The magazine's second annual Salon Today 200 profiled the selected salons in its January 1999 issue. The list was selected from applications submitted by Salon Today readers, who represent the 25,000 top-producing salons in the country. The magazine honored the applicants who posted the highest increased in gross sales between 1996 and 1997, and who were on track to increase sales significantly in 1998.

"We created the Salon Today 200 as a forum of inspiration for the industry," said Michele Musgrove, editor in chief of Salon Today. "This issue not only celebrated the hard work and dedication of the honorees and their staffs, but by sharing the facts and figures behind their salon success stories, it helps other readers grow and improve their businesses."

For a salon to be named to the Salon Today 200, it had to meet the following criteria: 1) The salon is a provider of professional salon services including one, or more, of the following: hair care, nail care, skin care, body care or spa treatments; 2) It generated gross annual service and products sales revenues of at least $100,000 per year since 1996; 3) The salon's revenues were greater in 1997 than 1996; and 4) The applicant charted his or her financial growth for the past three years and shared information about the product and service categories that fueled its growth.

Upward-bound salons of every type and size participated and were showcased in the issue. To help the magazine's readers benchmark their own businesses against the honorees, the Salon Today 200 coverage was broken down into four revenue categories: 76 were profiled in the $100,000 to $500,000 category; 53 in the $501,000 to $1 million category; 50 in the $1 million to $2 million category; and 21 in the $2 million-plus category.

Salon Today and its sister publication Modern Salon are published in Lincolnshire, IL, by Vance Publishing Corporation.