Joseph Cozza Salon and Spa, San Francisco

Stylist @ Joseph Cozza Salon and Spa, San Francisco

Joe Bisazza @ Joseph Cozza Salon and Spa, San Francisco

Co-Founder and President, Joseph Cozza Salon

Joseph Bisazza oversees all the business operations of Joseph Cozza Salon, including human resources, marketing, business planning, purchasing and client relations. He is the perfect business complement to Joseph Cozza’s artistry – helping to grow and create what is now San Francisco’s largest full-service salon.

Joseph Bisazza was born and raised just outside Philadelphia and moved to California in 1979. His career in marketing began with AT&T, managing the company’s product placement in films shot in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. When AT&T split, he remained with the company’s long distance business and went on to manage marketing and product development for nearly 20 years.

In 1995, Bisazza and partner Joseph Cozza launched Joseph Cozza Salon in the new Gump’s building at 30 Maiden Lane. Bisazza correctly foresaw that the Gump’s and Joseph Cozza brands would ideally complement and enhance each other. The boutique salon quickly gained in popularity, and Gump’s offered the salon additional space within the building.

In 2001, Bisazza recognized an opportunity to expand the business and serve a new demographic by opening a small salon at the Sports Club/LA in the new Four Seasons Hotel. Once again his instincts were right, and Joseph Cozza Salon has since built a large and loyal following of male and younger female clients at that location.

In 2009, Bisazza and Cozza recognized another great opportunity to grow their business when the salon space at 77 Maiden Lane became available – a location with three times the space of 30 Maiden Lane. The team worked to reinvent the space to give it a Fifth Avenue look and feel. The size of the space offered the salon opportunities to expand existing services and offer new ones.

Bisazza is perhaps most proud of the salon’s reputation for attracting, nurturing and retaining the top talent in the style business. Most of Joseph Cozza’s employees from the original salon at Gump’s remain with the salon today, and new employees stay an impressive average of seven years. Clients love this as well, and Joseph Cozza Salon has grown into one of the Bay Area’s most successful salons.

Bisazza is an active member – and the only hair salon representative – of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce as well as the Union Square Association. He is a strong advocate for small business interests, and works diligently with City Hall to create an attractive business climate for them to succeed. He is also actively involved in the national Professional Beauty Association. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Temple University.

Joseph Cozza @ Joseph Cozza Salon and Spa, San Francisco

Co-Founder and Vice President, Joseph Cozza Salon

Joseph Cozza celebrated his 29th year in the business after four years of the opening of his new salon at 77 Maiden Lane -- the largest full-service salon in San Francisco.

One of eight children, Joseph Cozza was raised in upstate New York, and moved to San Francisco in 1981. Cozza began his career in 1985 at the I. Magnin salon, where he met the renowned John diPietro, who immediately recognized Cozza’s exceptional talent. Cozza followed diPietro to his new salon at 77 Maiden Lane, and again when diPietro Todd opened on Post Street. diPietro Todd quickly became San Francisco’s top hair salon, and Cozza was one of its top stylists, requested by the city’s elite as well as by visiting celebrities such as Rudolf Nureyev, Tipper Gore, Laura Bush, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Beverly Sills, to name but a few. Cozza worked at diPietro Todd until the passing of it’s owner.

In 1995, Cozza and his partner, Joe Bisazza, started their own salon above Gump’s at 30 Maiden Lane. It was a small, exclusive “jewel box” of a salon, but quickly gained a big reputation, growing within a few years to three times the original size. To build his staff, Cozza sought talent from outside San Francisco, developing an international team of stylists and colorists who had trained at the best schools all over the world. Cozza knew how to nurture new talent, and many of his original employees remain with the salon today.

In addition to San Francisco’s socialites and local celebrities, Cozza’s clients include Queen Noor, Caroline Kennedy, Tina Brown, Kathy Bates, Cybil Shepard, Arianna Huffington and others. In 2001, Joseph Cozza expanded to the new Four Seasons Hotel, opening a boutique salon inside the Sports Club/LA.

Today, in addition to maintaining a roster of clients, Cozza is a sought-after innovator in the industry. In the mid-1990s, his was the first (and only) Northern California salon to carry Kerastase products. Kerastase’s parent, L’Oreal, tapped Cozza to help develop its new luxury high-end line, Shu Uemura Art of Hair, which is now carried in only five citiess in the U.S., including Joseph Cozza Salon.