Apprentice Contestant Gets Franchise Offer From Hair Cuttery  5/2/06

Hair Cuttery Makes Franchise Offer to Fired Apprentice Contestant

VIENNA, Va., May 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Hair Cuttery, the nation's largest privately held chain of full-service, value-priced salons, thinks Donald Trump made a mistake. In a bold show of support for the fired contestant from the task on the May 1st episode of The Apprentice, Hair Cuttery has offered one of the contestants fired tonight, Charmaine Hunt, a multi-unit franchise deal.

Hair Cuttery is confident that Charmaine will view this as a savvy business move and accept Hair Cuttery's lucrative offer. Charmaine will have the opportunity to work with Hair Cuttery's franchise support team to develop and operate a fleet of Hair Cuttery salons in the Los Angeles area.

Hair Cuttery chose to make this offer after seeing Charmaine exemplify Hair Cuttery key values during the task. Charmaine not only possesses an acute business sense, but also has a great appreciation for the beauty industry and the value of exceptional customer service.

"Charmaine exhibited strong leadership skills as Project Manager for Gold Rush during this task," said Ratner, who co-founded Hair Cuttery in 1974. "She dedicated herself to learning the Hair Cuttery brand and key values and demonstrated the high value she places on teamwork. We at Hair Cuttery are confident Charmaine will bring the enthusiasm and leadership that she demonstrated during the task to running the new Hair Cuttery salons."

The proposed salons will be Hair Cuttery's first Los Angeles franchise locations and will kickoff Hair Cuttery's nationwide franchise expansion on the West Coast. "The Los Angeles area is one of our most important and exciting markets to develop," said Tom Fihe, vice president of franchising for Hair Cuttery. "Given Charmaine's strong background in real estate, we felt she would be a solid addition to the Hair Cuttery franchise team."

About Hair Cuttery: Hair Cuttery is the nation's largest, privately held chain of full-service, value-priced hair salons operating exclusively on a no- appointment basis. With nearly 1,000 company owned and franchised salons on the East Coast, in the Midwest and in the United Kingdom, Hair Cuttery is known for bringing communities a full variety of affordable hair care services, including cuts, color, waxing and permanent waving, as well as a full line of professional hair care products. Hair Cuttery is a division of Ratner Companies, based in Vienna, Va. For more information, visit http://www.haircuttery.com.

SOURCE Hair Cuttery