Jason Logsdon was taken to the hospital after appearing in court. He was denied bail.
Police said he admitted to the robberies.
Logsdon was enrolled in the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school and has worked on-and-off as a chef, according to authorities.
Court officials said that Logsdon admitted he robbed the salons to pay for his crack cocaine habit. He focused on salons because many women work there, according to authorities.
"We are very confident that we have the right person and the pattern has stopped," Skokie Police Department Commander Brian Baker said.
The first robbery occurred Dec. 26 at a tobacco store next to a hair salon, the last salon robbery was in the 1200-block of North Ashland in Wicker Park Monday, where a witness saw the robber get into a vehicle and took down a partial plate number. Police say the vehicle was stopped twice in Skokie in the last year for minor traffic violations and that the person driving the vehicle matched the suspect description. The vehicle is owned by a woman, who police say had no knowledge of tis involvement in illegal activity.
Logsdon was found and arrested in the 200-block of Lake Street in Elmhurst. He has been charged in 11 of the 15 armed robberies police believed to be linked. Charges filed Wednesday include one robbery in Broadview, five in Chicago, one in Morton Grove, two in Niles and two in Skokie. Logsdon is being investigated for two robberies in Glenview, one in Lombard and one in Bensenville.
"Everybody had a common goal to get the offender off the street, who was terrorizing small business owners," Chicago Police Department Chief Thomas Byrne said.
Charges were filed in Cook County. Police say DuPage County is conducting its own investigation.
Sources say the suspect used a BB gun to hold up the salons.
He is being held in Skokie. Authorities say the reason it has taken a day to finalize all the charges is because Logsdon is implicated in so many salon holdups. As many as six suburbs are collaborating with Chicago police.
The holdups took place from at least last month until Monday. Police believe the suspect robbed a salon in Wicker Park Monday. No one has been hurt in any of the holdups.
