Parents' Search for the Right Haircut Leads to Pigtails & Crewcuts Franchise Ownership

What began as a search for someone who could cut their oldest son’s hair turned into an entirely new career path for Brent West and his wife, Jasmine. After discovering Pigtails & Crewcuts as customers, the couple began looking into the brand’s franchise opportunity and realized it aligned with what they were already searching for. 

Brent had spent more than 20 years in technology and was already thinking about what came next. As artificial intelligence causes ripples across the industry, he decided it was time to invest his energy in building something he owned rather than waiting to see where his career might lead.

For Jasmine, the opportunity fit naturally with the work she is already doing. She has a master’s degree in human resource management and helps businesses launch and grow. That experience complements Brent’s operational mindset as they build the business together. Rather than starting a company from scratch, she was drawn to a franchise system that offered an established process while still leaving room to grow. That combination of personal experience with the brand and complementary professional backgrounds convinced the Wests that Pigtails & Crewcuts was the right fit. 

The Wests sat down with 1851 Franchise to discuss why they chose franchising over starting an independent business and what they hope to accomplish with their first location in Morris County. Here’s what they had to say:

1851 Franchise: Frame your personal story for us. What do you want us to know?

Brent West: I've been in tech for more than 20 years and was starting to think about the next phase. It's a young person's game — it was time to think about potentially an exit. We had been thinking about doing a franchise, but with the birth of our second son, I had some time to put effort and take paternity leave, or just take the time to stay with him, and wanted to use that time to sort of build up a business and take the leap into the franchising aspect.

Jasmine West: I'm the support person. I am supporting Brent on this journey of his, mostly because of my background. I help people start and grow businesses and I have a master's in human resource management.

1851: What did you do before franchising, and how did you decide franchising made sense for you?

Brent: I was a software engineering manager at a robotics company in my previous position. When that ended, it just seemed like a natural progression of something — I wanted to do something totally different. And you know, this is not necessarily permanent. I know with AI and everything, I wanted to try to future-proof a career. One intriguing thing about franchising with Pigtails & Crewcuts was that you'll spend time to get the business up and running, but at some point it hopefully can be a little bit more hands-off. Once you get a process going and a system in place, at some point maybe I'll go back into the professional aspect, but right now I'm fully engrossed in learning everything I can about the franchise market and being in business for yourself.

Jasmine: Due to my background, I know starting a business is really difficult. To start from scratch, it is very hard because you don't have a blueprint. You're starting with an idea and then you need to figure out how to really implement and then scale that idea. So franchising seemed like the best thing because it already has a clear-cut process in place. And we chose Pigtails & Crewcuts because it has a strong brand, which is very important, and the support that they provide. 

1851: What was your perception of franchising prior to becoming a franchisee, and what do you want people to know about franchising now that you are in it?

Brent: When you talk about franchising, you think about some of the bigger names like McDonald's or just other fast food, and then when you do a little bit of diving and see that the barrier to entry is you might need a few million in cash, well, that might be a challenge for a lot of people. But then when you step out of that and realize there are a lot of smaller brands that have varying amounts of franchise fees, it's like, okay, that's doable. That opened the aspect and made it something that was attainable; it wasn't astronomical. You don't need $5 million liquid to open something like that. Once I found that out, it was like, “All right, well, let me do my due diligence and start looking up ‘how do you open a franchise.’”

1851: What made you pick this brand? What excites you most about this company?

Brent: We took our oldest son to Pigtails & Crewcuts and saw that they had franchising opportunities. For our son, I was looking for hair stylists that could cut his type of hair. So I did a search for kids' hair salons in our area, and I would look at the stylists' backgrounds to see if they can cut his type of hair, and that's how we landed with Pigtails & Crewcuts. We individually started looking at working with some franchise brokers and really looked at more than a handful — at least 10 different franchises. None of them seemed to be successful unless you knew the industry; they didn't have the support. It was like, "well, we'll get you set up, you invest the money, and then you're kind of on your own."

When I went to the initial discovery day with Pigtails & Crewcuts, it definitely seemed like a family and a group of people that really care about the brand, have concise core values that they all embrace and want to see out of their franchisees. Seeing the amount of help and support and plan that they had in order to open really made it easy to pick this out of all the other franchises we looked at. Also, the look and the feel of Pigtails & Crewcuts resonated with us. We compared it to some of the other competitors and Pigtails & Crewcuts looks like a high-end brand.

1851: What do you hope to achieve with your business? What are your plans for growth? 

Jasmine: As we were moving through this process, Brent was already thinking about a second location. This is our first unit serving Morris County (East Hanover, Livingston, Parsippany, and Morristown areas) slated to open in September 2026. He was already thinking about the next step of, "hey, you know, after we start this one, we can open up somewhere else" — that's how excited he was.

1851: What advice do you have for other people thinking about becoming franchise owners?

Brent: Do your due diligence. And figure out what's important to you because one of the things that was important to us was, of course, the amount that you have to put in, but it's also the support that you get. You have to really know what you value and what's important to you and then do your due diligence.

Also, there are different avenues to receive financing. We were able to use a process to roll over some of my 401k from other employers called a ROBS (Rollover for Business Startups). I had no idea about this, and not a lot of people or banks you talk to are actually very well-versed in that. You don't necessarily have to take out an entire loan. It is a little complicated on how it works, but you basically can use your own money and invest it into your business. I would definitely stress and tell people who are thinking about franchising: look into other avenues than just getting a small business loan. There are other ways of getting funding.

Jasmine: I would say look into the blueprint and process. With franchising, you're taking somebody's blueprint. They've done the work for you, they figured out what works, what doesn't work, and they have a proven process. So, you're just taking that blueprint, which makes it a lot easier than starting from scratch.

About Pigtails & Crewcuts: 

Pigtails & Crewcuts is a kids' hair salon franchise designed with family in mind. Franchising since 2005, it has become a premier destination for children’s hairstyling and a stress-free experience for parents. Pigtails & Crewcuts provides a range of hair care services for boys and girls aged zero to 12, and offers a custom line of child-friendly hair products, hair accessories, toys and gifts. Each salon is a fun, engaging space where children can feel comfortable and enjoy their haircuts, complete with activities, event areas and a family-friendly atmosphere. With over 80 locations across more than 20 states, Pigtails & Crewcuts is continuously expanding and establishing itself as a leading franchise in the growing niche market of children’s hair care. To learn more about Pigtails & Crewcuts or to find a salon near you, please visit www.pigtailsandcrewcuts.com. To learn more about franchise opportunities with Pigtails & Crewcuts, please visit www.pigtailsandcrewcutsfranchise.com.