From apprentice tradie to boss of multimillion-dollar haircare brand in just four years

Four short years ago, Felix Dimitrakis was an apprentice tradie with a dream. These days, he’s the boss of a multimillion-dollar haircare brand.

Felix Dimitrakis was as an apprentice landscaper before he decided to pivot – into hair care.

Four short years ago, Felix Dimitrakis was working as an apprentice landscaper, but these days the 26-year-old Melburnian is running a successful multimillion-dollar retail business that’s a world away from digging in the dirt beneath a blistering sun.

“I didn’t love landscaping,” Mr Dimitrakis said. “It was hard yakka at times, but it grew me as a person and taught me a great work ethic.”

The idea of running his own business had always been in the back of his mind, but he wasn’t sure what shape that dream might take.

Felix Dimitrakis was an apprentice landscape before he decided to pivot – into hair care.

Fast forward to now, and Malia Hair – the hair care brand he founded with his fiance and business partner Victoria Mangonis – is a mammoth success.

Inspired by dad

Growing up, Mr Dimitrakis had always been inspired by his father’s entrepreneurial spirit.

“He owns childcare centres. He’s always been in business and is really savvy. I’ve watched him work and seen what he’s achieved, and I’ve always been inspired by that. I wanted to be like him.”

During the pandemic, while trapped inside thanks to the state’s strict lockdowns and harsh restrictions, he spent a lot of time scrolling through Instagram and TikTok.

The idea for Malia Hair came about during the early stages of Covid.

He began to notice emerging Aussie brands run by other young people who were experiencing a great level of success.

“I sought out one of the brand creators and he became a mentor of sorts.

“He basically guided me through how e-commerce works, the ins and outs, the marketing, how to source manufacturers, where to get packaging – the whole works.

“At the time, this pink Australian clay face mask had gone viral on social media. Everyone was using it and loving it, creating all this promotional content for the brand. It was incredible.”

While marvelling at the extraordinary population of the pink paint-on face mask, Mr Dimitrakis and Ms Mangonis had a thought.

What about a mask for your hair?

Finding a market niche

The couple examined the local market to see how competitive it might be to launch a hair mask treatment, but found very few products.

“We started to think about what the product could be – its ingredients.

“I don’t know if many people realise how effective a lot of natural fruits are. We did a lot of research and sampling.

“Watermelon seed oil is amazing and adds hydration, health and shine to your hair. That’s where the watermelon hair mask was born.”

Felix Dimitrakis and Victoria Mangonis founded Malia Hair in the shadow of the Covid pandemic.

Ms Mangonis, 27, put her health science degree to good use, working with manufacturers to craft a product that offered a strong point of difference.

“We knew the key pure ingredients that we want, so we’ve gone completely natural – no silicon, no sulfates, no parabens, gluten-free, cruelty-free and vegan,” Mr Dimitrakis said.

“Victoria takes care of all the research and development side of things. Also, women probably have more of an insight when it comes to hair care, especially compared to me with my short skin fade.”

Felix and Victoria are preparing for a big year ahead.

It wasn’t long until Malia Hair was ready to launch.

“I’m Greek, obviously, if you can’t tell by my name,” he said. “Malia is ‘hair’ in Greek.”

Hiccups and hurdles

As part of the social media generation, the young couple knew the brand power of an engaged and relevant influencer to help get Malia Hair out there.

“We needed to make a splash so we approached some influencers we’d identified,” Mr Dimitrakis said.

“We reached out to maybe 30 different influencers and didn’t get a single one. We were too new, they didn’t know who we were, and they didn’t want to work with us.

“But we did get a reply from Skye Wheatley’s manager saying she didn’t have any capacity to take on new clients. We decided to send her some products and try our luck. We had nothing to lose.”

Popular influencer Sky Wheatley is the face of the brand.

Wheatley, who rose to fame as a Big Brother housemate in 2014, has a mammoth social media following, with 617,000 followers on Instagram.

“Right as we were about to launch, we got a DM from Skye saying she’d tried the mask and loved it. She said she’d promote it for us. It was a massive boost.

“It was ridiculous. We did about $50,000 in revenue within the first two weeks. We were like, wow, this is a real thing now. This is really happening.”

Felix Dimitrakis says his businessman dad's entrepreneurial spirit inspired him.

The couple’s success has not been without setbacks.

Last year, while working on a brand refresh and the rollout of new products, Mr Dimitrakis and Ms Mangonis hit major delays on multiple fronts.

“We had a lot of setbacks with lead times from China where our packaging is made,” he said.

“We had some manufacturing issues here locally. There were some big delays and we were out of stock for the better part of six months, which was crazy.”

They focused on communicating with customers to keep them informed on what was happening, in a bid to retain as many as possible.

Their transparency paid off, with business resuming to bumper levels when operations were eventually back online.

A big year ahead

Business is booming and Mr Dimitrakis is still amazed by what he and his business partner have managed to achieve in a short space of time.

“I’ll never forget the feeling of having our first repeat customer – someone who’d bought the product, loved it, and came back,” he said.

“It was a great moment.”

Malia Hair is now a multimillion-dollar brand.

The Melbourne-based business employs five staff who help oversee logistics, distribution, marketing and administration.

The watermelon hair mask remains their hero product and a bestseller, and was joined shortly after by a watermelon shampoo and conditioner.

“We’ve also launched a hair growth range with a hair growth oil and a scalp scrub. Peppermint oil is really good for promoting healthy hair regrowth.”

Felix Dimitrakis and Victoria Mangonis recently got engaged.

The multimillion-dollar brand is now preparing for a busy year.

“As we move forward, we’ve got other products using different fruits in mind,” he said. “We’re trialling and sampling now.

“The outlook for the year ahead is to finalise our new products and get them launched and to also explore some retail opportunities. I’ve spoken to a few retailers about getting Malia into stores, but it’s a long process and it’s very early days.”

Originally published as From apprentice tradie to boss of multimillion-dollar haircare brand in just four years