The Bossticks - #60: Alli Webb & Cameron Webb - Founders and Creators of Drybar

Episode Date: April 25, 2017

Founder of Drybar & lifelong blowdry maven Alli Webb and Co-founder & the creative mind behind Drybar's branding Cameron Webb, join Lauryn & Michael to discuss how they met, the process in which a little mobile blowout turned into Drybar, the branding, scaling the business, creating their own product line, and Alli explains how her book "Drybar Guide to Good Hair for All: How to Get the Perfect Blowout at Home" came to be. To connect with Alli click HERE To connect with Lauryn click HERE To connect with Michael click HERE This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential Bombshell Body Guide and Meal plan.  tired of combating inflammation & bloat? Want to feel lighter and sexier? Check out lauryn's latest 7 day meal plan. In this simple & super effective plan you'll find: + tsc grocery list with every ingredient you need for the 7 days. + what the f*ck to do when you love carbs guide. + quick and delicious recipes: breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner and dessert. You will also find 28 weeks worth of fat burning, muscle toning, 27 minute long, effective workouts you can do at home with no equipment. USE PROMO CODE: HIMANDHER at Checkout for 20% Off

Thanks for downloading this show from PC1. Before we get rolling, here's a word from one of the folks who helped bring you this podcast. The following program is a podcast.1.com presentation. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you alone for the ride.

Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. Welcome back to the skinny confidential him and her podcast. You have me, Lauren Everett. And the star of the show, Michael Bostic here, live. I'm going to go projectile. Okay, guys, welcome back. It is Tuesday, one of my favorite days of the week.

And today we have a very, very exciting guest. Two guests. Two guests. We have Ali Webb and Cameron Webb of Drybar. They're the founders and the story that they tell is incredible. We talk about branding, building, marketing, product, books, everything. Super interesting couple. Hair. A lot of hair. A lot of hair. Michael love that part. Michael loves hair.

Before we get into it, though, I want to like... I love my hair. So before we get into it, I want to talk to you guys about the secret Facebook group. Michael is not allowed in. I've been barred. He's been barred. It's girls only. It's probably better. There's a lot of estrogen in there. Sometimes I peek at your phone when you're not looking. I try to like see what's going on in the group. No, you don't. You don't know my password. I change it every day. I don't want to see. Yeah, you don't want to know about UTI. Can I get in?

No. Okay, I'm out. We might, might create another Facebook or a subgroup. So explain, I actually think the group is genius from just like a really good idea. You know, you've got this whole community and why not put them all in one place. You guys all talking and I think it's rad. Obviously, I'm not allowed and that's fine. I get it.

It's girls only. What's going on in there? So basically, I just wanted a platform where the audience and readership could, connect with each other as opposed to just with me. So I was seeing a lot of questions that people were asking me that maybe I didn't know the answer to or they were asking about questions of where to get a blowout in Chicago. Obviously, I don't live in Chicago. So I wanted to put everyone on one platform where they could connect and share tips and tricks of maybe, you know, where to get their nails done. I don't live in New York. I don't know where to tell people where to get their nails done. So

it's been really cool to see the community thrive from an outside standpoint and also give my tips and tricks when I know the answer to something. So are you ever going to let me in? No, Michael, stop. You're obsessed with getting in. You're not coming in. Do you really want to talk about UTIs and vaginas? How do I connect with people?

Are we going to start a new group, the him and her podcast group? I think we can create a subgroup. So I'll be in a subgroup. I'm like a, okay. I'm just a subcategory. Actually, I don't think you can be in the subgroup because you have to be in the group to be in a subgroup. Well, I'm going to create a new group called the Him and Her Podcasts, and you're not

allowed in. Okay, Michael. Okay, fine. You can come in. one member, Michael Bostic. Who out there will join the group? I bet we could get some men in there too. Yeah.

Get a little... That way you can have men and women interacting together. It could be like a whole little men and women stew. Yeah, it could be fun as stew. I don't... I mean, I don't know about that. But yeah, the group is amazing. If you guys want to join, just go to Facebook, search the skinny confidential,

click groups, click join. You've got to be a girl. And you have to be very open because it's definitely a non-judgmental space, which has been cool to see. Everyone's super chill. Like, there's no Judge Judy's in it. Everyone's different. We're all just sharing what works for us.

And it's been great so far. So I'm super excited about it. Okay. Well, while you're in that group, one, I'm going to put a request out here to all the listeners. But two, ask the group if they want another group called the Him and Her Podcast so that we can discuss nothing but the podcast. Because I feel like I need to be part of some group. I can't just be out on my own, like a lone wolf.

He's, like, actually really upset. He's not part of the group. Taylor and I'll join. We'll get some other people, join, get some men, some... You know, I've been getting snaps from male listeners. They're telling us that I'm not alone. I'm out there. I got people.

Okay, all right. Shout out to the two guys, follow me. The guy that called in and the other guy that just snapped me other day. One's your producer, Kevin. Kevin will be in the group. He'll join the group. Kevin, you're in. Kevin's, like, suspicious of that.

I don't know. He's going to join. I might join. Okay, so snap me or Instagram me or Lauren and talk to Lauren. I'll let you a group talk about it. Talk about it if we want to do a him and her podcast group. And then we can discuss show topics and all sorts of stuff. Second time of the day, I'm going to projectile on it.

Okay, so let's get into our tip of the week, him and her tip of the week. Honey, I'll let you go first. One of the biggest themes of my life is hearing people say they don't have time to do things. They don't have time for this. And I'm time for that. And I'm getting to the point where I'm getting really frustrated, especially because a lot of the people telling me this, or not just people that are outside of my life, but really like some inner circle people tell me this all the time. So I've been doing this new experiment with people close to me where I ask them to carry like an old school stopwatch

Or they can use an Apple watch if you're an Apple watch or a phone Probably not the phone because probably a lot of the time you're wasting is on your phone So what I do is I ask people to carry like an old school stopwatch or a timer of some kind And what I want them to do is this Every time you are I don't want to say wasting time because maybe it's not a waste of time But every time you're doing an activity like scrolling through social media or watching Netflix or browsing around online or doing online shopping or just,

you know, activities that I don't want to say are not productive, but are not, I don't want to say enhancing your life either, but are not basically not producing the results you want, whether it's in your business or your relationship or your personal life or your family life, whatever it is.

When you say you don't have time, I actually want you to start timing how much time is spent on Netflix, on social media, on online shopping, on whatever, I don't say bad habit, whatever habit it is that you have, start timing it and start writing down that time every time you do it at the end of the day in a journal, whatever, and see how much time is added up and then come back and say you don't have time. I believe that everybody has time for anything they want to do in their life. They just need to make it a priority. So try that tip and just start auditing your time. I've kind of talked about this in the past a little bit, but this is a real audit of time. Really track what you're doing and then ask yourself, do I really not have time or am I making excuses and wasting time? that thing that Arnold Schwarzenegger said in this book? Well, it's one of my favorite things.

He was giving a speech, and I'm probably misquoting this because I've read the book a while ago, but he was giving a speech at a college, and one of the kids stood up and basically said he didn't have time. And at the time, I think Arnold was working two jobs. He was acting in movies. He was working out. He was competing in Mr. Olympia. So he basically looked at the kid and said, listen, everybody has the same 24 hours

in the day, and it's what you decided to do with those 24 hours. There's nobody that has, you know, time is, is a, you know, time is, is a, you know, definite thing. You know, everybody's got the same amount of time. So, you know, whatever you decide to do with that time is, is up to you. And again, it was basically like, there's no excuse. You have the time if you make the time. Good tip, honey. My tip is real different. It's kind of superficial for being honest. It's about hair. I feel like that's fitting. It's the theme of the show. Allie Webb and Cameron Weber on today. So I got to talk about hair. The sleep bun. If you don't know what the sleep bun is run to YouTube and type in the sleep bun and my face will pop up from like five years ago

and it shows you a tutorial of how to do it if you're just listening on a podcast right now and you don't have access to YouTube but let me tell you what it is so basically it preserves a blowout what I do is I go I get a blowout and then that night I come home and I split my hair in half middle part, and I roll it into a super low bun all one way, and then I clip it with an alligator clip, so it doesn't get that annoying bump in it. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? You know that thing that makes your hair, like, kind of bumpy? Anyway, the alligator clip prevents that. So you just put it super low on your head, you put your little alligator clip on, you sleep. I like a silk pillow case for this because it doesn't fuck up your hair, and you wake up the next morning,

undo the alligator clip, spray a little bit of hair spray or texturizing spray. I like texturizing spray a lot right now in your hair and you have like basically this fresh blowout. That is how I maintain my blowout for a week, sometimes a week and a half, if we're being honest. And I think it's a great tip for people that don't want to wash their hair like me and are lazy when it comes to ever washing their hair. Sorry, Michael, don't mean to gross you out. Okay, so make sure you guys check it out.

There's also a post on the skinny confidential. Just Google the skinny confidential sleep bun. I'm telling you it will change your life. Get on board with the stuff. sleep bun. Well, I'm on board. I feel like we could do a sleep bun with your hair. It's long enough. It's too. It's too strong. There's too much axle grease in my head. I mean, I haven't touched your hair since like, you know, 2001. It's so hard. Well, you've touched my hair, but it's not like my hair. It's the outer layer of all the stuff that's on it. Yeah, I'd love to actually like touch your hair. It'd be nice. Don't you dare. All right. Okay. Michael does his own

version of a sleep bun. With that, we are going to take a break and we will be back with Cameron and Allie Webb, founders of Drybar. This is Norman Lear with my great sidekick Paul Hipp. Good to be here with you, Norman, on all of the above. That's the name of my podcast, all of the above. Yeah. We have had guests you cannot believe the guests. Julie Dui Dwayfus, amazing. And America Farah. Jard Carmichael. Yes. Oh, Amy Poirah. How did we overlook? We didn't overlook Amy Poehra. I was saving her for last. And Charles Bockely, I was saving him for first, actually, because I didn't declare up first. I get to hang out with this guy, and this is

your chance to hang out with Norman Lear a little bit here and somebody's great guest. God, I wish I was you hanging out with Norman Lear. Son of a gun. That must be excited. It's the best. I'm telling you. Don't miss all of the above with Norman Lear. The first episode's available Monday, May 1st, on the Podcast One app, Apple Podcasts, or Podcasts, or Podcasts.

This is the skinny confidential, him and her. Okay, you guys. Today we have Cameron and Ali Webb, the founder of my home, aka Drybar. Ali opened her first dry bar in 2010 and has since opened 74 locations in 11 states. Is that right? That's right. Is it 11 states? I should know that.

I think 13 states. 13 states. I never know that number. Taking over the world. Yeah. That's all you really need to know. You also recently published a book, The Dry Bar Guide, to Good Hair for All, How to Get the Perfect Blowout at Home, and you guys have created a career in public relations.

You've working with clients like Faith Hill, Paul McCartney. Keith Urban, you're a professional hairstylist and trained by Tony and Guy and Cameron, her husband, the creative director and founder. They're kind of a power couple. Before we get into it, I just want to let you guys know how incredibly efficient I think Drybar is. I kind of already told you, but it always has the best Wi-Fi to work on my computer while I double fist with a cucumber water and a glass of champagne. I blog, I get some emails done, I catch a buzz, I get a blow out all at once. It's kind of my heaven. So thank you guys for coming in and creating such an amazing space.

I like the catch-a-buzz. We may maybe need to add that to your tagline. I always do. No-catch, no color, just blowouts, and catch-a-buzz. And I take an Uber there sometimes so I can work in the car home. That's great. It's amazing. So, so smart.

So tell us your story how you guys met. You just kind of told us, which was amazing, and how you came up with this idea. Well, we met when we were both living in New York City. Gosh, 15 years ago? Yeah, maybe 16. Yeah. And at the time, I was kind of on a hiatus from doing hair, even though I'd been doing hair on and off for 20 years. And Cam was working in advertising, and we met, without giving you too many sort of details, at a little bar called Hell in the meatpacking district.

Before, the meatpacking district was what it is now. Again, this was like 15 years ago, and it was like literally meat hanging on the street. Yes, it was a very different time of our life. It was publicly, did you say three in the morning? Maybe four in the morning. I left that detail out. But it was, and it was owned by good friends of ours, owned this little bar, and it was called Hell, and we used to all hang out there. And one night I ran into Cam and someone, it was actually, truth be told, a gay bar.

But Cameron used to go there because he would, he always said there was cute girls at gay bars. And the guys would buy me free drinks. That is smart. I was friends with the DJ and he was really, you know, he was really good. So I would show up. The guys would buy me drinks. There would always be some cute girl there with their gay friends. and I'd be the only straight guy.

That is efficient. Wow. But when I met Allie, it was, like I said, it was so late. And I had gone up to the bar. I had grabbed a drink, and I turned right as she turned. And I saw her in my mouth dropped, and I said, you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. And then I blushed because I was like, oh, my God, that was so cheesy. And it just came out.

But she blushed. And meanwhile, standing behind me was her friend pointing at me being, he's straight, he's straight. That is so cute. So you guys met in a gay bar called hell. It was a match made in hell. That's very, very cute. We started talking and we didn't stop, and I literally moved into her apartment the next day, and we were together every day since. So how are you guys, you're living together, you're creating this relationship?

Do you one day just say to him, you know, there's this niche that I see, this white noise? No, so much later. So at that point in my life, I just, you know, was trying to find husband, get married and have babies. I was like, I had major babies on the brain. And after a year of being married, after being together for about a year, we got engaged, got married. And then I got pregnant after we were together, after we were married for a year. And then we moved to L.A. to get Cameron got another great job in advertising. We moved to L.A. and I was at home with my boys, our boys, who are now nine and 12.

I always say my drives him crazy. My house. My business. She does make same exact thing. He is normal, babe. I might as well just be. I know. I'm like, babe, everybody knows it's we. It's not just me.

She refers to my life as basically her life. I don't have anything left. Anyways, so we have two little boys who are nine and 12. And, you know, the first, like, five years when I stayed home and I was a stay-at-home mom, which I was so happy to do. I loved being home. I loved being a mom. And I still do. But after, you know, five years of staying home with my kids, I just started to get a little stir crazy and was like, oh, my God, I have to get out of the house

and away from my kids for a little while. And because I'd had so much background and training and hair, and I have really naturally curly hair of myself. So I've been like, it's been like this lifelong quest to get perfect hair my whole life. And so that's when I went to Cam. And I was like, you know, I think I kind of want to start a mobile blow dry business where I can like, you know, the kids can be at preschool for a couple hours. I can do some of like my mommy friends who were always asking me to blow out their hair anyways

and just go to their houses like while their babies are sleeping. I was so immersed in like the mommy community in L.A. at that time. So, you know, Cam thought it was a great idea. I also went to my brother, who's Michael, who's another founder with us, and he thought it was a great idea. And so Cameron made me this little one-page website called Straight at Home. It was really cute.

I came up with the name. I was very proud. And, you know, what was really neat about that is for me, like, being in advertising, I was always creating work for other brands. And so I actually never really saw, like, what happened when you put out an ad. And when we put out this website for Straight at Home with her phone number on it, the phone ring. And I remember it was like

a first like real marketing lesson for me because Cam's like if we make it cute people will call you and I just remember him saying that and sure enough the website was like one page but it was super cute and people were calling me left and right and so it was such a neat that was so exciting.

It was like a thrill to be like holy shit people are calling me and then I could back it up because I'm good at chewing hair and so I started this business and I literally was like I had a Fordexterra and a big duffel bag of like brushes and irons and and I'd go to people's homes and blow dry their hair and I was only charging 40 bucks so I don't actually think I made any money between gas and everything else in

LA but it was it was a great way to get out of the house I loved it I was talking to adults and I felt like a sense of independence and I was doing something for myself and and you know I'm a big believer and everything happens for a reason and as I'm operating this business and I'm getting so busy and having to say no to clients all the time because I only had so much time is I'd pick up my kids and all of that. You know, it kind of started to dawn on me like, man, there's no place to go for my clients who I can't do. And I'd say, like, what do you do when I can't come to your home?

The response was always the same. It was either I'd like sneak into the fantastic exams, which great business, but not ideal for like a blowout and feeling like pretty and posh and all the things you love about Drybar. Or they'd go to their cut and color salon where they're overpaying for a blowout. They're getting pressure to get cut and color and all that other stuff. So that's when Michael, Cameron and I really. started talking about dry bar turning my mobile business into a brick and mortar and instead of me

going to them them come to me and that's really how the whole idea really got started and you know Cameron had a great job in advertising and my brother michael was was running a real estate marketing business at the time and we were all kind of like it was the middle of a recession too it was 2010 and we were all kind of like okay like this could be good for alley it'll be like i'll have a little bit of like an income i can probably make one shop work and i can like pick up my kids from school and that was kind of like our that was it so no franchise nothing no business plan it was very small what's so interesting about that is we we talk about this a lot and i think in my own experience and Lawrence i think people run into a lot of trouble when they think so big and then

they try to execute on that and they like say you if you were thinking hey i want to do this big dry bar concept and it probably never would have started but just doing something small like creating a website and using the the strengths and the capabilities that you had at the time led to this you know this behemoth now that you have but if you would have said in the beginning, we're going to have 77 stores and try to, there's probably never would have got started. Yeah. People ask often, like, how did you do it?

And I think, time. You know, it started with one and it started small. It was a small little shop. Where was the first location? Brentwood. Brentwood. And it was so neat because the day we opened, we were so slammed. I mean, there were so many women there.

And it was such an exciting. It was such a thrill. I mean, Michael, and again, Michael and Cam were, you know, Cam was still at his job. Michael was still doing his thing. And Sarah, Michael's wife and I were basically like, I mean, it turned out we were in the store for like, I feel like I never left for the first like six months. I was there around the clock. And Sarah and I were always there. And I remember that first day, like, I think we still have a picture of you like crying because we were like, holy shit.

Like people love it. I mean, women, and we used to have on our windows like walk-ins always welcome, which we always really try to accommodate walk-ins. But at the time, we didn't know if people were going to book online or if people were just going to walk in or we didn't know how the behavior was going to be. And sure enough, it was a little bit of everything. And women were walking in that opening day and they were pissed because we couldn't get them in. And my brother was like, I don't think you should forget too many stylists the first day. Like, nobody knew what to expect. I mean, we were so blown away.

It was crazy. And then it just never really stopped. And then I was like, I remember like calling my brother and being like, Michael, you have to find us more spaces. It's like, we can't handle the demand in just Brentwood, you know, and then Studio City was our second one, and then West Hollywood, and then it just... And has the branding started? I'm a huge fan of the branding. Thank you so much. I honestly am, like, so big.

I tell all the girls that want to start blogs, you can't... You've got to start with an aesthetic, and it's got to go through every platform and every medium, and it needs to shine through, and people need to know exactly what they're getting. And I feel like the branding is, like, insane. Was the branding, I, if I remember right, because I'm a huge fan of drive. bar, it started with what it is right now, right? Yeah, it really has stayed the same. Yeah. And for me, coming from advertising and previously having clients, it was so nice to be my

own client and really decide exactly what I wanted to do and the color palette that I thought we should use. And it was great. And it was funny. When Cam was developing the website, which was also kind of a funny situation, because you know, I was like before the business actually opened and I was running my mobile business and we were all had our other jobs. We'd be like on our laptops in bed until like two in the morning and Cam would be working

and showing me stuff, and then I'd be showing Michael. And the website was like dark gray and yellow. And I remember so many people were like, you're going to make this very girly business, dark gray. And Cam, you know, Michael and I felt, you know, like, again, and I think this is a huge part of our success is that we all have our very different skill sets, and we all kind of let each other lead that area,

and trust each other. Yeah, and trust each other. And Cameron felt really strongly that this gray was the way to go because he, sorry to talk for you, But he always, like, would look at other brands at other things that people are doing. And he's like, everything's pink. Like, we don't need to be another, like, pink-girly brand. Let's, like, be strong.

Too predictable. I totally agree. Exactly. So, I mean, I feel like the second I heard blowout bar, I was like, oh, that is genius. I mean, I've heard so many women say, I wish I invented that because it's such white noise. Before we get into all the deeds about Ali's book, I want to talk to you guys about Kopari. So obviously you guys all know about Kopari. I talk about it all the time on the skinny confidential him and her podcast.

I just think oils are it. You guys know that. I love a glow. I love a dewy finish. And a lot of you have been asking on Snapchat how I get that glow. And it's definitely thanks to Kopari. Their line of body products packs in everything you want in a moisturizer without any of the crappy stuff. With Kopari, it's out with sulfates, silicones, GMOs, and paribins.

so you know what you're putting on your skin is 100% organic coconut oil. They have this melt that's like a complete multitasker. Basically, you can use it anywhere head to toe. It's a lot of hydration. Your skin like takes it in in the best way possible. You guys know if you listened to the podcast before that my favorite is their coconut body glow because it gives you a little bit of shimmer and do with the oil. It's kind of like the best medley ever.

Say hello-ha to the best skin and hair of your life. with Kopari. Go to Koparibeautom slash skinny to get 20% off your order. That's Kopari, K-O-P-A-R-I-B-D-E-D-com slash skinny for 20% off. Koparibeautcom slash skinny. So how does the book come about after you've opened the stores? Well, you know, so like we said in the beginning, it just went crazy and we had to keep opening stores and we've, you know, we're up to almost 75 stores today.

So there's just such incredible demand because luckily so many women feel like you. and, you know, they get really excited about the idea of getting a blowout and having great hair. You know, and it's funny, just real quick, you know, if you, like, harken back to, like, our grandmothers and our grandmother's generation of, like, how they would get their hair, like, cooffed and wouldn't touch it. It's like that went away. That behavior went away. And I feel like we kind of brought that back and modernized it with Dry Bar and gave women permission and access to get, you know, great hair again and not, you know,

because most women can't do their own hair or can't do it well. But anyways, and that's kind of, I guess, you know, a little bit of the catalyst of the book. I mean, I was approached to do a book because there really isn't another book in the marketplace that's just focus on blowouts. I mean, there's some amazing books, and I have lots of books that are like, you know, beauty and hair and wellness and all these great things. But similar to Dry Bar where we just focus on hair and blowouts and that's it. That's what the book does, you know, and I feel like, you know, what is it? Like Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours makes you an expert. Like, you know, I feel like I have put that in and times that.

And this book is kind of all of this knowledge that I've accumulated since, honestly, since I was a little girl, to having professional training, to having Dry Bar, to knowing what works and what doesn't work. And so we kind of like put, I tried to put as much of that information into a book. So it was something that women who don't have access to a Dry Bar have this book, this guide book, really, to help them. And it's been really gratifying. I mean, the book made The New York Times bestseller list. And, you know, women come out to me all the time. And they're like, you know, I always was doing my bang wrong. until I read your book, and they didn't realize they were doing this with that.

So there's, like, a little something in it for everybody. There's not, like, a way for girls to learn how to do their hair unless their mom knew how to do it, right? I mean, so I think this is really helpful because we see, I mean, I really know how to style hair now. Camp knows way more about hair, like that and writing all of our videos. And it's so, you know, you see so many girls who have done their hair, but it's just not great. And it's just because they're just not doing it right. So this book really kind of gives you insight on the right way to do it. And who has time?

Here's the thing. Like, now time is currency. Like, I want to do postmates while I take an Uber. Like, I don't, I want to take my time and put it into my business. So that's why this is so genius because you can do, you can multitask. Yes. We hear people say, you know, we talk to different people about, you know, women who go to dry bar and women who don't. And oftentimes I'll hear the women will say, well, I don't have time to get a blowout.

And in reality, it's really a time saver because you can sit there. You can work on your phone. You can get work done while somebody else takes care of your hair. And then you don't have to do it for days. So it's even more of a time saver. You know, when you have a blowout, like you have a good, a good two, three, four, if you're Andrea in our office, two weeks. I mean, it just, you know, there's so many different, there's so many ways to, like, extend your blowout and with all of our products and dry shampoos and whatever. So it's like, it's such a time saver.

And we're, so there are, you know, of course, there are women who don't go to drive R. Are there men that go? Well, in West Hollywood. I can see you going. No, for me. I don't know if it worked for me. You have good hair. I got, like, axle grease in this thing.

So I don't know if they're going to be able to, I don't think anything can blow this down. It takes longer to use hair. You have good hair. Thank you. Oh, God. Sadly, Cameron doesn't have any. Wait. People can't see me.

I actually have a really great hair. It's long flowing. It's like a main. Yes. You can't see it. I'm 6'2 very well built. Beautiful hair. I let my blow out from dry bar last for a week and a half unless I want.

Sometimes I'll just go in and have them do a ponytail and put my extensions in and do like a Kim K ponytail. But I found that by using the dry bar alligator clip, and I did a YouTube video on this, with the dry bar, dry shampoo that I do a sleep bun every night. And I do like a low sleep bun. And there's a whole YouTube thing where I did it with my yellow dry

bar clip and then I do dry shampoo the next day. And it's perfect. And Michael's not allowed to touch my hair and it's just, it works great. So I do think that it's definitely a time saver. We have so many like tips and tricks like that. Like our high top rollers, they're like our Velcro rollers and yellow. I tell women to put them if they don't do like a low bun like you do, like sleep with it in your crown

and put dry shampoo in it. and then roll it and clip it, and then you don't get that, like, split in your hair or, like... You call that cat butt. Cat butt. That is so funny. You know, we have 100 proof. I don't know if you've used that, but you should use it on your beard. Okay. You don't have a huge beard, but it's like...

I used to have a huge beard, but I had to get it off. No, it's so great, and I mean, I love it. Drive-R now for men. For the men out there, 100-proof, skill it from your girl and wives. Well, beards are a big thing right now. Yeah, he loves his beard. Yeah, I had to calm it down. too much hair going on. I'm brushing his eyebrows right now. Because you have a lot of

head hair. He doesn't have any head hair, so he can do a real bushy beard. One time I grew a really, really long, like, Vato mustache. Let's not go back to that. She didn't like it. So this, obviously, Drybar has been a huge success, and it's, you know, Lauren basically lives there. If I ever lose her, I know where to go find her. But I want to, I kind of want to go back and hear, like, if there were, what were the struggles along the way to get it to where it is now? Because I mean, you guys have 77 stores. I can't imagine how many employees, so many locations. 3,000.

Legal hurdles probably. There's a lot. Copycats. Copycats. Never the same, though. Having a little of experience of my own. It's not easy to build something like this. So I just kind of want to go back and like what were the biggest hurdles to get to where it is now.

Well, I mean, there are a lot of different, some little, some big. I mean, you know, when you think about like operationally, it means such a silly thing that I always talk about is that like, We don't have phones in our shops. I mean, you know that you don't call the shop. You call basically a virtual call center because the phone volume is so incredibly high, even though you can book online and we have an app, but people still call. Well, when we first opened Brentwood, we had the person working the front disc, unfortunately, that was me for the first two weeks, was trying to check women and check women out

and answer the phone and talk on the phone while there was eight blow dryers blowing right next to me. And loud music. And loud music. I mean, it was impossible. And so it felt like we were not giving women standing in front of us a good experience or women on the phone a good experience. And that's when, you know, we decided that we need to pull the phones out of the shops and make it like a pleasant experience when you call.

So there's not all this background. You can actually talk to somebody. And now we have like, I don't know, it's like 60 or something people answering the phone on a daily basis. So we quickly found herself in like the call center business, which was like, what? You know, whole different business. And just, you know, and that I think that's been, you know, So the hard part in growing the business is like expanding it and, you know, the efficiency

and having to hire a lot of people and let a lot of other people make decisions and giving up a lot of the control because you're, you know, it's one thing when you have one or two or three stores. I mean, when we had three stores, I used to like constantly circuit all of them. You know, we have 75 now. It's like impossible for me to do that. And, you know, we have a corporate office of like, I don't know, 70, 80 people. I think 90 people in Orange County.

You know, between HR and retail and product and finance. And, you know, it's just, it's massive. And I think that, I think that's more of a personal struggle for us, for Cameron, for my brother. You know, it's like we have to, you have to, like, allow the business to grow and scale. And, you know, and then I feel like it was like 2014 that we really took a step back from opening any more stores. Because, you know, because it's like we kind of constantly grapple with wanting to open more stores because there's so much demand. But then having to, like, pull back and, you know, get our infrastructure and. place and make sure all of our systems are working, which

you know, sometimes when we were, I feel like it was like 2014, we were just going so fast that we were like, we had to take a break from opening stores and like get our act together and make sure like all our systems were running. And it's just like, and then there's 3,000 employees. Which is 3,000 problems. Yeah. And they're all women. So there's

different dynamics. And it's like, and it's like what great, what makes our stylist so incredible. And I just, I mean, I've always loved the hair industry. I love our stylist. I, you know, it's like, they're these amazing, creative, fun people who can be, like myself, a little flaky, you know? And sometimes it's like, you know, getting people to work on time and getting, you know, which is like, you know, something that as a stylist I personally identify with and struggle with myself. I'm late at a person.

So am I. Don't worry. I'm always calling the call center to be like, I'm 15 minutes away. I think they know me by first name basis now. When you scale a business and you're starting out, it's a lot of fun in the beginning, right? And you're new things and you're doing marketing. and you're doing marketing, especially for you, like probably coming from the client services business.

You're not eating shit anymore from someone else, and you're doing your own thing, which is great. So you're having a lot of fun of the thing, but as it grows, you start to realize, at least in my own experience, that your job basically becomes putting fires out on a daily basis. And so it changes. It's different. It goes from, hey, this is like a new, fun thing, to really like...

And especially when you're an entrepreneur, you know, it's like, you have this idea and you're so excited and you do it and everybody loves it, and you're like, rah! And then all of a sudden, We have this big business to run and we need people, you know, to help us. We brought in a professional CEO a couple of years ago, which was like a decision I was actually pretty against my brother was CEO. And I didn't want to bring in a CEO because I thought it would change the whole, you know, the whole culture.

And it just would, you know, again, another one of those stepping stones to like building and growing and scaling. And it turned out to be like one of the best things we ever did. This guy John Hefner who came from the beauty industry. He was that he ran opi nails before. Drybar so he turned out to be like such a blessing in disguise and and we have a lot of people like that in our organization now that I was very apprehensive about bringing on because you just it just turns into something else you know you really can't help that and and you have to embrace it and it is scary you know the agency I was at before Drybar was called Secret

Weapon and the founder there is a guy named Dick Siddig who was a genius and was such a great mentor for me and one of the things he always talked about is he kept that agency very small because he wanted to ensure that everybody there was an A-level person. And when you get bigger, it's harder to make sure that all those people are A's, you know? And I think that's one of the stressful things about growing a company so big as you just end up with so many people. And it's like this, you know, you want everyone to be great. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, I think that we've drawn amazing people.

You know, we have such an intense training program now for our stylists, which we didn't actually have in the beginning. I mean, it was like people used to come to my house and blow out my hair. That's how I hired them. You know, I mean, now it's like a much more, you know, intense, robust system where we're training people. We're breaking down all of our hairstyles. They're going through a boot camp. And we have people who are constantly monitoring them. We have this rate your blowout, which I'm sure you know about after you come in and we email you to get your feedback.

So, you know, I mean, listen, in more ways than not, it's amazing having these great people who have great ideas who can help you grow the business. And, I mean, Kevin, I always joke around that without Michael, there would probably be like three dry bars. Or even maybe one. There'd be one dry bar with really amazing branding. You know, Michael really had the business sense and know-how to grow the business. And product. I'm curious about products. How do you transition into that?

Because your product is really good. Like the smells right, the branding. I'm sorry, I'm obsessed with the branding. The matte bottles. Like, I just really, really like it. So how do you go from what you were doing with, you're focusing on this and then you transition to product? It's so funny. I mean, we kind of had to.

Yeah. And especially the first product was the blow dryer. And I always tell people, like, well, that was not the first product. It wasn't? No. Because in the beginning, so we had about 11 stores maybe, which is when Michael, my brother, you know, realize. And this is like, again, the beauty of having Michael is that he always kind of thinks ahead. And he was like, if we're going to keep growing this thing, we need to raise some real money.

Which is when we started talking to different private equity companies. And that's when we joined forces with Castanaya, who's our private equity. partner out of Boston. And at the time, we were talking and thinking about product. I really wanted to develop product because I was using all different kinds of brands in the shop. And I felt like it was like a mishmosh and they didn't all go together. And it was just like not working for me. And so I was like dreaming of doing a product line, but really had no idea how to start it. And when Castanaya came along, one of the members, Janet Gerwitch, who actually founded Laura Mercier Cosmetics, was part of Castanaya, who now is on our board as well.

And she came along and she was like, I can help you. I can introduce you to all the labs. I can introduce you to the right people. And like, sure enough, she did. And so labs who really wouldn't talk to me because we were so small at that point before Janet came along were starting to talk to us. And, you know, we were kind of selling them on this idea. Kastonay, I was investing all this money. And we were going to build out the product line, which, by the way, nobody internally thought it was like, everybody was kind of like maybe it works, maybe it doesn't.

You know, and I felt pretty strongly about it. Yeah, because there just wasn't a lot. line out there that worked for everything that we needed. I mean, the number of different women and hair types that we get through dry bar, we needed a line that could accommodate everybody. And we also wanted products that would really help make a blowout last, you know, so all the products are very lightweight so your hair doesn't fall flat. So there was like a real, there was a real need for these.

But let me get back to Buttercup, though, because I'm obsessed with this thing. Okay, but Buttercup was not, it was much later. Just saying. Blow dryers are not meant. Just want to be on the record for that. Blow dryers are not meant to be on all. day long. And our stylists are standing there with the blow dryer up above their head on all day blowing women's hair. And we were going through blow dryers like crazy. Yeah, there was like a graveyard.

Chords were exploding. Like there was like fires on the blow dryer. They just weren't meant to be used like that. And so we really needed to find like the ultimate blow drying tool. And so we ended up with eventually buttercup. And this thing is so amazing because it's super lightweight. The girls are holding it about their head. So you get, you know, their arms get very tired. So it's a really lightweight blow dryer. It's super strong. It dries actually 20% faster than any other blow dryer. You sold Michael. He wants one. Cameron's going on QVC later.

And it's like, we call it a conditioner with a cord because it uses ionic technology, so there's negative ions that go into your hair. You should go on QVC. You're really good to say. No, but it's like, what's funny is it's like, I had so many girls who have gotten it and been like, oh my God, I had no idea that there's like a true

difference in blow dryers. And this thing really is, it's awesome. It's the cat's ass. We couldn't have done it without butter We could have done, but Buttercup came later because it was like, it was kind of like a progression. Tell us what Buttercup is, though, for those. Oh, it's our blow dryer. It's our yellow blow dryer. Yes, I'm so sorry.

Oh, no, the blow dryer. And also our little logo, the little yellow hanging blow dryer. That's also called Buttercup. And for the first year, we called it the little yellow hanging blow dryer. That's where I see that when I'm in drywall and I'm like, where do I see that? It's on the blow dryer. It's kind of on a lot of things. But it's part of the logo.

You know, it's like says dry bar and then Buttercup is hanging down. And we kind of gave this name to Buttercup because we used to refer to it as upside-down blow dryer. And that was such a mouthful. And then she became Buttercup. She has a bio on the website and everything. Why didn't you bring her? You should have brought her. I know.

You could have a mic. Damn it. No, no, no. Not for me. She could have her own mic. We actually have a very funny video where Allie interviews Buttercup. It's true. It's on the Buttercup product.

To be honest, I don't need a blow dryer because I've never once washed my hair at my house and I've lived for three years. And that is a true story. I cannot tell you how many women tell me that they don't wash their own hair anymore. It's like music to my ears. You know, they don't have shampoo and their showers anymore. When all my hair fell out, I was able to stop washing it as well.

I just don't ever wash it either, but it's not, it's probably just. It's a different. Yeah, it's a different thing. It's a different podcast. It's for unsanitary. But anyway, so the product, you know, that was in about, I don't know, that was like 2012 or, right, that we started the product. And now we have, how many skis? A lot.

I'm not sure. Yeah. I mean, the product, now we have our three-day bender, which is our curling iron, which is also great. We have a flat iron that is amazing. I mean, we just, you know, we've, and the great thing about our product is that, you know, they, the ideas for them come in a lot of different ways. Sometimes, like, I dream them up. Sometimes it's things that our stylists are asking for.

Sometimes it's things that clients are asking for. But ultimately, oh, look, there's Michael. Michael's our other partner. Michael's calling us right now. Oh, he's here and spirit. But, you know, there's, the great thing about our product is once I kind of get a product to the point where I'm happy with it and my team's happy with it. Then we send it out into the field and our stylists try it.

And they are like as honest as can be and it's great because you get all this feedback. So any product that actually makes it to our shelves has been vetted by, you know, not only me and my team, but a bunch of different dry bar stylists who try it on clients and each other. So I think that's why the products are good and it's so nice to hear you say that. And people have loved the product and we've been so humbled by the response to the product. But it's like they are really tried and true. you know, the nothing hits, I mean, and I've, I've pulled products like weeks before launch because it just wasn't right. You know, we're so careful about what we launch and, you know,

you can. A lot of people put like a lot of thought into the launch of a product or the launch of a business and they don't do what you're talking about, which is testing it or getting consumer feedback. And it's like you can put all this amazing work, all this amazing branding, but at the end the day, the product doesn't work. The product has to be good. We are going to get the secret sauce, the secret real deal product from Allie in a minute. but first I'm going to tell you guys about Blue Apron. All right, who's hungry for some baby broccoli and Fontina Pininis with hard-boiled egg and arugula salad? Because I got you covered.

Whoa, are you going to be cooking that for me? How's that for some cooking energy? Wow. Well, let's talk about Blue Apron on that note. Blue Apron is the number one fresh ingredient recipe delivery service in the country, and Michael clearly loves it. It's been making my life a lot easier, too, because I don't have to cook. It's super efficient, you guys, if you want to manipulate your husbands into cooking for you. They think they are just like chef boy or D.

They're in the kitchen. You can trick them into making you a full meal with Blue Apron. I'm cooking with gas now, boys and girls. Oh, my God, help me. All right, the beef, the chicken, the pork come from responsibly raised animals, which is very TSC. And as you guys know, cooking together builds strong family bonds. I feel like the bond is even stronger because Michael does all. the cooking for me and I just sit in the kitchen.

Well, how could it not be stronger when I'm cooking up a sweet and sour salmon with some bok choy? You know what I mean? Come on. I like the ginger fried rice, too. That was so good. All right, guys. So it's affordable. There's lots of variety, flexible, easy, and guaranteed.

Check out this week's menu and get your first three meals free with free shipping by going to blue apron. com slash him and her. You will love how good it feels and taste to create incredible home-cooked meals with Blue Apron, so don't wait. Make sure you get on that manipulation train with your... Quit wasting your time in the grocery store. Boyfriends and husbands, guys.

All right, that's blueapron.com slash him and her Blue Apron, a better way to cook. If you guys had to pick a product that my readership and audience absolutely needs, like, if they can buy one product... Oh, boy. I know the one I would pick, but I want to hear what you guys would pick because maybe it's different than the one I would pick. Man, that is a loaded question. I mean, I feel like, honestly, people...

probably the dryer because if you're blow drying your hair at home, you need a professional dryer. And I feel like most people kind of skimp out on that, you know, because really good dryers are more expensive. But I guess if you're blow drying your hair yourself, it's the dryer. But for somebody like you, who I know who doesn't get blowouts a lot, I'd say it's, I mean, who gets blowouts a lot and doesn't blow out their own hair, I'd say it's probably detox, dry shampoo.

What about the hair oil though? The hundred proof? Yeah. No, that one's a good one. Have you tried prep rally yet? No. That is a really good one too. They've probably put it on your hair.

It's like vitamins and nutrients and biotin and all, and it's a detangler and it makes your hair like feel great. It's like for the health of your hair. It's a good one. You put it in your hair when your hair's wet and you come up through before you blow dry. And it kind of primes your hair for all the other products you're going to put in it as well. And have you seen our new detox whipped? No, that's wait.

I think I might have that. Not the whip though. No, it's brand spanking new. We literally like launched it this week. Wait, do I have detox though something? You probably have our detox original like powder-based form. me like this is our like it's basically like it looks like whipped cream but it's like it is dry shampoo there's some cute pictures of it on the Instagram yeah we got to show this on my snapchat okay okay okay all right it's a it's a kind of a lighter version yeah

it's like it's like a lighter version yeah it's actually making me kind of hungry yeah I know so yeah so yeah so it's like it's like a lighter weight dry shampoo and it completely disappears into your hair once you use it and we're so excited it's kind of like the next generation of dry shampoo I can't put it in my hair because I have this thing on my head. This looks amazing. Can't maybe we can put it in your beard. Yeah, show us. It looks great. Look at how great he is. You guys should see this.

She's putting it in his beard and he's just smiling. You should let me do that. You don't even let me touch your hair. You're so weird about your hair products. No, no. I don't... Should I rub it in? He's like, yeah. Okay, so you guys have done all this amazing stuff. What is next? Do you have a next? Are you just going to continue

to open locations? Not just, but are you I mean, that's a huge undertaking. Are you going to continue to run this tiny business or what? This little business? Well, we do have a lot of locations opening. We actually are opening here in L.A. in the Americano tomorrow, which is very exciting. And we're opening in Austin soon. So we have a lot of new stores opening.

And then a lot of push on product and more products opening. We're going international with our products. We're going to France and Australia. The book is getting published in France and Russian. French and Russian. which is so weird and awesome. I'm going to leave all the info on her book, you guys, on the Skinny Confidential, too,

so you can check it out. I have it in my office. It's a beautiful, again, branded book. Did you design the cover? You know, I was involved. In the beginning, I did literally everything, and now I have about nine designers underneath me who help me with everything.

So there's a girl, Andrea Rell, who's amazing, and she really was involved with the design of the book. She's also the girl who doesn't wash her hair for two weeks. That's amazing. I've been known. to do that though too. I've been very lucky to have found some really good team. Yeah and you know

Abrams published the book and they knew how crazy we were about branding and aesthetic and they really gave us a lot of control on designing the book and Andrea really kind of led the charge on the aesthetic of the book and Cameron kind of oversawed and so yeah no we couldn't be more thrilled with how it came out. It's still so trippy to me that I have, I'm like a published author. It's beautiful. You've done a lot. I mean I'm amazed

and you're a mother of two. That's great. Crazy boys. That's crazy. Okay, so the last question before you guys go. If you guys could go back and give yourself some advice when starting dry bar, what would it be? If you go back in time and knowing what you know now. For anyone who's out there listening. And this is more because we have a younger audience.

I'd say not too young, but a lot of young professionals trying to get their start. So if you could go back. Well, let me just say this. It's not really going back, but I think the thing that's been so fortunate for us is that there was three of us. a lot of people are trying to start businesses on their own. And with the three of us, Allie really being the hair expert, Michael really understanding business and getting investors involved in me being able to do all the branding and the marketing and the website.

And then we also had a good friend of Michael named Josh Heitler, who was our architect. And so all four of us had very different skill sets, but really trusted each other because we're all owners of the business and we're all, you know, completely have complete faith in each other. So we really let each person do what they did best and let them do that. And I think that's been a real key to our success. You focused on each other's strengths instead of focusing on improving weaknesses. It's hard when you're starting a business by yourself and you don't have those partners who, you know,

I mean, you can't possibly know everything about everything. And so you have to lean on people and you have to, like find people that you trust and have a partnership. And, you know, like Cameron said, having those skills sets, but also just have somebody that you trust to like bounce ideas off of. I mean, we all constantly say like, hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about this? And having somebody that you implicitly trust is. is really important. It's true. Because sometimes an employee is not going to tell you how they feel because they don't want to, you know, they don't want to hurt your feelings or whatever.

You know, and I also feel like all four of us worked around the clock for probably three or four months leading up to the opening of that first shop. And we've worked so hard. And so if you're just one person trying to do that, there's no way you can. There's no way you can do it. You have to have people. Yeah, you all kind of like lean on each other. And I feel like throughout like, I mean, gosh, we're seven years into it now. I feel like there's different times when one of us is like on the verge of a breakdown.

And it's like, okay, only one of us can be like on the verge of a breakdown. The other two have to like hold that person up. And I mean, it happens a lot. I mean, there are times that like one or one of the three of us like gets really burnt out and just like can't do it for a minute. And, you know, and vice versa. And like, again, having that support system. I mean, we're lucky because we're family. But which a lot of people think is crazy that like I work with my brother and my husband.

But they happen to be like my best friend. So I feel very lucky. And we all like love. each other and love the business and it's very exciting but it is a support system too it is and i think the family part of it you know because we each have kind of our own lanes and our own skill sets we don't really step on each other's toes too much so there's not that's really important yeah there's not a real battle internally about what i want to do versus what alley wants to do we really kind of let each other do our things you know it's funny is a lot of people like obviously everybody knows disney and

Walt Disney gets a lot of credit but people don't realize that his brother roy disney was with him the whole time and basically saved his ass multiple times from going under and if he wasn't there it wouldn't be, Disney wouldn't be what it is today. Yeah. Yeah, like Cameron was saying in the business, I get, in the beginning, I get a lot of the credit. I can't tell you how many times people have come up to me and be like, oh my God, your wife started a dry bar. Oh my God, your wife owns dry bar.

You guys know, though. Well, that sounds familiar. On your end or mine? I think that's great advice. I think that's amazing advice. And I think anyone who's listening got so much value out of this podcast. Where can everyone find you guys? Give us all the details, your book, your handle.

So you can, our dry bar is the, it's at the drybar.com. We also have an app where you can book your blowouts. You can go on Amazon and buy my book. You can get all our products on the website. You can go to Sephora. We're at Sephora. We're at Ulta, Nordstrom. Am I missing anything?

If you want to see cute pictures of our kids, go to, at Mr. Camweb. Yeah. Yeah, if you want to see some cute pictures of our kids, you can check out my Instagram, AllieWeb. But, and Drybars, Instagram, of course. And we're showcasing our stylist all the time and what they're doing in and out of our 70-plus shops. And I have to shout out my stylist at Drybar because she's been my stylist for four years. Sean.

She's amazing. And she's at the Delmar location. So you guys have to go see her. Ask her for the Skinny Confidential Special. And there's another one opening in San Diego soon. Yay, where? I knew you were going to ask that. Downtown probably.

Okay. Okay, that's the closer to my house. But I still have to drive to see Sean. Yeah. That's a great location. And they did such a great job on the run of. of that shops. I love Marie too.

That whole center blow. I mean, that's basically the center was good. We were first opening there. I was like, um, what? That place is old school. That's like, that's the old stomping grounds for me. The renovation, like, is unbelievable. It's gorgeous.

We met in sixth grade at that mall. You did? Have you been together ever since? No. She's been chasing me a long time. No. He needed to like, go. That's the problem in our relationship.

We needed to go off for a little while. All right, you guys, make sure it's at dry bar or at the dry bar. Bar. At the dry bar on Instagram. Definitely check Mr. Mr. Cam Webb. And Allie Webb out on Instagram. Thank you guys so much for coming. You're both incredible. So inspiring. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys so much for listening. We are so grateful for your support. We appreciate any feedback. Please go subscribe, rate and review the skinny confidential, him and her podcast. And of course, follow us on Snapchat at

Morin Everett and at Michael Bostick for some VTS. We will see you next week. Thanks for listening to The Skinny Confidential, him and her, with Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic. Download new episodes every Tuesday at podcast.com or subscribe now on the Podcast One app. Hello there you. It's me, Jay Moore. You know me from The Moore Stories Podcast. I'm a comedian, I'm an actor, and I talk to people that fascinate me. Like Brandon Boy from Incubis, super funny Jim Jeffries, Jay Leno, Charlie Sheen, Lakers owner, Jeannie Bus, and a whole lot more. Download a few episodes of More Stories Now, More Stories Podcast every Monday. One app iTunes Podcast One.com.