With the promise of a good haircut, Nick Arrojo, the flirtatious hair stylist on TLC’s “What Not To Wear,” is drawing hordes of out-of-towners and New Yorkers alike to an area of SoHo known more for its Holland Tunnel traffic than its cachet.

To accommodate the dramatic increase in business – up more than tenfold in four years – Mr. Arrojo has turned the corner of Varick and King streets into a kind of style mecca. His salon, Arrojo Studio, and its education arm, Arrojo Creative, command more than 4,000 square feet of retail and office space – quite a turnaround for an enterprise that almost went under after September 11.

Arrojo Studio was a dream born in a rough neighborhood of Manchester, England, incubated at high-profile beauty companies, and spun out, replete with ups and downs, in New York City.

As a child, Mr. Arrojo said, he saw music and fashion as his ticket to a better life. Caught up in punk rock at the age of 11, by 14 he was well on his way to becoming a successful deejay in Manchester’s warehouse scene. Even now, house music infuses Arrojo Studio with an upbeat ambience. Once a mere fan of ID and Face, two early style zines, Mr. Arrojo is regularly featured in glossy women’s magazines such as Allure, Elle, and Jane. Recently, he made his debut appearance on “The Today Show.”

Reminiscing about his youth, Mr. Arrojo laughingly confided his infatuation with trends. “One year you was a mod, then you was a punk, a New Romantic, a Goth.” At 39, he is a contemporary businessman, with close-cropped hair and a goatee that barely conceals dimples. His work attire consists of tight, dark pants paired with white boots. It’s clear that he is becoming comfortable with celebrity status, which is, perhaps, merely public recognition of the reputation he has long enjoyed within the industry. A design innovator and teacher, Mr. Arrojo is known as a hairdresser’s hairdresser. It’s a moniker he is proud of.

Trained at the Vidal Sassoon School in Britain, Mr. Arrojo then worked with the beauty company Wella. The experience gave him insight into the beauty-industry business. “There’s behind the chair,” he explained, “running the shop, then there’s education, manufacturing a product line, and then there’s the fashion side and styling – celebrity styling.” (Notably, he plays his celebrity and model ties close to the vest, preferring to concentrate on how he brings out the individuality of more down-to-earth clients.)

Offered the North American artistic director spot with Wella, Mr. Arrojo declined and went to Bumble & Bumble. He then partnered in a Midtown salon. Lessons hard-learned during the fallout from that venture completed another segment of his business training.

Hampered by a non-compete agreement with his former partner, and legally restrained from taking employees with him, Mr. Arrojo showed his mettle by striking a deal with Aveda, whose products he had featured at the Midtown location. He reopened with a staff of five, but no shingle, as an independent salon within Aveda’s Spring Street Salon the week before September 11. Afterward, Mr. Arrojo faced the challenge of rebuilding a decimated business in a defeated part of town. “Basically,” he said, “I just got up every day and went to work.” Then he caught a lucky break.

Among the hairstylists working at Arrojo Studio was Kyan Douglas. When Bravo launched “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” Mr. Douglas was selected to be the show’s grooming guru. Shortly thereafter, TLC invited Mr. Arrojo to interview for an American spin-off of the British show “What Not To Wear.” Mr. Arrojo had never seen it. He called his mother back in Manchester and asked her about it. She hadn’t seen it either. He got the job anyway. Suddenly, Arrojo Studio was in the spotlight. He moved it into a new space and put huge pictures of hair models in all the windows.

Granted priceless contact with millions of weekly viewers, Mr. Arrojo is using the opportunity to build a brand that encompasses all aspects of the hair trade – a brand that will endure. He sees 50 to 60 clients weekly (about 40% from out of town) and is booked three months in advance. He manages 49 employees and conducts classes for professionals on weekends. Mr. Arrojo also travels internationally as a creative special artist for Wella, with whom he partners on products, and devotes a day a week to the TV show. Moving forward, he hopes to build a core of 80 employees.

True achievement will come when he can spend more time with his new wife, Lina, and fewer hours in the salon, confident that clients’ needs are being met by a battery of stylists as skilled as he.

To that end, Mr. Arrojo works to create a solid team. He hires right out of beauty school and trains employees for three years before giving them a chair. Budding stylists work with length and balance, refine the razor-cut technique that is the salon’s signature, and learn how to listen and communicate with clients, an aspect of success that Mr. Arrojo believes is imperative.

He showcases an entourage of more experienced colorists and stylists at hair shows. He also finds opportunities to feature Arrojo Studio specialists on “What Not To Wear.” As he says, “The name on the door is Arrojo Studio. It’s not Nick Arrojo.”

These tactics pay off not only for the employees but customers as well. Women and men who balk at spending $300 for a session with the TV stylist can get a haircut from an Arrojo-trained Academy Team stylist for as little as $60. Similarly, Arrojo Creative always needs heads for its Sunday sessions. People willing to lose at least three inches of hair are welcome to volunteer. The price of an Arrojo-supervised cut drops to $20.

When asked what women want from their hairstyle, he said, “Sleek and sexy.” All the same, clients’ greatest fear, he continued, is that he will cut their hair. “You shouldn’t worry about what’s been cut,” he argues. “That’s just hair on the floor. What counts is what’s left.”

Donna Russell of Long Island, one of the first women to receive a “What Not To Wear” makeover, concurred in a phone interview. When he hacked off her long hair on TV and handed it to her, she was shocked. But there was nothing she could do about it. As Mr. Arrojo progressed, she kept asking herself, “Do I like this? Do I like this?” Somewhere along the line she decided she did. When Mrs. Russell was dropped off at her hotel after the taping, she walked by her husband – who had never allowed her to cut even a strand – and he didn’t recognize her. When Mr. Russell finally realized who she was, he shouted, “Oh my God, I love it.” The haircut made her look younger.

“Yep,” Mr. Arrojo said, “I got it out of her face.”

Mrs. Russell said that after three years, the style still looks great and is easy to maintain. What more could a woman ask of a star stylist?