Hairdresser frank braves the dragons den
It takes a confident man to walk into the Dragons' Den and ask the multi-millionaire quintet for £100,000; but then confidence is not something that Manchester hairdresser Frank Bisson is short of.
After all, this is the man who appeared on GMTV to demonstrate his Glass Hair Cutter and decided that the best way to do so was by cutting a volunteer's hair blindfolded.
That confidence was apparent in the Den when he used ventured over his three minute pitch time to cut a model's hair with his invention.
It seemed to be a huge turn off for his potential investors, but Frank insists that far from the fraught confrontation that was portrayed, it was all good humoured banter.
"Under the hot lights it looks like you are under pressure," Frank says. "But it is heavily edited and it really wasn't like that.
"The Dragons are really nice people and I was in there for two hours while we had a laugh and a joke - mainly about my clothes!
"Duncan was a little bit naughty to start with and he gave me the cold shoulder - but I made a cheeky comment back which they put into the programme and made it seem like it was something it wasn't."
A big question mark hanging over Frank's pitch was his decision to market the glass hair cutter to the consumer market.
As a hairdresser with his own salon, a piece of equipment designed to enable consumers to cut their own locks seems undermining of hair industry values.
However, Frank insists that was all about appealing to the pulling power of the Dragons' wallets. "First and foremost it is a professional product," he adds.
"But the Dragons are looking for mass markets and quick wins that can give them a good return on investment.
"So why go after ten million hairdressers when there are so many people that it could be marketed to?"
Walking away empty handed may cause some people to rethink their plans; but for Frank it was the experience, and not the money, that really mattered.
"We asked for £100,000, but we needed millions so it wasn't really about the money, it was more about the exposure.
"After all, no publicity is bad publicity and the Dragons aren't always right... how can you lose by going on the programme?
"Since the programme was aired the phone has been ringing from business people who have seen the glass hair cutter and its potential.
"I would have got there eventually; but I have to say a big thank you to the Dragons and the people from the BBC for helping it to come about a bit quicker."
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