Men’s grooming concept to expand after landing financing

Southlake, Texas–based Boardroom Salon for Men, which operates about 30 shops across Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma and Tennessee, intends to expand to more U.S. states after receiving an infusion of funding from LightBay Capital, a Los Angeles–based private equity firm, according to The Dallas Morning News. The amount is undisclosed.

LightBay co-founders Nav Rahemtulla and Adam Stein worked together at Angeles–based Ares Management when that firm purchased Neiman Marcus in a venture with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $6 billion, in 2013.

Boardroom Salon for Men is not the only such concept in expansion mode, as increasing numbers of men embrace upscale grooming habits. The founders of three pioneering businesses — 18/8, Scissors & Scotch and The Gents Place — are filling a hole they say they themselves had fallen through: Male dissatisfaction with discount haircutters, unisex salons and women’s stylists had driven them to distraction — and to the search for comfortable and sumptuous yet manly alternatives.

“I formerly avoided haircuts with the same aloofness I assigned to light beer and traffic jams,” reads a message from Ben Davis, founder of the Dallas-based Gents Place, on that company’s website.

Read our report on the growth of luxury men’s grooming chains here.