KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — An East Tennessee business has reached an impressive milestone. Ross the Boss & Company in Knoxville just turned 45 years old.
Ross Badgett IV marked his salon’s milestone with a larger-than-life balloon and celebratory cake. He also honored longtime stylist Jackie Ault, who’s been with Ross the Boss since day one. Many of her clients come close to that, like Mark Nelson who said, “I’ve been here since 1984, probably. I don’t know, do you know?” he asked Ault. They agreed, “a long time.”
Most of Ault’s 45 years with the company was spent working for Ross Badgett III who purchased two bankrupt salons and turned them into Ross the Boss and Company.
With the salon sounds of busy blow dryers in the background, Ault remembers the styles that captured hearts here back in 1978.
“It was big with the Dorothy Hamill wedge. There was Captain and Tennille. I don’t know if you remember them; the little Tennille undercut thing, we did a lot of that,” she said.
Ault is one of several Ross the Boss employees who chose to make their life’s work here. Badgett told WATE that eight employees have worked there for 40 years or more, a rarity in the industry.
“I’m not ready to give it up yet,”‘ she said.
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There are now eight Ross the Boss locations in our area.
