Norway's sprucer with N.C. shampoo.

• Position: Grayson Odell Stamey, founder of Grayson O. Group - People

Norway's sprucer with N.C. shampoo

This summer, heads in Norway became a little cleaner and a little neater thanks to Kannapolis haircare honcho Grayson Odell Stamey. He is the founder of family-owned Grayson O. Group, which makes shampoos, conditioners, gels and mousses.

A student at Carolina Beauty College in Monroe had used a Grayson O. line, liked it and sent a sample to her mother, who lives in Norway. The transplanted North Carolinian wanted to sell the products to Norwegian hair salons. The Stameys sent about 6,600 bottles in June, and in September, she placed an order of 30,000 more.

This isn't Grayson O.'s first go at exporting. The company, run by Odell Stamey, 55, and his son, Van, 29, started sending beauty aids to Puerto Rico in 1985 and Mexico in 1988. About 5 percent of its business is export. In all, it produces 2 million to 3 million bottles a year, most sold to beauty-supply distributors, which sell them to salons.

Grayson O. makes 30 to 40 different products. Its lines include one designed for blacks and one for cleaning wigs and toupees, and it packages for other manufacturers.

Not bad for a company whose first hair potion was concocted in a bucket at Odell...