Breakdown

Drybar franchise unit economics

Q: How much does a Drybar franchise make?

The average Drybar unit reported $852,718 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $753,506. The filing discloses revenue and not profit, so what an owner keeps depends on the cost structure set out below. Fees come off the top first, at about 11% of sales across royalty, brand fund and the rest of the stack. Revenue is not income. Rent, wages, cost of goods and the franchise fees all come out before an owner is paid,

Drybar franchisees run a blowout bar of 8 to 12 chairs selling styling services, retail product and a monthly membership. The 167 shops that traded the whole of 2025 averaged $852,718 of total sales on 14,047 client visits and 312 ending memberships. Ticket holds at about $61 a visit from the highest-selling shops group to the bottom quarter, so volume.

By Scott Engler · Averan Advisors · Source: DB Franchise, LLC, 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) · Updated 22 September 2026

Where these figures come from

Primary source: DB Franchise, LLC, 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
Items read: Items 5 and 6 for fees; Item 7 for cost to open; Item 19 for sales and any profit figure; Item 20 for the location count
Population: 167 of 198 locations
Our calculations: Marked on the page with an asterisk. Method
Last reviewed: 26 September 2026

Disclosure-based. Not a forecast, not an offer to sell a franchise, and not advice.

Key idea

The top ten shops bill 5.7 times the bottom ten, and a visit costs about the same at both ends: $59.37 against $62.42. Revenue per visit sits between $59 and $63 in every group, so the win is traffic alone. The entire range is 31,487 visits against 5,213.

Franchised shops (end 2025)198

Average total sales$852,718

Average client visits14,047

Total investment$391,229–$1,096,999

Revenue per visit runs $59.37 at the top ten shops and $62.42 at the bottom ten. A $3.05 range against a revenue range of $1,869,261 to $325,404.
Membership conversion is 7.0% of new clients at the top ten shops and 0.9% at the bottom ten. A 7.8 times gap, wider than revenue, visits or member count.
Ending memberships run 749 at the top ten and 102 at the bottom ten. Against 312 across all 167 shops and a system high of 1,012.
Shops open under three years grew same-shop revenue 33.0%; shops past three years grew 7.3%. On average revenue of $600,622 against $983,350.
31 shops were terminated across three years against 80 openings. 13 in 2023, 13 in 2024 and 5 in 2025, on a network that grew from 149 to 198.

How much does a Drybar franchise make?

The average Drybar unit reported $852,718 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $753,506. The brand’s disclosure document discloses revenue and not profit, so what an owner keeps depends on the cost structure set out below. Fees come off the top first, at about 11% of sales across royalty, brand fund and the rest of the stack. Revenue is not income. Rent, wages, cost of goods and the franchise fees all come out before an owner is paid. The figures for the highest-selling and lowest-selling businesses are below.

Members and years open

Membership is where the groups really separate.

Membership conversion and ending memberships, 2025, as the brand reported it, with revenue per member added *Averan calculation
Group	Membership conversion	Highest / lowest conversion	Ending memberships	Highest / lowest memberships	Revenue per member	Visits per member
Top 10	7.0%	12.3% / 4.6%	749	1,012 / 637	$2,495.68	42.0
Top third	4.1%	12.3% / 2.6%	527	1,012 / 390	$2,680.50	44.3
Bottom third	1.3%	1.8% / 0.7%	157	217 / 54	$3,239.03	52.6
Bottom 10	0.9%	1.1% / 0.7%	102	134 / 54	$3,190.24	51.1
All 167	2.8%	12.3% / 0.7%	312	1,012 / 51	$2,733.07	45.0

The conversion and membership figures are as the brand reported it; the last two columns are marked. Dividing filed revenue and filed visits by filed ending memberships.

Conversion separates the groups more sharply than anything else here. 7.0% at the top ten against 0.9% at the bottom ten, 7.8 times, against 5.7 times on revenue and 6.0 times on visits. The best single shop converts 12.3% of new clients and the worst 0.7%. What happens at the chair when a first-time client pays is the most differentiated thing this system does.

The bottom third's 47 shops hold 157 members each and the top third's hold 527. On visits of 8,262 and 23,371, so members account for a far smaller share of a low-selling shop's traffic. A bottom-ten shop is running 5,213 visits a year on a 102-member base. It is a walk-in business with a membership program attached.

The system's highest membership count, 1,012, appears in the top ten and nowhere else except as the ceiling of the shops open under three years. Its lowest, 51, is below the bottom ten's own minimum of 54, so at least one shop outside that group has fewer than sixty members. The distribution has a long tail at both ends and the membership program is where it lives.

By how long the shop has been open.

2025 results grouped by years open at 1 January 2025, as the brand reported it, with revenue per visit added *Averan calculation
Group	Shops	Average revenue	Same-shop revenue increase	Average visits	Revenue per visit	Conversion	Ending memberships
All shops	167	$852,718	+12.5%	14,047	$60.70	2.8%	312
Open over one year	141	$916,816	+7.6%	15,111	$60.67	2.5%	330
Open over three years	110	$983,350	+7.3%	16,179	$60.78	2.2%	337
Open under three years	57	$600,622	+33.0%	9,932	$60.47	3.9%	263

As the brand reported it, except revenue per visit, which is marked *.

A shop under three years old grows 33.0% a year and one past three years grows 7.3%. On revenue of $600,622 against $983,350 and visits of 9,932 against 16,179. The build-up is real and it is long: the gap between the two groups is $382,728. That at $60.47 a visit is 6,329 visits, 122 a week.

Newer shops convert new clients at 3.9% and mature shops at 2.2%. Which makes sense arithmetically (a mature shop's client base is already largely converted, so its new clients are a smaller and different pool) but it also means the conversion benchmark to aim at depends entirely on how old your shop is. A three-year-old shop at 3.9% is normal; a ten-year-old shop at 3.9% is exceptional.

Mature shops hold 337 members and newer shops hold 263. A gap of 74 members on a revenue gap of $382,728. So the membership base accounts for only part of the years open difference. The rest is walk-in traffic that took years to build.

Top performers

What separates the top Drybar performers

Drybar splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The best group averaged $1,869,261 a year. The worst averaged $325,404. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees. The middle location sold $753,506. The average was $852,718. More than half the system is below the number the brand quotes.

Decided before you open

Trade area and site.A 5.7× gap between bands is not an operating gap. Catchment, daytime population and what sits next door set the ceiling before the first customer arrives.
Territory, and how much of it is real.This model sells from a territory rather than a building, quoted at 50,000 people. Two owners with the same brand and different ground are running different businesses, and density decides how much driving sits between jobs.
What you spend to open.Opening costs $391,229 to $1,096,999, a 2.8× range inside one brand. The high end usually buys more capacity, so the cheapest build is not always the cheapest route to the top band.

Live operating levers

Members, the operating driver.This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
The gift card book.Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered. The top performers are not selling more of them by accident, they are running a deliberate seasonal push into the holidays and out of it again. The accounting follows: a gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
Service and retail mix.Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
Fees, and where the minimum bites.Fees run about 11.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
The first year.This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.

Context you underwrite around

The reporting screen.167 of 198 locations are behind these figures. Locations open less than the full year, brand-owned, or not meeting the reporting criteria are excluded, so the numbers describe locations that cleared that screen, not the system as a whole.
What the disclosure leaves out.Item 19 publishes no profit or cost data for franchised locations. Anything below the sales line has to come from the franchisor or from owners you call.

Top performers

How far apart the locations are

Top 10

This filing does not split its locations into performance bands, so the gap between the highest and lowest Drybar location is not disclosed. What it does publish is on the Model and Finance tabs.

Fees and what it costs to open

What the fees come to. (Items 5 and 6)

Royalty, brand marketing fund, local advertising and technology at each level *Averan calculation
Level	Revenue	Royalty 7%	Fund 2%	Local spend 2%	Local ad fee	Technology	Total	Share
Top 10 average	$1,869,261	$130,848	$37,385	$37,385	$24,000	$9,300	$238,918	12.8%
Top third average	$1,412,624	$98,884	$28,252	$28,252	$24,000	$9,300	$188,688	13.4%
All 167, average	$852,718	$59,690	$17,054	$17,054	$24,000	$9,300	$127,098	14.9%
All 167, median	$753,506	$52,745	$15,070	$15,070	$24,000	$9,300	$116,185	15.4%
Bottom third average	$508,527	$35,597	$10,171	$10,171	$24,000	$9,300	$89,239	17.5%
Bottom 10 average	$325,404	$22,778	$6,508	$6,508	$24,000	$9,300	$69,094	21.2%
Lowest shop disclosed	$215,950	$15,117	$4,319	$4,319	$24,000	$9,300	$57,055	26.4%

Ours, applying the filed schedule: a 7% royalty on total sales due monthly. A brand marketing fund contribution of 2%. The franchisor may increase. A local spend requirement of 2% of total sales, also subject to increase. A local advertising fee of $2,000 a month, likewise subject to increase and payable to the franchisor or as a third-party vendor determines. And a technology fee currently $775 a month.

The load runs 12.8% of revenue at the top ten shops and 26.4% at the lowest shop disclosed. The percentage part is a flat 11% at every level. The whole of the difference is the $24,000 local advertising fee and $9,300 technology fee range across a smaller base. At the bottom ten's $325,404 those two fixed items alone are 10.2% of revenue.

4% of total sales goes to marketing before anything discretionary. Two points to the brand marketing fund and two points you spend locally, plus the $24,000 fee, $58,109 a year at the average shop. Both percentage rates are stated as subject to the franchisor's right to increase.

total sales include gift card sales and redemptions. The definition covers revenue from both the sale and the redemption of gift cards. So the royalty base treats the two events separately from most filings in this category. Worth reconciling deliberately if gift cards are a meaningful share of your take.

What it costs to open.

Estimated initial investment, traditional build against value engineering, as the brand reported it, Item 7 of the 2026 FDD
Line	Traditional low	Traditional high	Value engineered low	Value engineered high
Building work, after landlord allowance	$145,000	$600,000	$145,000	$270,000
Cabinetry, millwork, furniture and décor	$52,000	$118,000	$52,000	$65,000
Initial franchise fee	$50,000	$50,000	$50,000	$50,000
Initial opening package	$45,000	$51,000	$45,000	$51,000
Computer system and audio-visual technology	$22,000	$35,000	$26,000	$32,000
Additional funds, nine months	$20,000	$110,000	$20,000	$110,000
Grand opening spend requirement	$20,000	$20,000	$20,000	$20,000
Architect, engineer and drawings	$8,300	$23,000	$15,000	$21,000
Signage and graphics	$7,300	$24,000	$7,300	$21,000
Training program and travel	$9,600	$11,000	$9,600	$11,000
Licenses, permits, supplies, deposits, insurance, professional fees and software set-up	$12,029	$54,999	$12,029	$54,999
Total	$391,229	$1,096,999	$401,929	$705,999

As the brand reported it, except one grouped line. Is marked *. Business licenses and permits with office and business supplies, real property, utility and other security deposits, insurance at its initial 20% payment, professional fees and the initial software set-up and technology fee.

Value engineering removes $391,000 from the top of the range and adds $10,700 to the bottom. $401,929 to $705,999 against $391,229 to $1,096,999. The saving is almost entirely building work at $270,000 against $600,000, plus cabinetry and millwork at $65,000 against $118,000. The trade is a higher minimum on architecture and technology.

Nine months of additional funds is $20,000 to $110,000, an unusually long reserve period. Most filings in this category show three months. Set against a group of shops under three years old averaging $600,622 and growing 33.0% a year, a nine-month horizon is an honest one.

Building work swing $455,000 on a traditional build. $145,000 to $600,000 after the landlord's contribution, which makes the tenant allowance the single most valuable term you negotiate. Against a bottom-ten shop billing $325,404, the top of that range is nearly two years of revenue.

Visits and what each is worth

167 shops: revenue, visits and what a visit is worth.

Top 10

$1,869,261

Bottom third

$508,527

Bottom 10

$325,404

All 167

$852,718

2025 results for franchised shops open at 1 January 2025 and trading all year, as the brand reported it, with revenue per visit added *Averan calculation
Group	Shops	Average revenue	Median revenue	Highest / lowest	Average visits	Revenue per visit
Top 10	10	$1,869,261	$1,758,416	$2,450,866 / $1,644,569	31,487	$59.37
Top third	47	$1,412,624	$1,325,393	$2,450,866 / $1,046,456	23,371	$60.44
Bottom third	47	$508,527	$525,904	$681,548 / $215,950	8,262	$61.55
Bottom 10	10	$325,404	$353,860	$381,960 / $215,950	5,213	$62.42
All 167	167	$852,718	$753,506	$2,450,866 / $215,950	14,047	$60.70

The revenue and visit figures are as the brand reported it; revenue per visit is marked *, dividing one by the other.

Revenue per visit varies by $3.05 across a system whose revenue varies by $2,234,916. $59.37 at the top ten, $60.44 at the top third, $61.55 at the bottom third, $62.42 at the bottom ten. The lowest-selling shops charge fractionally more per visit than the highest-selling one. This is a traffic pattern with zero pricing pattern in it.

The top ten shops serve 31,487 visits a year and the bottom ten serve 5,213. 606 a week against 100. On 8 to 12 chairs, the busiest end is running about 60 visits a chair a week and the quietest about 10. Same build, same chairs, same price; six times the throughput.

The single highest-selling shop bills $2,450,866 and the lowest-selling $215,950. Eleven times, and the $2,450,866 shop appears as the high in the top ten, the top third and every cohort. So one shop is the system ceiling on every cut of the data. The $215,950 minimum is likewise the low in four of the five groups.

The bottom third's median of $525,904 sits above its average of $508,527. A left tail inside that group, which the $215,950 low confirms. The top third runs the other way (a median of $1,325,393 below an average of $1,412,624) because of the same single shop at the ceiling.

The network of locations

The network of locations. (Item 20)

Franchised shops, 2023 to 2025, as the brand reported it
Year	Start	Opened	Terminated	End	Net change
2023	149	23	13	159	+10
2024	159	30	13	176	+17
2025	176	27	5	198	+22

As the brand reported it.

31 terminations across three years against 80 openings. 13, 13 and 5, so the departure rate fell sharply in 2025 while openings held at 27. Net additions have risen each year: +10, +17, +22.

The franchisor owns zero shops. Every one of the 198 is franchised, and has been throughout the period. So the entire disclosed dataset is franchisee performance, with zero company estate to compare it against, which is unusual and, for benchmarking purposes, helpful.

27 shops opened during 2025 and sit outside the reported figures. Along with three in resorts or department stores without street access and one that pre-sold in 2024. The 167 in the tables are therefore the established base; the 57 open under three years already average $600,622 and are growing 33.0% a year.

What territory you get.

The protected area may be as small as a 1.5-mile radius or a circle covering 50,000 people. The franchisor sets it case by case on population, traffic volume and patterns, proximity to retail centers and residential areas. Site-specific data. May define it by political subdivision, street, postcode or similar designation in dense urban areas. The grant is explicitly stated as being other than an exclusive territory.

You search for a site inside a non-exclusive search territory. Agreed before you sign, ranging from part of a city to a multi-county area, carrying one right alone. The right to propose a site. Amending it costs a $1,000 administrative fee. Relocation needs written approval, a non-refundable relocation fee, and cooperation in preserving client goodwill, including refunds to affected clients.

Questions we get asked

Questions owners ask.

What should a shop be billing?

The 167 franchised shops open at 1 January 2025 and trading all year averaged $852,718 of total sales with a median of $753,506, ranging from $215,950 to $2,450,866. The top ten averaged $1,869,261 and the bottom ten $325,404. By years open, shops past three years averaged $983,350 and shops under three years $600,622. Average client visits were 14,047, from 5,213 at the bottom ten to 31,487 at the top ten.

What is a visit worth?

About $61 everywhere. Revenue per visit works out at $59.37 at the top ten, $60.44 at the top third, $61.55 at the bottom third and $62.42 at the bottom ten. It holds within eleven cents across all four cohort at $60.47 to $60.78. So the difference between a $1.87 million shop and a $325,000 shop is entirely the number of people coming through the door. The ticket is effectively set by the brand.

How important is the membership program?

Membership conversion, the share of new clients who sign up, is the widest-differentiating metric in the system. 7.0% at the top ten shops and 0.9% at the bottom ten, a gap of 7.8 times against 5.7 times on revenue. Ending memberships run 749 and 102 against a system average of 312, a high of 1,012 and a low of 51. Newer shops convert better than mature ones, 3.9% against 2.2%, because a mature shop’s client base is already largely converted.

What does the brand cost in total?

A 7% royalty on total sales, a 2% brand marketing fund contribution, a 2% local spend requirement, a $2,000 monthly local advertising fee and a $775 monthly technology fee. Both percentage rates and the local fee stated as subject to increase. That totals 12.8% of revenue at the top ten's volume, 14.9% at the system average and 21.2% at the bottom ten's. Opening a traditional build costs $391,229 to $1,096,999, or $401,929 to $705,999 value engineered, including a $50,000 franchise fee and a $20,000 grand opening spend requirement.

Who does bookkeeping for a Drybar franchise?

With revenue per visit fixed at about $61 across the whole system, the monthly pack should lead on visits, visits by day of week, by chair, by member and non-member. A system average of 14,047 a year. Then membership: conversion of new clients, new memberships, cancellations and ending count. Because a 7.0% conversion rate and a 0.9% one are the difference between the top and bottom of this network. Two definitional points move the royalty base: total sales include revenue from both the sale and the redemption of gift cards. They exclude tips passed to employees and client refunds other than chargebacks. So the number you report and the number you recognize diverge, and both need reconciling monthly. Averan provides bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support for franchise owners and has Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on the team.

What this filing does not disclose

No profit figure. The filing reports sales and not earnings, so what an owner keeps is not disclosed.
No cost lines. Wages, rent and cost of goods are not broken out, so margin cannot be rebuilt from the document.

Questions worth putting to Drybar

The filing answers what it answers. These are the gaps an owner or a buyer should close directly.

What do locations at the median spend on wages and rent as a share of sales? The filing reports sales only.
What separates the highest-selling locations from the lowest: trade area, years open, size, or the owner?
How long does a new location take to reach the average you publish, and what does the build-up look like month by month?
At what level of sales do the minimum charges stop applying and the percentage take over?
How many Drybar locations closed, were sold, or changed hands last year, and why?

Part of our Health & Wellness Franchise Finance guide and the Beauty & Personal Care Franchise Finance guide · Āveran Franchise Resource Center

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Where these figures come from.

Every figure here comes from DB Franchise, LLC's April 2026 FDD, covering the 2025 calendar year. The document is unaudited by us. The figures are based on data franchisees submit monthly. We are unaffiliated with the brand. The figures describe past performance at other shops. Calculations of our own are labeled where they appear. The brand’s disclosure document discloses revenue. Visits. Membership conversion and membership counts and discloses zero cost or profit data. This page is an educational summary. Legal or tax advice. DRYBAR® is a registered trademark of its owner. How Averan reads a Franchise Disclosure Document.

Where this sits

the franchise library, all 243 brands · how franchise unit economics work · running the books across several locations · what Averan does for franchise owners

The same business, other brands

Drybar reads against the rest of the beauty & personal care group: Amazing Lash Studio · Blo Blow Dry Bar · European Wax Center · Hammer & Nails · The Lash Lounge · Waxing the City. The beauty & personal care guide compares all of them on the same figures.

Questions owners ask next

The figures above raise these, and each one is answered on its own page.

Money arrives before the service does. How should that be booked?Deferred revenue, and why the bank balance and the profit line disagree.
At what level of sales does a minimum fee stop costing me more than the percentage?How royalty, ad fund and minimums actually work on a monthly statement.
How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?A 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
Do I need a bookkeeper, a controller, or a CFO?What each one owns, and the point at which the next one pays for itself.
Revenue was the highest it has been. Why did profit not move?Where the extra revenue went, line by line.

Where to next

Compare brands, every brand in the library on one screen
Checking the franchisor’s own finances
What one location earns and spends
What changes at ten units
Fractional CFO, for the forecast behind a second location and the cash plan that carries it
Bookkeeping for franchise owners, what this looks like when someone else keeps the books
Health & Wellness Franchise Finance, the category guide this breakdown sits in
Bookkeeping, monthly close built around the way your brand reports
Controller, when the numbers need someone reading them as well as recording them

Scott Engler

Founder & Principal, Averan Advisors

Averan provides bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support for franchise owners and has Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on the team. More about the team →

If you want this done for you

What happens next

Everything above came out of a filing. Doing it on your own numbers means the books have to produce the same lines: sales, wages, occupancy, fees and what is left, by location, every month. That is the work.

The call, twenty minutesYou describe the business and where the numbers are letting you down. We tell you honestly whether we can help, and what we would start with. No pitch deck.
We look at the fileYou give us read access to the books as they are. We come back with what is wrong, what it will take to fix, and whether the answer is bookkeeping, controller work, or something else.
A written scope and a priceWhat we do each month, what you get, the date it lands, and the fee. Agreed before anything starts, and it does not move without you agreeing it.
Transition, then the first closeAccess, systems, and the opening balances. The first close lands on the date in the scope, and every one after it does too.

Start with the call →How an engagement runs

Averan is not a CPA firm and does not file taxes. Your CPA keeps that, and we keep the books they file from.