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Alli Webb worked in hair salons in her twenties. When she moved to Los Angeles and became a stay-at-home mom, she started doing mobile blow-drying on the side. She would go to clients' homes, blow-dry their hair and style it for $40. No haircuts or hair dye.
“I have tons of clients,” Webb told entrepreneur Jeff Berman on the Masters of Scale podcast earlier this month. Her first pitch was to other moms in a Yahoo group, saying, “I'm a stay-at-home mom and long-time hairstylist. I'll come over and blow-dry your hair while your babies sleep for just $40.”
Webb's pitch was successful, but she soon found herself unable to meet demand. She began to think about opening a store so customers could come to her instead of her going to them.
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Her brother, former Yahoo marketing chief Michael Landau, was willing to support the company financially, but initially had some questions.
“He was a little confused and asked, 'Why can't women blow-dry their own hair?'” Webb said. “And I thought to myself, 'You grew up with me.'” In previous interviews, Webb said she had frizzy hair as a child and was “obsessed with her hair.”
Landau was eventually convinced by the success Webb was having with her side hustle. He invested $250,000, while Webb and her then-husband Cameron Webb contributed their savings of about $50,000. In 2010, the founding team opened the first Drybar salon in Brentwood, California. As is well known, it does not offer cuts or color.
Alli Webb. Photo credit: Brian Stukes/Getty Images
Although Drybar's salons offered a limited range of hair services – just washing, blow-drying and styling – Webb says she wasn't concerned about the business model. What she wanted was volume: 30 to 40 blow-dries a day to break even.
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Demand ultimately exceeded expectations – to 60 to 80 flat tires per day.
“We noticed very quickly, even in the first few days, [that] we had captured lightning in a bottle,” Webb said. “The women literally came in droves. I mean, we were constantly having to turn people away.”
Drybar grew to over 150 salons across the country within a decade. Webb sold the Drybar product line to leading consumer goods company Helen of Troy in 2020 for $255 million in cash. WellBiz Brands acquired the franchise rights to Drybar salons in 2021 for an undisclosed sum.
Webb never 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 never imagined I would turn it into a huge multi-million dollar empire,” she said.
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