We all know there is a profound connection between our hair and our mental state. There’s that famous line from Fleabag: “Hair is everything…It’s the difference between a good day and a bad day”, and, as a woman, the first thing you get told after a breakup is “don’t change your hair!”. Yet, despite the fact we all know this connection exists, the professional hair industry itself has only just begun to talk about it openly. Enter Adam Reed.
Reed is a hairdressing industry legend with a CV and accompanying list of accolades to envy. In his 30 year career he has worked with, among others, Madonna (he did her hair in the “Me Against the Music” video), Sophie Dahl, Lady Gaga and Harry Styles. We first met during Pride Month 2023, when I visited his Covent Garden salon for a styling appointment before I hosted an event with actor Elliot Page at London’s Southbank Centre. Reed, himself a gay man, was offering free appointments to members of the LGBTQ+ community for Pride, something he also did for NHS key workers in 2020 – community is important to him, as is promoting wellness and mental health.
Originally from Somerset, he now lives in London with his partner Kenny and son Riley: ARKIVE by Adam Reed, the name of both the salon and its accompanying haircare range, is drawn from their first initials. It has since become the bedrock of my at-home hair washing, conditioning and styling routines. The products are luxurious and gorgeously fragranced while accessibly priced. The brand also has an incredible backstory: launched after the pandemic lockdowns caused a huge impact on so many of us, not least Reed himself, he wanted to create something which honoured the importance of looking after one’s mental health.
We caught up to talk to him about why this conversation is so important to him.
Shon Faye: Hi Adam. Let’s begin with the name of your brand: Arkive Headcare. Even in the name there is a play on words: about the relationship between looking after our head as in our hair and our head as in our mental health. Could you talk a little bit about why mental health is something you wanted to build a product range around?
Adam Reed: I think because my own mental health has been so compromised throughout my life, and especially during the pandemic, when I had to really talk about it. I realised identity has a huge impact on your mental health — struggling with your identity, which I did as a young human. But I also realised that actually, as communities, we are really strong, and the beauty industry has this amazing sense of community. It’s something that I’ve really held onto throughout my career.
When we adopted our son, Riley, we did a lot of the things that my grandmother did with me like spraying fragrance on, and then hugging him, brushing his hair, bathing, washing his hair, all of those things. And I suddenly realised how important those things are to bonding. I had a breakdown in the first lockdown, when I came out of hospital and was struggling and felt like I had lost myself, I realised those day-to-day things are hugely beneficial to making you feel a bit better.
Shon Faye: I’m interested in this point about community in the hair industry. What does that look like to you?
Adam Reed: As hairdressers and creatives, we have this amazing community where people can come in and sit with us, and we can talk and share. That is a part of headcare. And it’s an important part of it. During the pandemic, I missed the connection I had with my clients and that had an impact on my head. It’s such a safe space. As a man who has done this for a long time, I am so in people’s safe space — my hands, my body. My clients are sat there, and I’m positioned so close to them! That’s a really personal thing.
Shon Faye: Ask anyone whether there is a relationship between hair and well-being and most people will say yes. But the hair industry – the industry that you’ve worked in for a long time, has only recently had this explicit conversation about mental well-being and emotions, despite knowing about this. Do you agree it’s a relatively new conversation and, if so, why now?
Adam Reed: Well, as hairdressers we have always been called the free therapists. It should be on our CVs, because people do share stuff with us. Because I started speaking publicly about my own mental health about 14 years ago now, people have come into my salon just to speak to me about it. But it is such a safe space that people feel quite comfortable talking and sharing. I think, as hairdressers, we are empathetic, we’re a bit like a sponge. I don’t want to generalise, but I think a lot of people in the creative industries suffer from mental ill health. It’s a definite two-way conversation. It’s not us giving advice, because we’re not necessarily trained for that. It’s about us opening up the conversation.
Shon Faye: One thing that I love about your products themselves is the fragrance. I feel like fragrance disappeared from most haircare products in recent years but using a shampoo with fragrance does feel like a more luxurious experience. I heard that the fragrance was to do with your childhood – could you talk a bit more about that?
Adam Reed: When I was a young boy really struggling with my identity down in Somerset where I grew up, fragrance was a real armour for me. But the fragrances I chose often got a reaction, because I didn’t ever understand the gendering of fragrance, why one thing was considered feminine, and one thing was considered masculine — I’m like, “If you like a smell, you like a smell.” The storytelling element of fragrance for me is absolutely key for my mental health. It’s always been a big part of my identity, and it was the thing that I really could hold onto. I believe fragrance has such an amazing impact on the way you feel. If you smell something that has a strong happy memory associated with it, it makes you feel happy.
Arkive was always going to be fragranced. No One Elsie was inspired by memories of my grandmother and Future Bloom is a ‘genderful’ floral: it’s about saying, actually floral is an amazing fragrance for anyone to wear. It’s been so popular that in September 2024, I’m launching four unique fragrances that can be worn separately or layered up which I’m very excited about.
Shon Faye: The brand name “Arkive” is named after your family — you, your partner Kenny and your son Riley. That is really putting your identity as a gay man and your family life right at the heart of it. Despite the stereotype that straight people have of the gay hairdresser or whatever, a lot of LGBTQ+ people don’t actually feel that safe going to hair salons, whether it’s gay men or butch lesbians with barbers or its trans women experiencing microaggressions in salons: actually, hair salons aren’t always super safe for our community. Why is it that being open about your identity is important for you?
Adam Reed: Because I’ve struggled so long, I was bullied as a child for being gay. I watched All Of Us Strangers the other day and I watched It’s A Sin, and they reminded me of growing up in the 80s, and you look back, and recognise it was a really tough time. At school saying I wanted to be a hairdresser just gave bullies more ammunition. I struggled with my identity as a gay man for a long time. A long, long time.
When Kenny and I got married eight years ago, I really struggled for years to say he was my husband. It just didn’t sound right coming off my tongue! Then we adopted Riley, and I think when you’re London-centric, it’s a bit like, ‘Oh, it’s so easy to be in London and be gay, or trans, or be lesbian, or whatever you are and whatever you identify as.’ It isn’t that easy. And for me, it’s about making sure that people don’t feel how I used to feel. And that I don’t get everything right all the time, and being a 50-year-old man, sometimes I am really confused as to how life has moved on so fast. But I’ll always support it, and I’m always there to really listen and learn. And I think salons are great spaces for that.
