MANILA, Philippines — Growing up, Denise Aquino, owner of beauty brand Tokyo Posh Hair Extensions, never thought she would enter a beauty business – first of all, she did not see herself as beautiful.
“I didn't grow up like in a way that I was regarded as pretty,” Aquino professed to Philstar.com at the recent opening of her brand’s first hair extensions bar in Look At Me, SM Aura Premier, Taguig City.
“When I was in high school, I was very simple, no manliligaws, no one.”
But something began to ignite in Denise when she was a Fashion Design student in Tokyo, Japan in 2007. At 23 years old, she thought of trying her luck in her uncharted territory, beauty.
“When I was a student in Tokyo… there kasi, hair extensions were used in a different way. They were used as fashion accessories. Something that you change on a daily basis. It’s like bag or makeup, you know, like today you wear red, tomorrow it’s pink, the next day it's orange. So that's how they use hair."
"They use hair to express themselves. So like for example, today you want to look chic, so you put your hair up in a bun. Tomorrow, you want to look like very girly, you want to put your hair long, wavy and curly…So that's how they treat hair. It's an accessory that they change on a daily basis depending on what they feel or the look that they want to portray that day. So that’s the kind of thinking that I want to bring sana to the Philippines.”
With a vision to introduce to the Philippines the Japanese beauty culture of wearing hair extensions every day like any accessory, Denise came back to the Philippines and began selling hair extensions from home.
“We started first selling from the house because I didn't know how the reception would be,” she recalled.
“Actually, it was shocking,” she said of the reception to the hair extensions she designs and commissions for manufacturing in Japan.
This prompted her to open her first store in 2009 in SM Pasig near Tiendesitas, then a second branch in Rockwell, Makati in 2010.
“In SM Pasig at that time, I just opened it just to test out the market. It was good. It was so good that we got offered by Rockwell. I saw it as a big, big, big opportunity for us... That's Rockwell, right? To be given the chance to open a store there. So we've been in Rockwell for 14 years since 2009. It’s still there.”
Now 15 years old, the brand has stayed afloat all these years, even through the COVID-19 pandemic, said Denise, because of the following:
Unique business proposition
“Well, the hair extensions in general… I think back 15 years ago, we didn't only create a brand, but we started, I think, we're the first brand of hair extensions (in the Philippines),” she claimed.
“I mean, in the Philippines, we’re the brand that really wanted to focus on hair extensions as a fashion accessory. There were (hair extensions) in salons, like that, but we’re the first brand where hair extension is really marketed for fashion.”
According to her, “Up until now we're still educating the market on how it's used and how it works. All these influencers, they’re exposed to beauty, but it's still new to them. So hair extensions, even if I've been working on it for 15 years, it's still new to the market.”
Be hands-on but maintain life-work balance
Despite being heavily pregnant and doctor-prescribed to be on bedrest as she is carrying her third child, Denise herself oversaw her SM Aura bar’s launch – with her two other kids in tow so she could also watch over them. She described herself as a “super” hands-on mom, who brings her children to work often.
“Honestly, the hair extensions business is not the easiest business. There's a lot of education involved, like a lot of people don't know what it is…” she said.
Her advice, though, for working moms like her is to use available help and technology to their advantage.
“I think the pandemic also prepared us for online meetings…” she said.
“Don't expect so much. It's not easy,” she said as advice to moms aspiring of starting their own business.
“Like some people, you hear them, ‘I don't work in corporate anymore. I want to start a business.’ It sounds like it's easy, it’s not! It’s very challenging. You need to be efficient with your time because you technically don't have a boss. So your business will only be as big as how you want it to be.”
Have a purpose bigger than profit
Since Denise opened her first store in 2009, her brand had been steadily on the rise – until COVID-19 pandemic came.
“Having a business is not easy and it's not all about making money because if you see the business as just making money, it's so easy to give up. It's so easy to say, ‘I don't like it na. I'm so tired’,” she said.
“But if you see it as a business that is more than money, if you see it as something that helps other people, like during the pandemic, I was thinking, ‘What if I just close it?' Because we were regarded as like one of the least essential in the non-essential list, we were in the bottom of the non-essential list. It was very difficult."
“But I said, but how about my loyal clients who really depend on me for their confidence, for their happiness?... And also for myself. Without this business, I would be so sad without with my hair! So that really pushed me to really work on it. So I think having a business is more than just money. Because if it's just money, it won’t work.”
Through the years, even through the pandemic, Denise’s business has survived because it answers different needs.
“It starts out as a need like, for example, you cut your hair too short or you don't like your haircut; you can’t wait for your hair to grow, or like your hair is too thin,” she shared. “It first starts out as a need, but what we want to show here is that hair extension is actually not only because you need it, it's because you want it, you know, like today you want to be different. Tomorrow, you want to look different. It’s really like any accessory that you can change on a daily basis.”
From aiming to introduce hair extensions as a daily accessory, Denise saw that her business has also evolved into a tool for empowerment.
“When you're in the store and you see all these women, you see how like, wow, you know that when they put it on, they're like, ‘Wow, ang galing!’ Me, honestly, I've seen a lot of celebrities reach their A-list status. I've seen normal women become Miss Universe and these little things, it really pushes me na parang, it's not just a business, it's a way of empowering women. It's a way of giving them confidence,” she explained.
“When I started this business, just the hair, that by changing something simple, by just changing your hair, you realize you can be anyone you want to be, right?”
Even in her life, Denise has seen a significant change not only in terms of sales.
“Even for me, looking back on my journey 15 years ago, it's really amazing how through hair... I'm able to be with the most beautiful people in the Philippines - people, you only see on billboards, you get to work with them and to actually be with them and mingle with them and I don't think I would ever get that confidence without the hair extensions,” she said.
In everything one does, according to Denise, there should be an “inner ‘why’” – “and it should go beyond yourself. It should be for others as well.”