did not always allow for such frequent root maintenance in the salon.
We offer our clients the ability to have beautiful hair color at home that they can now do themselves easily with guaranteed success every time. 
Womenetics: How did you fund this part of your business?
Van Gogh: Kelly Van Gogh is a LLC with several private investors
Womenetics: What was/is your goal for these products?
Van Gogh: We are dedicated to continuously developing and creating new advances in prestige hair color and hair color support products by providing the latest in technology, the most advanced ingredients, and the most innovative hair color products.
Womenetics: How are you marketing the products?
Van Gogh: We are marketing our product by reaching out directly to the client. We are continually seeking and partaking in opportunities for marketing that allow us to develop a direct long-term relationship with them whether it is through television shopping, our own website, or other new media technologies. The key to success is help prospective clients get over the fear of home hair coloring.
Womenetics: Is it difficult going up against the big boys?
Van Gogh: We are not a huge manufacturing company that may be out of touch with their customer. These things are what make us unique from some of the other brands out there and what give us a huge advantage.
Womenetics: How is the product doing – sales, number of stores?
Van Gogh: Sales and distribution continue to grow each year. We are sold in the United States and key international markets that include Canada, the U.K., Germany, and the United Arab Emirates, with additional key country expansions planned each quarter over the next three to five years. 
Womenetics: How important is the internet for your business?
Van Gogh: KellyVanGogh.com is an important resource to not only sell our products, but also expand our brand message. Included on our site is a plethora of product information, tips & tricks, video demonstrations, and testimonials to create a community among our clients.
Womenetics: Did you do the formulations yourself or did you work with someone?
Van Gogh: I am a master colorist, experienced product developer, and chemist. I created all of my formulas, and I surround myself with some of the brightest and most innovative minds in the industry to bring my vision to life.
Womenetics: What was the biggest challenge?
Van Gogh: The biggest challenge is to break through preconceived notions that all do-it-yourself home hair color produces mediocre and uncertain results. Up until Kelly Van Gogh, there has been no option between drug store and high-end salon hair color.
Womenetics: Any glitches so far?
Van Gogh: No glitches, only exciting opportunities in finding new and creative ways to reach consumers in a very difficult economic environment. Our products reach across many different economic strata, and we are able to touch the high-end salon client looking for an alternative to expensive high-end salon hair color and to the drug store customer looking to trade up.
Mary Welch is a freelance writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Dawson Times, Plan Your Meeting magazine, and Atlanta Business magazine. Previously, she held many positions with Leader Publishing, including editor-in-chief of Atlanta Woman, editor of Business to Business magazine, and editor of Catalyst magazine. As editor of Business to Business, she assigned, edited, and conceptualized a series that was awarded Silver in the 2005 GAMMA Awards for Best Series. Welch was a reporter for the Atlanta Business Chronicle for eight years and freelanced for publications including Glamour, Advertising Age, South, Georgia Trend, and Oz. From 2000 to 2003, she served as vice president of media relations for Bank of America, during which time she authored Forever Green: A History and Hope of the American Forest with Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell.
