Hairdressing icons: toni mascolo

Toni Mascolo OBE, co-founder of the Toni & Guy empire has enjoyed a career that spans nearly 50 years and has been directly responsible for changing the face of modern hairdressing.

 

Toni (then named Giuseppe) arrived in the UK in 1956 at the age of 14 with his mother and brothers, to join his father Francesco Mascolo and start a new life. 

Having learnt the skills and trade from his father, by 16 he was already the manager of a large salon. 

In 1963 Giuseppe and his brother Gaetano changed their names to Toni and Guy and opened the first Toni & Guy salon in Clapham, South London. Soon after, they were joined by their younger brothers Bruno and Anthony and the Toni & Guy empire was born.

Throughout the ensuing decades, Toni & Guy won countless awards and accolades for business and artistic achievement and the group grew throughout the UK and worldwide. 

The driving force behind this hugely successful business, with an annual turnover in excess of £175m, Toni ensures that his company continues to grow from strength to strength with more than 400 salons in 41 countries, offering careers for more than 8,000 employees. 

In addition to opening salons, Toni has helped to redefine the educational structure of hairdressing, creating a unique ongoing training system that has become the backbone of the company, practiced at Toni & Guy Academies worldwide and provided the blueprint for modern hairdressing education.