Regis Salons has tapped Story Worldwide to custom publish a new quarterly magazine, The Hair Book.

Starting Monday, April 6, 300,000 copies of The Hair Book will be distributed exclusively at Regis Salons' 1,100 North American locations. The magazine will be supplemented by a Web site, TheHairBookOnline.com, which also is slated to launch Monday. Regis Salons' core customers are fashion- and trend-conscious women.

“We wanted to create a hair-specific fashion publication that we could display in our salons to show clients all the different things they could do with their hair,” said Mary Kiley, SVP, marketing, Regis Corp. “The intent was to be a catalyst to create more conversation between stylists and clients.”

Regis interviewed three different publishers before settling on Story Worldwide, which will be working with internal marketing teams at Regis to create a cohesive brand image. The company has never attempted a custom publishing project before.

“We really loved Story's proposed approach and the way they handled the publication and the online components,” Kiley said. “They really do know how to tell a narrative and create an interaction.”

The Hair Book features tips from stylists, trends and beauty advice. There are some ads from beauty brands such as OPI and Paul Mitchell. Polly Blitzer, founder of beauty site BeautyBlitz.com, is editor-in-chief.

The Web site will center on a blog regularly updated by Regis stylists and celebrity hair experts. TheHairBookOnline.com also will feature videos on styling and celebrity hair. Regis will drive users to the site using SEO and social media, including a Twitter account and Facebook page.

“Through the online components, we want to prospect for new clients, but we want to do it in a way that showcases the expertise of our stylists,” Kiley explained. “Most Regis Salons are located in high traffic areas like malls, and historically they have fed off that traffic and used really strong in-store marketing and occasional direct mail, but often the returns were challenging. The online components are more cost-efficient.”

She added that the company expects to develop a strong viral marketing presence because the online components make it easy for customers to refer friends to the salon. Regis will create an e-mail marketing database through contests and giveaways on the site.

Regis Corporation, parent company of Regis Salons, Supercuts, Sassoon Salon, MasterCuts and others, reported consolidated revenues of $655 million for the three months ended December 31. Revenues were down 4% compared to the same period in 2007.