Founder Steve Lockhart landed a sales job at a local car lot after wrenching on cars for several years to scrape by. It was at that point he knew he had to do something about his look and really clean himself up. Working on a hot black top pavement all day meant that virtually nothing could hold his hair in the heat so he decided to create something specifically for that situation.
By this time he had formed a good relationship with his barber in downtown Flint, Michigan who was really encouraging to go forward with crafting an entire line of products. Word spread, and more and more people wanted to try out what he had created so a Etsy page was set up just to get the products into friends hands. From there, customers from all over the world starting asking for specific products and giving critique for product enhancement in their region of the world.
It's very important to us that we're able to create products that can be used by any person, any walk of life, any part of the world.
The feedback we received led to more product development out of our own kitchen, and to pretty rapid growth. At this point we had created a healthy following organically online and that helped to form the Facebook group ‘Everything Pomade’ where we gathered even more feedback directly from our customers. We quickly grew our wholesale business across the globe, and I was finally able to quit my car sales job and jump into Lockhart’s full time. After welcoming Nichole’s sister into our home, and growing our product line and complexity, as well of number of accounts we were serving, the home kitchen was just no longer feasible. So, we opened up our own Apothecary in downtown Perry, MI (population: 2,000).
I think our story is very unique as it really is a rag to riches story (I use the terms riches loosely of course haha!).
Some of the different things that we really enjoy doing is hybridizing products, or at least experimenting with hybridizing products and seeing what comes of it. There's a lot of trial and error that goes into the process, but that normally results in very unique formulations that you wouldn't find from any big lab production facility. I like to view the craft as an art form and the products really are my canvas. I'm actually a nationally recognized Stuckist artist and used to be an avid painter and sketch artist. Now that we have two young daughters, I no longer have the time or energy to paint so I pour all of my creativity into my products.
