Drybar has, in its four-year history, unquestionably grown exponentially in terms of size and influence. This year, however, the brand is intentionally taking that expansion down a notch. “We’re using 2014 to slow down and catch our breath a bit,” explained Michael Landau, Drybar’s co-founder and executive chairman of the board of directors. “We really needed to slow down to speed up, letting our infrastructure catch up with our growth and putting the right people and systems in place. Then we plan in 2015 to ramp back up to 15-20 store openings a year.”

Although salon openings have tapered off for the moment, the brand is continuing to expand its range of products and tools, exemplified by their unique blow dryer: a light but powerful piece of equipment that’s used in their salons, comes in Drybar’s trademark bright yellow hue and has a sassy name (Buttercup). It is the company’s best selling sku at Sephora, where it’s in all doors, and is doing well on QVC. New additions to Drybar’s product line include Mai Tai Spritzer, a sea salt spray, with a volumizing spray and minis of key sku’s due later this year.

The other expansion that’s been happening at Drybar is in its management team. In December, the founders—Michael, his sister Alli Webb, and her husband Cameron—brought on John Heffner, who worked at CND and OPI, as Chief Executive Officer. “It’s a perfect fit,” Michael raved. “He has been incredible and has hit the ground running. It’s been an absolute game changer. He’s been part of large companies and managed people but at the same time he’s the kind of guy who rolls up his sleeves and isn’t in an ivory tower.”

Michael also credits investors such as Janet Gurwitch as helping propel the business to where it is now, projected to gross over $60 million this year. (That impressive number is up from $39 million last year, and $20 million the year before, and takes into account 2014’s scaled back salon opening schedule.) Paul Pressler is also an influential investor, as is Castanea, which partnered with Drybar in 2012.

Essentially, Drybar started the current craze for blowout-only salons, which are comparatively inexpensive, centrally located, stylish and unfussy, with a healthy dose of fun. “There’s kind of a formula we’ve developed over the last couple years,” Alli Webb said. “We know what works and what doesn’t.”

In other words, the Drybar formula isn’t as easy to copy as some might think. “Our training is very intense, so that’s a big differentiator,” Alli said. “It’s not about hiring stylists and putting in some chairs and hoping for the best.”

Michael said that as the company has grown, they’ve learned to accept the competition…but not to ignore it. As he puts it, “It was sort of frustrating at first to see people copying us. We’ve come to realize it’s a lot of work to do what we do and we’ve gotten particularly good at it. We’re less concerned by it than we were four years ago, but we still keep an eye on it.”