KMEG Recipient: Samson's Haircare
Haircare Done Right
October 27, 2025Established in 2016, Samson’s Haircare is a maker of men’s hair-care products that has grown exponentially over the last decade. Co-owned by Adam Muncy and Jake Hamlet and located in downtown Kalamazoo (254 E Michigan Ave, Kalamazoo, MI 49007) and Portage, Samson’s produces and sells products alongside their brick-and-mortar barbershop.
Samson’s Haircare is a grant recipient through United Way’s Kalamazoo Micro-Enterprise Grant (KMEG) program. We caught up recently with Adam Muncy to talk about his inspiration, what Samson’s has done for his life, how KMEG helped his business, and his advice to business owners in Kalamazoo.
The start of Samson’s Haircare
So Jake Hamlet was originally my barber and I was a banker, but I didn’t really love banking. He told me one day that he was going to start creating hair products and I was sold.. He’s the formulator and does the production side of things, and then I do everything else. We also own the barbershop together, which opened in August of 2020.
What are some struggles you’ve had as a business owner?
Our largest struggle as a business has been that every time we have a new space, it’s good for six months to a year. Then we outgrow it and are struggling for six months. We’ve gone from the back of a bakery to the barbershop, to a basement, to the Gibson Amplifier factory. We now share a spot with Kalamazoo Candle Company, and that’s been wonderful.
Have you used other resources in Kalamazoo other than the Kalamazoo Micro-Enterprise Grants?
Yes, we just got a Can-Do Grant, which is all being used on equipment. That is the biggest need for us a majority of the time. We are kind of in a grey area of products, so we take a lot of cues from the craft beer industry. It’s a lot of investing in machinery and that sort of thing. That’s where a lot of the grants end up.
How did you figure out what you were doing with hair-care products?
It was just trial and error, really. Jake is the creative side of it and most mornings will involve him having another product for me to try and I have the opportunity to give tweaks and input on whether this product is cool, or if the market just isn’t ready for it.
How has KMEG helped you, and how can it benefit other small businesses?
The benefits for us I would say was to think of it in terms of assets -what you can use going forward. Don’t think of it in terms of cash flow, but assets. You’re always going to have bills, so you always have to think of grants in terms of assets that are going to generate income.
How do the barbershop and product side of the business intersect?
They are technically separate entities, in case we potentially sell the hair care at some point. I don’t think Jake will ever be able to stop cutting hair in some capacity. They are very codependent on each other, though. I see the barbershop almost like a tasting room for a brewery. We can try out products on clients, and it gives us an advantage where if Jake comes up with a formula and it makes it to the barbershop, that means he and I have already tested it a dozen times. From there, if it makes it out of the barbershop to be tested by retailers, that means it’s already been tested on a thousand heads in the barbershop. It’s a really good proving ground.
Anything else?
Even if you don’t know if your business qualifies, apply anyway. Think outside the box for what your business can actually use and what would be useful to grow your business and sustain your business.
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