Synthetic ice, plexiglass, protective netting along with stadium seating isn’t likely something you would expect to find at a hair salon.
But Frank Castiglione is changing that.
Castiglione has opened a second location of his sports themed Sportscut hair salons in North Bay.
He started his first shop on Lakeshore drive in the late 1990’s, moved that store to Worthington in 2013.
Now in October of 2016, the local entrepreneur has opened a new second location on Shirreff Ave. on the North end of the city.
“I feel North Bay is a big enough city that it can afford to support a couple Sportscut locations,” he said, noting that he is Canada’s first registered sports barbershop/hair salon.
Along with that comes the hiring of two new full-time female hair stylists.
“The upper end of North Bay is expanding quite a bit and being closer to the College-University we are able to cater to the students and it’s huge. I’ve always dreamed of some day expanding, I’ve always thought this could be a franchise of some sort and this is one step closer,” said Castiglione.
The avid Leafs fan says he got his inspiration for the sports themed hair salon when he was just starting out his business out of his basement. When clients came through his home they had to walk by his sports themed rec room where those clients would compliment him on the pool table and sports memorabilia that is now part of his current shops.
Not only could the hairstylists skate on real synthetic ice to cut hair, the clients can also be entertained in the unique waiting areas where they can surf the internet on the store iPads, play video games by the sports lockers, or they can sit back in real stadium seats to watch the sports highlights on a big screen TV.
“It just gives you that stadium feel, something you would never really see right,” stated Castiglione.
“I think it’s part of the experience when you come to Sportcut is you are going to be here and you have to wait you are going to enjoy waiting because you are going to be able to browse the internet on the iPads or challenge yourself to a video game.”
Castiglione says the clientele has given him the confidence to open a second location.
“Quite honestly everybody is amazed, and that’s exactly what they say, it’s a ‘wow’ factor, they come in and ‘wow, this place is awesome,’ and quite often I hear they are glad to see a place like this and they will be back.”
While the sports theme has been geared to a male client base, Castiglione is hoping to change that too.
“Our clients are the ultimate sports fans and athletes, so that doesn’t matter if you are a guy or girl,” Castiglione insisted.
