Fuel for Men

Blow Dry Bar is a growing franchise in Australia that focuses purely on styling womens’ hair. There are no cuts or colours, just a bit of preening and pampering for women who have somewhere to be. Founder Nathan Cuneen has recently launched another similar system, except this time it’s targeting men – the beer and sport loving ones, who also want to turn heads as they walk down the street.


Fuel for Men recently opened its first concept store in Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall, where men are flocking to have their hair cut and styled, get a cut throat shave (something hard to find these days), and while they’re waiting they can drink beer, play PlayStation and watch Fox Sports.

“We’ve created a niche in the industry, so obviously with Blow Dry Bar we specialise in blow drying and blow drying only, and obviously we cater for women, but we’ve found a gap in the men’s market where you’ve got your traditional barber who does your $15 haircuts and you’re not too sure what you’ll walk out of there looking like, and then you’ve got your high end salons which are normally unisex but a lot of guys don’t like them because they’re often full of women and can be a bit claustrophobic,” Cuneen says.

At Fuel for Men, however, the clientele can come into a relaxed, masculine environment and walk out with the latest look, all for $29.

Cuneen has serious expansion plans for the new franchise: 100 stores in three years, and he believes franchising is the best way to achieve this.

“At the moment, because we’re quite new, we’ve taken the Blow Dry Bar management and transferred it over to Fuel too. We understand that Fuel’s still new but we’ve got a proven track record now in the franchising industry,” he says.



To incentivise franchisees coming onboard, Fuel for Men is waiving the franchise fee and only charging approximately $70,000 for the store fit-out. This is unlike Blow Dry Bar, which has a $35,000 franchise fee and fit-out costs of about $100,000.

Cuneen is hoping his expansion plans for Fuel for Men will be helped along by Blow Dry Bar franchisees who are keen to expand their portfolio.

“A Blow Dry Bar franchisee might have a territory in Bondi Beach, for instance, so obviously they couldn’t go and put another Blow Dry Bar near that, but they could put a Fuel in the same area, and obviously from a management point of view, they could keep an eye on both salons.

“They know how quickly they can get a return on their investment with Blow Dry Bar and they know the profit margins, and Fuel can potentially be even better because we need a smaller space, and with rent and labour being our biggest costs, the smaller the salon the more those overheads are reduced.”

Cuneen isn’t being too specific in his search for franchisees – he’s just looking for people who are ready for a new and exciting career, but not necessarily as a hairdresser. Franchisees don’t need to have any qualifications or experience in the industry because all training is provided by the franchise, which will also source, trial and train the business’ staff.



“We encourage all our franchisees not to work in the business but rather work on it. It’s achieving great results. Most of our Blow Dry Bar franchisees are moving onto their second site, and they’ve got a return on their investment within 12 months,” Cuneen explains.

“I think if you’re going to invest your hard earned cash, whether it be $70,000 or $120,000, you don’t want to be buying a job. And this is where a lot of people make the mistake; they buy a business or a franchise and they work 15 hour days, they run themselves into the ground and by the time they get home from working in the job they don’t have much energy left in the tank to actually spend on working and promoting, interacting with the local community, and growing the business.

“We’re just looking for franchisees who understand and are passionate about their own business and can manage a team... they want to join a company that’s growing and can get a great return on their investment.”