Product Update
What Happened to Tangle Teezer After Dragons’ Den?
Tangle Teezer left the Den without a deal. Here is what happened next: how the pitch went, why the dragons passed, and where Tangle Teezer is today.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Tangle Teezer is the other name people bring up alongside Trunki when the conversation turns to Dragons' Den rejections that turned into empires. Shaun Pulfrey asked for £50,000 for 25 percent of his detangling hairbrush, got no deal and a memorably dismissive response from the panel, and then built one of the most recognisable hair-care brands in the world.
The Short Answer
Tangle Teezer is still in business, and it is bigger than ever. The brand was acquired by the consumer products giant BIC in December 2024, folding it into a much larger global distribution network rather than closing it down.
So the company Pulfrey built from a kitchen-table idea is not just surviving, it is now part of a multinational's product portfolio, which is about as far from a Dragons' Den cautionary tale as a business can get.
The Pitch
Pulfrey pitched Tangle Teezer in series 5, episode 3, asking for £50,000 for 25 percent of the company. The product itself was straightforward: a hairbrush designed to glide through knots and tangles without pulling or snapping hair, aimed at both wet and dry styling.
The pitch has become one of the most talked-about moments in the show's history, largely because of how badly it was received in the room at the time, a reaction that has aged poorly given what the brand went on to become.
No Deal
The Dragons declined to invest. Pulfrey left without a deal and, by his own account in later interviews, without much confidence that the product would go anywhere at all after that kind of reception on national television.
That turned out to be wrong. Pulfrey kept developing the brush, kept pushing distribution, and built Tangle Teezer into a mainstay of hair-care aisles in the UK and well beyond it, without a penny of Dragons' Den money behind it.
The Growth and the Sale
Tangle Teezer grew into a genuinely global brand, sold through major retailers and salons across multiple continents, with annual revenue estimated in the tens of millions of pounds by the time BIC came calling.
BIC completed its acquisition of Tangle Teezer in December 2024, bringing the brand into BIC's broader consumer products business. Since acquisitions like this typically fold financial reporting into the parent company, detailed standalone figures for Tangle Teezer are no longer published separately, but the brand itself remains active and on shelves.
For BIC, a company best known for pens, lighters, and razors, buying a specialist hair-care brand was a deliberate move into personal care categories with stronger margins than its traditional product lines. That strategic logic suggests Tangle Teezer is being treated as a growth asset within BIC rather than a legacy brand being quietly wound down.
Why This One Stuck
Hair-care is a brutally crowded category, and a single-product company usually needs either a genuine functional edge or serious marketing muscle to survive it. Tangle Teezer had the functional edge: it did the one thing it promised, better than the alternatives already on the market, and word of mouth did a lot of the rest.
The Dragons' Den rejection, whatever was said in the room that day, never touched the fundamentals of the product. That gap between how a pitch is received on camera and how a product performs in the real world is exactly why this brand keeps getting cited as a lesson in not confusing the two.
The Founder's Long Road
Shaun Pulfrey has spoken in later interviews about how discouraging the Den experience was at the time, given how publicly and dismissively the product was received. He kept pushing anyway, refining the brush design and building relationships with salons and retailers one at a time rather than chasing a single big break.
That slow, grinding path to distribution is a less cinematic story than a Dragons' Den win, but it is arguably the more common route for products that eventually become category leaders. Tangle Teezer's climb from a rejected pitch to a brand a multinational wanted to own outright took the better part of two decades of consistent execution, not a single lucky moment.
The Bottom Line
Tangle Teezer asked for £50,000 for 25 percent, was turned down flat, and went on to become a brand large enough for BIC to acquire outright in December 2024.
If you came here wondering whether the brush survived its rough night in the Den, the answer is that it is now part of one of the biggest consumer products companies in the world.
Where to buy Tangle Teezer
Still selling as of 28 June 2026. Check today's price and availability.
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
See the full Tangle Teezer deal breakdown and term sheet →
