TINTED LOVE

Sofia Geideby is the owner of Stockholm’s littlefaktory salon, a haven of heavenly hues delivering dopamine hits every time

Sofia Geideby is no stranger to colour. When she speaks to Creative HEAD, she is taking taking a break from her thriving business on a three-week holiday with her boyfriend. Helping to paint his family home, she is – quite literally – never far from a brush with creativity.

The Swede takes a holistic approach to work and life, launching and developing her thriving Stockholm-based littlefaktory salon at 40 years of age with passion and purpose. And her enthusiasm and zest for life is contagious. “I love life,” she says, and you know she means it.

Her business, launched in 2021, is a hair colour studio with the tagline The Colourful Kind because, “We like colour and we like to be kind”. Housed in the heart of the fashionable Sodermalm district, she launched with a vision to create a place of transformation, a free-flow exchange of ideas. “We challenge the ordinary and question the norm,” she says. Let’s not forget the visceral, vivid colours, too. While vibrant colour seems like Sofia’s jam, she also loves a precision cut too, thanks to her training at Vidal Sassoon.

“I moved from Sweden to London to train there when I was 19 years old. His impact on this industry was incredible,” she says. Today, Sofia’s a multi-award-winning creative whose influence can’t be underestimated – she was the 2023 Nordic L’Oréal Style & Colour Trophy winner and also scooped the Haircut of the Year trophy at the 2024 Swedish Hairdresser of the Year awards. While her salon is “a lot of hard work”, she admits to missing it while she’s away. “Everyone is incredibly talented – I can’t wait to get back”.

Hair has been Sofia’s raison d’être for as long as she can remember. “I love working with hair. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” she says, before citing the transformational aspect as a key reason for her drive. “I love that we are in the business of making people happy, transforming them. We have an impact. It makes me feel happy inside.”

For Sofia, this hairdressing joy is continual. “You always get that buzz from every client. I call it little shots of happiness.” These dopamine hits can also be found on @littlefaktory’s Instagram, where an experimental colour palette reigns supreme, with a team that can mix without fear. “Working like this allows you to fly,” she says.

This ability to work without restraint comes from understanding what makes her tick. “We are all different, but the bottom line is we must be true to ourselves.” A confessed workaholic, she keeps herself inspired through exhibitions and theatre visits, which serve to feed her seemingly limitless creativity. “Seeing other creators making art makes me happy. While I work hard, I’m having so much fun. It’s all part of my creative process.”

The process for Geideby revolves around trust. “As soon as I have that from someone, I know magic can happen,” she says. This magic is channelled via an intuitive approach to hair – “I follow every client journey, picking up on things along the way”– and extends to her love of creating collections, where the diversity of her work is a testament to her bold approach to creation. “I just love, love, LOVE the process,” she giggles with her infectious

laugh. And just like that, she’s back to painting.

@littlefaktory