It’s midday on a Wednesday in late October and hair stylist Theresa Santana is finishing up trimming 2-year-old Ian Linhart’s hair.
‘He used to scream coming in,’ Ian’s mother, Kate Linhart, said.
Linhart, a Cohasset resident, said she’s been taking Ian to Snip-its children’s hair salon in Hingham’s Derby Street Shoppes for more than a year. Over the last 3 months, she said, Ian has overcome his fear of the scissors - aided by the chain’s haircut-themed cartoon characters and child-friendly stylists.
Snip-its was founded in 1995 by Joanna Meiseles, who 2 years earlier had received poor treatment while attempting to videotape her son’s first haircut at an ‘adult’ salon.
The Natick-based company has grown rapidly since it began franchising in 2003. That year, before signing a 5-store franchise agreement with a couple in Georgia, there were 5 Snip-its in existence.
Now, 3 years later, there are 60 Snip-its locations in 24 states - including 11 in Massachusetts - and the concept is still growing. The company is No. 30 on the 2007 Franchise Times 55 list of fastest-growing franchises, and Meiseles sees no end in sight.
‘The number I keep in the back of my mind is 500,’ Meiseles said of her target number of franchises. ‘But we can’t know for sure.’
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