Alvin Oommen, Founder of OXFORDhill / Natural Hair Styling

In this episode of the Menswear Style Podcast, host Peter Brooker speaks to Alvin Oommen, founder and CEO of OXFORDhill, the independent men’s grooming brand creating premium, minimally formulated hair care products using carefully selected natural ingredients. Alvin shares his unconventional journey from accounting and tax consulting for high-net-worth clients into cosmetics manufacturing and, ultimately, launching his own men’s grooming brand. After developing products for other beauty and personal care companies, Alvin began experimenting with his own hair styling formula and eventually created OXFORDhill's signature hair clay. A major focus of the conversation is bentonite clay, a naturally occurring mineral clay that forms the foundation of OXFORDhill's styling product. Alvin explains why he chose bentonite, how it can create the appearance of thicker, fuller hair, and why the brand focuses on a minimalist formulation rather than filling its products with unnecessary ingredients. Alvin also reveals how customer feedback shaped the evolution of the product. Starting with just a small number of early customers, OXFORDhill went through more than 90 formula iterations based on real-world feedback before reaching its current formulation. We discuss how a niche audience of hair clay users helped turn an experimental product into a growing grooming brand. The episode explores what makes a premium grooming product feel genuinely premium, from formulation and ingredients