The Blow-Dry Bar Scene

By ELIZABETH HOLMES

There's an escalating arms race to set up blow-dry bars where women can go and for $35 get their hair blow dried straight. Elizabeth Holmes has details on Lunch Break.

Jennifer Maggiore has been to a hair salon 15 times in the past five months.

The 33-year-old mother of two has been frequenting Drybar, one chain in a burgeoning group known as blow-dry bars. The salons don't cut or color hair; they simply wash, dry and style it.

At first blush, the concept seemed "frou-frou," says Ms. Maggiore, who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., and owns her own Internet marketing agency. "Really, do I need this?" But she quickly grew to love the experience, which lasts about 45 minutes and costs $35. "If I'm having a bad day, I go. If I'm having a fat day, I go," she says. "If I'm traveling for work and I want to look and feel polished, I go."

Blow-dry bars are reminiscent of an old-fashioned beauty parlor, where ladies would go to have their hair washed and set each week. This incarnation attracts women with all hair types, but the core customer is someone with long, thick locks who wants a just-groomed look—not necessarily pin straight, but sleek and smooth with volume and fullness.

The style looks simple, but can be difficult, time-consuming and physically tricky to achieve at home. Professionals divide hair into sections and use a combination of a high-powered hair dryer, a large, round brush and strong arm muscles to tame hair into a smooth and lasting style.

Blow-Dry Bars Fill Salon Niche

At a burgeoning group of salons known as blow-dry bars, customers don't get their hair cut or colored -- it is simply washed, dried and styled.

View Slideshow

Daniella Zalcman for The Wall Street Journal

Joanna Campbell, right, has her hair done at Drybar. Blow-dry bars are reminiscent of an old-fashioned beauty parlor, where ladies would go to have their hair washed and set each week.

These new salons hope women will indulge themselves a few times a month or incorporate a visit into their weekly routines. "It's like your mani-pedi," says Rebecca Tallerine, owner of Blow Dry Bar in Houston.

Several chains have popped up in the last year, primarily along the west coast and in the southern half of the country. They follow the expansion of two of the largest, fastest-growing salons: Blo, which began in Vancouver in 2007 and now has 16 locations, and Los Angeles-based Drybar, which debuted in early 2010 and just opened its 10th location, in New York, this month.

The trend comes as the hair salon industry is struggling. Consumers are stretching out the time between haircuts and cutting back on higher-priced—and higher profit—services such as coloring and permanent straightening treatments, says Caitlin Moldvay, industry research analyst at market research firm IBISWorld. Revenue from hair salons has slipped 0.3% each year for the last five years to an estimated $34.9 billion this year, according to IBISWorld.

Enlarge Image

Close

Halo

MENLO PARK: Halo, which plans to open a third location in California's Bay Area this week, tries to be family friendly.

A blowout, or the process of having one's hair blown dry, began as the finishing touch to a haircut before becoming a service in its own right. Traditional salons still offer blowouts, but often price is based on hair length or thickness.

Drybar and its competitors have standardized the process. All charge about $35 for a blowout. Several describe it as an "affordable luxury." Each chain has a training program, some as long as two weeks, to teach stylists how to do a half dozen styles, from stick straight to beachy waves to voluminous curls.

Enlarge Image

Close

Amy Vining Photography

PORTLAND: Blowout in Portland, Ore., opened in December, and charges $32 for its standard service.

The salons aim for convenience, with hours seven days a week, some as early as 7 a.m. and as late as 9 p.m. Most feature girlish décor, with chick flicks on big-screen televisions, and offer clients a free drink, including wine or champagne. Customers can make appointments but not with a specific stylist.

"I've had some good stylists and I've had some not-so-good stylists," says Renee Polychronis, a 47-year-old stay-at-home mom who lives in Dallas. Ms. Polychronis has three standing appointments for blowouts each week at her full-service salon, which charges $55 to dry and style her shoulder-length hair. She goes to Drybar on Sunday or Monday, when the full-service salon is closed.

Enlarge Image

Close

Jaylyn Todd Photography

VANCOUVER: Blo, a chain that started in 2007 in Canada, expanded into the U.S. last year.

Women tend to go before an evening event or at the start of the work week. With the help of dry shampoo and a little upkeep (think bath, not shower), a blowout can last several days.

The approximately $35 price point appears to be the sweet spot for most blow-dry bars. Tara De La Rosa, who runs Blowout, a blow-dry bar in Portland, Ore., used her background in retail buying and merchandising to determine she needed to charge about a dollar a minute to make the model work. A standard service at Blowout, which opened in December, is $32, but Ms. De La Rosa charges $20 more for extra thick, long or coarse hair.

The biggest barrier to the business model: speed. Profits depend on a salon's ability to get customers in and out as quickly as possible, typically between 30 and 45 minutes per person.

"It's like landing planes," Ms. De La Rosa says. "Who's coming in the door, who's almost done, constantly shuffling and adding."

But the bigger speed hurdle is getting stylists to abandon their perfectionist tendencies, salon owners say. At Drybar, employees are instructed never to turn off or put down the hair dryer. The "style boss" on the floor at Blo locations makes sure each station stays on track.

Hair à la Carte

Most blow-dry bars offer a style 'menu' of looks. Here, three of Drybar's options:

Enlarge Image

Close

Drybar

THE COSMO TAI: This Drybar style mixes the Cosmopolitan's loose curls with the Mai Tai's waves.

Drybar

The Hot Toddy: Interest from Drybar's short-haired clients prompted this style.

Enlarge Image

Close

Drybar

The Manhattan: Drybar's straightest option, billed as 'sleek' and 'smooth.'

At Houston's Blow Dry Bar, employees are asked to wear a watch or keep a cellphone nearby so they can keep tabs on the time, says owner Ms. Tallerine.

The noise of eight hair dryers running at once causes its own set of problems. Receptionists at Blow Dry Bar, which opened in April, ask new customers to fill out a written form because information conveyed over the phone can often be wrong. "Sometimes it is a little loud and you hear an S when it's an F," Ms. Tallerine says.

Talking is kept to a minimum, for everyone's benefit, Ms. Tallerine says: "You turn the hair dryer on and that quiets everyone down."

Most of the blow-dry bars have tried clever branding to carve out a niche in the market. Drybar, which hopes to open four more locations before year's end, uses bar-inspired language. Blowout options include a Southern Comfort ("big hair with volume"). Kids age 10 and younger can get a Shirley Temple (a head of curls).

Blo, the largest North American chain, has a more risqué marketing approach, using puns on its name. It opened its first U.S. location in April 2010 in San Francisco and is expanding rapidly, with two locations set to open in Miami this fall. Blo has plans for another dozen salons in the next year.

The company considers its competitors a compliment. "Before we were just a cool business, now we're a category," says Chief Operating Officer Paul Spindler.

Rosemary Camposano was interested in starting a Blo franchise in the San Francisco suburbs, but was turned off by its sexually suggestive marketing. Instead, she started her own chain, called Halo Blow Dry Bars Inc., a year ago, with a family-friendly approach. Her goal is to attract women of all ages—including her own. "We're wearing our hair long and flowing to our shoulders well into our 60s now," the 49-year-old says.

Ms. Camposano spent her own money, about $200,000, to open the first location in Palo Alto, Calif., and has since raised an additional $1 million to open two more stores and a training facility. She has plans to add 10 more salons next year. One of her innovations: Hair dryers hang from the salon ceiling to ease the strain on stylists' arms.

Although she tried to compete with a cheaper price—$25 for a blowout instead of the $35 the others charge—Ms. Camposano bumped her price back up after two months.

Write to Elizabeth Holmes at elizabeth.holmes@wsj.com