After pouring nearly $11,000 from her savings into starting The Smooth Company in 2022, founder Aine Kennedy had no money left for marketing, so she took to TikTok to raise awareness organically.
On the platform, she’s documented her journey as a small business owner, showed The Smooth Company’s inaugural product—Smooth Stick, a $19 wand designed to tame baby hairs and flyaways—in action and enlisted its biggest fan and first customer, her 84-year-old year old grandfather Billy, to star in videos. The tactics have been critical to The Smooth Company racking up over 100 million TikTok views and acquiring customers in more than 50 countries.
Kennedy, a native of Dublin suburb Lucan, says, “I knew we had to do stuff differently from our competitors because, obviously, we’re going up against the likes of L’Oréal, which have huge multimillion-dollar marketing budgets.”
The Smooth Company hasn’t done any paid marketing, but does lean heavily into seeding products to influencers and hairstylists. The seeding paid off when Alix Earle, the influencer with 7. 1 million followers on TikTok, posted a video of her hairstylist using The Smooth Company’s 4 in 1 Smooth Styler Professional Styling Comb to slick back her hair.
Kennedy says it’s hard to tell exactly how much Earle’s post impacted the brand’s sales, but shares it typically sees a 70% sales lift due to viral moments. Viral posts featuring its bestselling Mane Master brush have produced some of the biggest effects on sales. The Smooth Company restocked Mane Master on June 4, and it led to the brand’s largest single day of sales ever. The Smooth Company expects revenues to jump 200% this year.
Prior to launching The Smooth Company, Kennedy studied entrepreneurship at Maynooth University and worked in the beauty industry for Benefit, Tanorganic and Boots. She conceptualized Smooth Stick in 2020 after spotting girls on social media wielding toothbrushes dipped in gel to slick their hair back. Dipping toothbrushes in gel to style baby hairs is a common practice among African American women. Smooth Stick contains aloe vera, biotin and vitamin E.
“I personally hate putting gel in my hair because then it leaves it hard, it’s not good for your hair and you need to wash it out. I was like, there has to be an easier solution,” says Kennedy, adding that Smooth Stick will “tame your flyaways, but also really help to nourish and strengthen your hair, too.”
The Smooth Company’s $23 patented 4 in 1 Smooth Styler Professional Styling Comb followed Smooth Stick, and it promptly became a hairstylist favorite. The $34 Mane Master was next. It aids in slicking back hair by curving to suit the shape of users’ heads. Recently, The Smooth Company introduced $34 Smooth Dream Hair Styling Cream. Kennedy compares the cream’s consistency to hair gel and hair mask having a baby.
Earlier this year, The Smooth Company released the limited-edition $19 Dapper Stick inspired by Kennedy’s TikTok-famous granddad. While she was filming a quick video using Smooth Stick on Billy, Kennedy’s brother mentioned that Billy looked dapper. Billy then referred to Smooth Stick as Dapper Stick. The video has drawn almost 5 million views.
“Hundreds of people were saying he needs to trademark the Dapper Stick,” recounts Kennedy. “I did it in secret, created the scent and in December of last year surprised my granddad with the Dapper Stick.”
The Smooth Company’s TikTok popularity causes people to deduce its customer base skews gen Z, but Kennedy points out that millennial women rely on Smooth Stick to handle flyaways brought on by postpartum hair loss. Dapper Stick widened the brand’s customer base to older male consumers, also. Kennedy went with mint green for The Smooth Company’s signature color as opposed to pink or black to give it unisex positioning.
The Smooth Company anticipates landing in the United States within two years and participated in Uplink Expo, the trade show produced by Beauty Independent parent company Indie Beauty Media Group, in New York City in May to assess American interest. The majority of the brand’s TikTok traffic is from the U.S., and the country trails only Ireland in driving its e-commerce sales.
“We are asked literally almost every day on TikTok and on Instagram where can our customers shop the product in stores in the U.S.” says Kennedy. “We’re really selective of who we distribute. It has to be the right fit for the brand because what I don’t want is our product sitting on a shelf gathering dust.”
In Ireland, The Smooth Company, which has three full-time and three part-time employees, is stocked at luxury department store Brown Thomas, salon chain Peter Marks, Dublin Airport, Shannon Airport and Cork Airport. Smooth Stick is available for purchase on over 400 global Aer Lingus flights.
Kennedy says. “Once we have more manpower on board, we’re really going to skyrocket the brand.”
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