The final cut: Hair Excitement sold to Regis Salons; former owner to coach basketball

EJ Hersom/Staff photographer Valarie Saville, hair stylist, comforts John Langlois, former owner of the regional Hair Excitement salon chain, after he announced Monday that the 23-store salon chain was sold to ...

[melanie holliday]

why does john langlois who just sold his chain to the biggest salon chain in the world for probably no less than 30 million in the heart of an economic crisis to persue his life long dream need to be comforted by his employee?

[totally anonymous]

awwww shit Melanie! you go girl!

[anonymous]

john langlois has definitely lived up to being the sneaky,manipulative sleazebag that he truly is .However should it surprise anyone.Remember this is the man that was responsible for product diversion through Redken.Then again this is a man who had nosebleeds alot,which anyone who has worked for him knows why.SNIFF SNIFF<SNORT SNORT>

[Anonymous]

John Langlois is rejoicing in the fact that he threw over 300 employees under the moving train. He WILL NOT miss the employees, what he'll miss is the minupulation of the employees for whatever he thinks he can get away with. I say good riddance to a sore on society - I hope that Daniel Webster College opens their eyes & sees who he truly is & SOON!!!!!!!!! A scumbag!!!

[Chuck]

IM pretty sure all of you were pretty jealous when you found out how much he made selling that chain to regis... And Im pretty sure all of you were taken care of during your career at Hair Excitement...

ALl i have to say is that it is pretty pathetic that none of you can come out and say who you were.. What are ya scared that someone may find out that you may have been a whore and got turned down??

All i have to say is that John Langlois is one of the smartest person I have ever been around either as a coach or as a business man... Yeah John Langlois may have sold out to go after another one of his dreams and goals in life, and that is to coach young men in basketball and in life. Anyone that really knows this man knows he can achieve whatever he wants to..

Im sorry that all of you have to come on this website and be soo critical of one human being. Im sorry that your probably mad that he has never done anything benfitial to your sorry asses...

John Langlois cares about one thing and that is making a difference in a young mans life... He has been through it all and through it all he has come out ahead.. Young men can learn alot from him... When I played for him he had only one thing he cared about and that was teaching us players that if you work hard enough anything is possible and that mental toughness will and has gotten me through alot of crap..

By the way He wouldnt pay for Skanks

[Franchise]

Watch how Regis will take something thats making money into lossing money within 2 years.

[Brittany C Eaton]

John was one of the greatest leaders in the cosmetology business. He has built such a strong company with so much grace and determination. As I look back I realize, with John we were all people, we had names, we had stories, now with the Regis take-over, we have gone from having identities to becoming numbers- for example I am now known as employee #2 for salon # 3029. That's why I'm upset, this is the end of an era. I am very proud of John for doing what he did, I try to put myself in his shoes- when I'm 60 I will want to retire as well and go on to do other things with my years ahead.
We, as the former people of hair excitement need to stop be so negative and angry towards John Langlois, He built this company, reached his goals and isn't that what all of us want for ourselves in life. The blame does not fall on John, it falls on the people who are too selfish to see the bigger picture.
I find that only now, since the sale of the company have people begun to voice how angry they are. I am angry too, but not for the same reasons as the small- minded people who comment on John's personal life, while having no true knowledge or fact on the matter. It upsets me to know that now we are owned by a corporation that really has no true education on the cosmetology industry. I take my orders from someone that sits behind a desk in Minnesota, AKA a robot.
In closing I will say this if your bitching about how bad of a leader John was, why did you work for him in the first place?? John is not the enemy, your small mind is.

[Jon Cross]

Wow, it is always amazing how people treat one another. John did nothing but try to grow all of you. Ignorance is not an excuse for you to be rude and critical.
In order to grow you must open your mind and close your mouth. I worked in the main office as a company recruiter. I know more about most of you then you know about yourself. Be careful on how you accuse when you live in a glass house. I also was in the office on Sundays when John was working on new innovative ideas to rejuvinate your excitement. He worked well over 80 hours a week for you.
Here is what it comes down to. YOU ARE SPOILED LITTLE BRATS! Grow up and be more positive. John did what was best for him when he sold the business. He deserved it. None of you would understand business....that is why you are making less then a grocery clerk and you no nothing about product.
I saw John help some of you with loans and fixing your cars when you didnt have a dime to your name. Be more grateful.
John,
Good luck in all of your ventures going forward. I took a lot from the time I worked for you. Be strong, be postive and do not let anyone get you down.
JC

[Brittany C Eaton]

JC,

I thank you for your comments and I agree with you fully. The only thing to do now is move forward.

[Ed Sharon]

Wow John. Showing your true colors, huh? You worked for us (me) for too short a period of time to know Mr. Langlois. And I doubt the stylists who you "cooed" up to for whatever reason appreciate your verbal abuse. And what is so bad about being a grocery clerk?

[FAITHFULLYYYYYYY YYYYYYY]

Everyone needs to SUCK IT UP ... Sell when its HOTT ... RIGHT ???? Whos the bussinessman ???? Oh yeah thats RIGHT... JOHN L.... If you worked for John and stayed outta the DRAMMMMA... U had a professional career... Working for the new company.... Not Family .... ITS A JOB .... Thats RIGHT ..... Do the job that you got !!!!! John coach the boys ... You coached ALL the players you had to be winners for plenty of years... ENJOY... you deserve it ....

[Neri]

The hair dragon burned my hair stay away from that small dark salon full of bad stylist! Especially crystal Bacchus and Drako aka Emilo

[pam]

Jon Cross wrote:

Wow, it is always amazing how people treat one another. John did nothing but try to grow all of you. Ignorance is not an excuse for you to be rude and critical.
In order to grow you must open your mind and close your mouth. I worked in the main office as a company recruiter. I know more about most of you then you know about yourself. Be careful on how you accuse when you live in a glass house. I also was in the office on Sundays when John was working on new innovative ideas to rejuvinate your excitement. He worked well over 80 hours a week for you.
Here is what it comes down to. YOU ARE SPOILED LITTLE BRATS! Grow up and be more positive. John did what was best for him when he sold the business. He deserved it. None of you would understand business....that is why you are making less then a grocery clerk and you no nothing about product.
I saw John help some of you with loans and fixing your cars when you didnt have a dime to your name. Be more grateful.
John,
Good luck in all of your ventures going forward. I took a lot from the time I worked for you. Be strong, be postive and do not let anyone get you down.
JC

John langlois lied and stalked me for years now and frankly I would be very careful if I was a female stylist around him

[pam]

John Langlois was stalking me for years and frankly if i were a female I would be very careful anywhere near him .If you decide to watch your back !

[just another designer]

as you all know john L did alot of things he probably shouldn,t have but he did alot of things he should have. as you wine most of you are not working for the company by now and working in other less than desireable jobs. thats okay because you complained when you worked for us and still bellyaching. i also believe the one huge mistake he made was to put ed sharon at the helm. not only did he carry out Johns dirty deeds but went to Regis and continued to lie to us threaten our jobs. Regis knew of none of this including ssp letting them go to save money which Regis did not have a clue what he was up to. how could you trust someone who always carried out johns L requests without batting an eye? did it ever occur to you when he told you not to call Regis for anything whatsover there might be something wrong. constantly threatening of losing jobs. if you did your job well you wouldn,t have to worry. next time your standing in line in welfare or at some small dead end job remember you were given an opportunity to better yourself but chose to follow the path of least resistance which was bellyaching instead of getting out there and making a change. i did and i am glad ed sharon is no longer involved in Regis i was tired of fighting for my job. i feel to this day i made the right decision to contact regis and let them know we all needed jobs but we were lambs being led to slaughter. think about this! we have only one place to go is up. you can make your choice to continue to mep or fall to the wayside and wallow in negative land.

[Heather Devereaux]

I worked for John Langlois for over a decade, in that time I was given so many opportunities for professional and personal growth. He was a visionary, a man who would always take the time to coach, teach and train me to always be my best and to always follow through.
John always gave me another chance, and I promise you I screwed up ALOT in those 10 years. He also taught us to walk in the other persons shoes, to always put our people first. Remember that.
We were priveledged to work for him, did he sell? Yes and he deserved to, and to go after his dreams and goals. Would I have liked the opportunity to work at the healm of Hair Excitement in the wake of his retirement, yes. But it didn't roll out that way and that's ok.
Don't begrudge the man that paved the way in our industry to make a TON of money behind the chair. Did I agree with every decision he made, no, but I respect the man, the vision and the opportunity. Even if I wasn't always proud of his behavior, remember it takes 2 to tango.
As far as Ed Sharon is concerned, he too was a mentor to many of us over the years, he too motivated, educated and promoted us to success. Don't forget all the time he use to take with his teams. SO, did Ed make choices people didn't agree with? Yes, and he lost his job because of it, a company that he too created side by side with John, don't take that away from him.
Hair Excitement was an AWESOME AWESOME place to work and experience to be a part of it. Don't take that pride of achievement away from John or Ed.
Best of Luck to those of you with Hair Excitement continue to perserve the brand that these 2 men created and fostered for 22 plus years.
Heather Devereaux
The Salon @ 903

[B in Franklin]

yes john was a visionary but ed might of been to you but the the people in other areas he was very disloyal he constantly belittled them and threatened their jobs. He would seldom show up and when he did he never had anything nice to say. He would tell us one thing and then another he was never consistant and again we were lucky to see him and prayed he was in a good mood. He threatened DLs with their jobs telling them Regis had red flaged them that they too weren't doing there job. Ed is not a very nice person he might be to you but he lost his job for not doing was he was employed to do, Recruiting for yes your Salon while he was still employed by Regis and if I am correct ed after losing his job was in your Salon doing education. Yes he did work for John but he at one point was let go of for I have been lead to believe cheating on contests.Also he takes credit while supposedly building Hair Excitement the $2.00 deduct. I wonder do you have that in your Salon? Yes I am glad the tyrant is gone and Hair Excitement is A GREAT PLACE TO WORK! I have been there many years and right now we have even more education a great DL and the most wonderful people overseeing all of us not just the ones Ed liked.I like John and yes he did do wonderful things but now Regis has taken over and they are GREAT!

[Heather Devereaux]

Good for you, embrace the wonderful opportunities that Regis has to offer. Everything happens for a reason, and obviously this was a very positive chain of events for yourself and others.

Answering your question regarding the $2 deduct in The Salon @903 actually, no. I created a $2 give back, for each client you perform services on $2 goes into a seperate account accures over the course of a year and you recieve that in January. Average 30 clients a week X $2=$60x 50 weeks =$3000.
No you have been misinformed. Ed Sharon did not recruit anyone for me no one at any time. There were no "recruiting" efforts. No he was not "educating" in my salon. Yes, he was there on 9/18 (grand opening and staff meeting) to celebrate and encourage myself and the team and stayed for all of 30 minutes actually chatted with Ron from Empire who also swung in to congratulate.

Embrace Regis, Hair Excitement is a great place to work filled with endless opportunites.

Best of luck.
Heather Devereaux
The Salon @ 903

[franklin]

So you are giving the money back from the clients to your staff? What about all the legal fees that might be incurred? Are you also planning to help your staff or will they be left holding the bag? I know he did recruit for your Salon and He was doing training at your Salon. Lie to yourself. I really thought you were better than what has transpired. But then again a very wise man once said WATER SEEKS ITS OWN LEVEL! GOOD LUCK!

[person in the know]

In my own opinion, I think its a joke for anyone to believe that the people behind "The Salon at 903" are involved in this for any other reason than their personal gain. They know there are going to be suits against them and every stylists involved. But they don't care because they are only trying to secure themselves paychecks off the backs of their stylists. They have convinced these stylists, that they are their answer to their salvation to a better world. Hah. If these holier-than-thou people really cared about their stylists so much, they would not have lied to them, ensuring them that they were protected from lawsuits, when they knew darn well thet were not. But now its too late, because the lambs have been led to the slaughter. Their Kharma will come back around. I just feel bad for the stylists that placed their faith in them.