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Beard Surgeon
Beard Surgeon has created a fresh take on male grooming, achieving £1 million sales in a year with support from Lloyds. Now the team are taking their ambitions to the next level with plans to go global.
Read time: 4 mins Added: 24/10/25
In 2021, three school friends from South London decided their beards needed a glow up. This created an opportunity to build a brand that’s shaking up the male grooming sector.
Tare Garry, Oje Ohonyon and Aby N'cho couldn't find a product that nourished their facial hair while also smelling great. They then spent two months researching and experimenting with different ingredients and formulations to create the perfect beard oil.
The Beard Surgeon brand launched in 2021 with 4 beard oils, each enriched with distinctive scents and designed to help men smell good, look good and feel good. The trio hit the streets to promote their products and quickly found that the personal touch made all the difference, giving customers the opportunity to experience their products first hand.
By setting up pop-up kiosks in high-footfall shopping centres, the Beard Surgeon team found they could connect with consumers in a way that just isn’t possible online.
Oje said: “We create beard oils that make the beard soft, give it a nice shine and promote growth, while also smelling amazing. But then we took it a step further and we used this product to create an experience for customers. They can smell the different scents, try the products for themselves and interact with us face-to-face.
Oje Ohonyon Co-founder, Beard SurgeonYou need that in-person element, because when people buy a fragrance, they like to be able to smell it first. That's what really transformed our business. When people can smell and touch the products, they can appreciate them so much more. And we have such confidence in our products. No one can sell them better than us.
Laser focused
Sales of the products, which are all made in-house to maintain quality control, began to accelerate. Beard Surgeon began opening semi-permanent kiosks in shopping centres across London and Manchester.
Growing revenues were reinvested into new product development, with a range of four scented moisturising balms added to the range to complement the original oils. Responding to customer demand, a collection of branded accessories followed, including brushes, combs and derma rollers. Beard Surgeon also began offering haircuts and beard trims at its kiosks. The team plan to continue expanding their range to create a comprehensive male grooming range, including fragrances, shampoos, hair dyes and more.
Oje said: “We've created a lean strategy. We have a location for a few months where we can win new customers and gather their data. The data is then used to convert them into online customers, while we move on to the next location and repeat the process.
“It works, but it has been quite time consuming for the co-founders. The next step is to build relationships with retailers, both in the UK and overseas, while also growing our kiosk network, so we have multiple income streams. We’ll shortly be travelling to the US to build our B2B connections over there and we’re also exploring opportunities in Europe, UAE and Australia.”
In the last year, Beard Surgeon’s sales have topped £1 million, but a key focus for the year ahead is profitability, rather than revenue. Oje says the business is now laser focused on reducing overheads, streamlining operations and securing listings with retailer partners.
In it together
The ultimate ambition is to create an international brand, without losing the personal touch.
He adds: “Having physical locations where people from different cultures can come together and test the products, get a beard trim or a haircut, interact with each other and enjoy the experience is important to us. We want to be a staple in male grooming and the best way to achieve that is to have locations across the world, which could include franchises.”
And Oje credits banking partner Lloyds with providing valuable advice and connections, as well as funding.
Oje Ohonyon Co-founder, Beard SurgeonLloyds was really helpful in helping us prepare to secure finance and providing funding on good terms that allows us to have better cash flow. This has enabled us to invest in new locations and manufacturing stock. The bank has also funded events and organisations that we've benefited from, including Direct to Culture, which helped us build new business connections, and the Foundervine Immerse Catalyst programme, which provided us with a £5,000 grant.
But Oje believes that it is his co-founders work ethic, determination and belief that is Beard Surgeon’s biggest asset.
He said: “We are more like brothers than business partners. We each have different personalities that complement each other, and we each bring something unique to the team.
“That’s a big part of our success so far and it’s why I think we'll continue to be successful.”