If you haven’t had a chance to read our article, “Barbershop Bonanza: The World’s Most Expensive Haircut,” we suggest you do so – when a man pays $23,000 for a haircut, it’s a fairly big story (especially when you run a barbershop franchise business like we do!).

The man in question is the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaula. Lucky for us, we only have to type it, not pronounce it.

We appreciate the Sultan, because he’s a man of loyalty. When he couldn’t make it to London to get his hair cut by the barber who had been attending to him for 16 years, he brought the barber – Ken Modestou – to him (speaking of loyalty, we’re hoping Ken was able to reschedule all his other customers’ appointments for that week).

But enough about Ken. Let’s find out a little bit more about Mr. $23,000 Haircut – the Sultan himself.

A few fun facts:

• He’s worth over 20 billion dollars
• He owns over 100 Rolls Royces
• He also owns 232 Mercedes-Benzes, 224 Ferraris, 245 Bentleys, 150 BMWs, 165 Jaguars, 125 Porsches, and 20 Lamborghinis.
• He’s married to a woman 33 years younger than him. Oh, and another woman too.
• He owns a Boeing 747-400 furnished with gold plated furniture.
• He operates a $3 billion theme park (no word on whether the Tilt-A-Whirl is gold-plated, but thanks for asking).
• His home has 1788 bedrooms, 257 bathrooms, and a floor area of 2,152,782 square feet. Sad to say, it’s only the second largest palace in the world, after the Beijing Imperial Palace.

What the Sultan is probably most famous for – or infamous, to be more accurate – is paying a truckload of money to have seven beauty queens – including two Miss USAs, one Miss Teen USA and the runner-up for Miss United Kingdom – shipped over to Brunei for a “modeling job.” This did not go well, and one of the Miss USA’s, after being held captive there for over a month, smuggled a note to the U.S. Embassy, which basically read, “GET ME OUT OF HERE.”

So, Ken the barber, consider yourself lucky that you got your 23 grand and a plane ticket back to London. And we’ll certainly think twice before we accept one of the Sultan’s very, very over-generous offers to visit.

If you can’t afford to spend $23,000 on a haircut, well, guess what? You can get “The Best Haircut and Straight-Razor Shave You’ve Ever Had, or it’s Free™!” at any Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® location for a lot less. And we mean, a LOT less.

Find out more about us and our franchise business opportunities at http://www.kennedysbarberclub.com.

A Sultan, a Big Payday, and One Lucky Barber

At Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club®, we pride ourselves at placing our customers in the lap of luxury at a very affordable price – and yes, our barbershop franchise has been booming. Still, maybe we’re using the wrong business model.

Apparently, the real barbershop business to be in involves cutting Sultans’ hair.

But let’s back up a moment – and begin with the former record-holder for most expensive haircut: that honor used to belong to high-class hair cutter (excuse us – hair stylist) Stuart Phillips, who is the superstar of hair salons in London. He cracked the Guinness Book of World Records in 2007 – by getting paid a bit over 13 grand to give a Brit a proper trim (and for that kind of money, we expect it should be incredibly “proper!”).

Stuart Phillips’ Salon lobby – we assume those are real diamonds in the light fixtures…

Stuart’s business is still thriving today, despite the recession. Of course, he does offer his clients bodyguards, dog walkers, a private chef, and interpreters – even special scents piped through the ventilation system. So if you want to leave his salon smelling like a rose, you can be assured this man can make it happen.

Our new contender for Stuart’s crown, however, has almost doubled the most expensive haircut record – by getting compensated over $25,000 for one haircut. And yes, this is real money, not the kind you use when you play Monopoly.

The lucky barber in question? Well, it’s yet another London-based barber by the name of Ken Modestou. Apparently only the English know how to get away with overcharging to this degree, a talent we can only dream of possessing.

The Sultan of some place named Brunei (wasn’t that the name of the last Sacha Baron Cohen comedy?) apparently wanted Ken to cut his hair – and no one else. So he booked a private suite on a Singapore Airlines flight for Mr. Modestou (the Sultan supposedly wanted him isolated from the other passengers so he wouldn’t contract the swine flu – and no, we are not making this up) and flew him the 7,000 miles to Brunei (which we just found in Wikipedia – good golly, it IS a country!).

Between the flight, the accommodations in Brunei and the actual payment for the haircut, the bill skyrocketed to over $25,000.

The Sultan: Care for a $30,000 straight razor shave with that haircut?

By the way, don’t worry yourself sick over the Sultan’s overspending getting him into financial trouble. Turns out he’s worth about 20 billion. Give or take a hundred million.

And one final note on The Case of the Outrageously Overpriced Haircut. Modestou’s normal charge for a haircut at his London barbershop?

50 bucks.

This does prove, however, that there is real money to be made in the barbershop business. So you just might want to look over the magnificent franchise opportunities at Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® at http://www.kennedysbarberclub.com.

And you might also want to begin searching for Sultans on Facebook and Twitter as well. Book a couple of them with Kennedy’s memberships and you’re set for life.