Alli Webb spent her twenties working in hair salons. When she moved to Los Angeles and became a stay-at-home mom, she started a cell phone explosion side hustle — so she would go to a client's house, blow dry and style for $40. No haircut or hair color.
“I have a lot of customers,” Webb said the entrepreneur Jeff Berman on the Masters of Scale podcast earlier this month. Her first word was to other moms in a Yahoo group. it read: “I'm a stay-at-home mom and a long-time hairstylist. I'll come and cut your hair for just $40 while your babies are sleeping.”
Webb's pitch was successful and she soon couldn't keep up with the demand. She began thinking about opening a brick-and-mortar location so her customers could come to her, instead of her going to them.
Her brother, former marketing director of Yahoo Michael Landauwas willing to help the business financially, although he had some questions at first.
“He was a little confused, 'Why, why can't women take their hair off?'” Webb said. “And I was like you grew up with me.” IN previous interviewsWebb shared that she had curly hair growing up and was “obsessed with her hair.”
Landau was finally convinced by the success Webb saw in her side hustle. it invested $250,000 while Webb and her then-husband Cameron Webb put in their savings of about $50,000. In 2010, the founding team opened the first Drybar salon in Brentwood, California. It is famous for not offering any cut and any color.
Allie Webb. Photo: Brian Stukes/Getty Images
Although Drybar's salons offered a limited range of hair services — just washes, blowouts and styles — Webb says she wasn't worried about the business model. What she wanted was volume: 30 to 40 puffs a day to calm down.
Demand ended up doubling expectations – to 60 to 80 explosions per day.
“We realized very quickly, like within the first few days, (that) we had caught lightning in a bottle,” Webb said. “Women were coming in and literally driving. I mean, we were turning people away left and right.”
Drybar grew in over 150 salons across the country within a decade. Webb ended up selling Drybar's product line for leading consumer products company Helen of Troy for $255 million in cash in 2020. WellBiz Brands acquired the franchise rights at Drybar salons in 2021 for an undisclosed sum.
Webb could not have imagined what Drybar would become. When she opened her first store, she just wanted it to be a place where she could do what she loved.
“I was really excited about it, and I didn't think I was going to turn it into this massive multimillion-dollar empire,” she said.