October 2012
| Business World Magazine | 163
F
antastic Sams Hair Salon is the leading nationwide full-service salon
providing affordable hair services for the whole family. Their goal is to
provide guests with unexpected quality, service and style at a fantastic
price.
Eponymous founder Sam Ross started his career as a barber in Brook-
lyn, New York. Later on, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he opened
his first Fantastic Sams Hair Salon in July 1974. It was at that point that he
observed a fundamental divide in the hair care industry, with men going to
barbershops and women going to hair salons. Ross sought to build a bridge
across that divide, and Fantastic Sams Hair Salons was born. “He was one of
the first to mix them all together,” says CEO Scott Colabuono. The company
began franchising two years later.
