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My Beauty Parlour
in the 50's
by Ruthe
 My
Beauty Parlour in the 50's By Ruthe My first beauty parlour started
in my kitchen many years ago, where I gave permanent waves off my
kitchen table. So many of my friends and relatives were always wanting
their hair done, and since I held a State Beauty License I could
work professionally. I began charging a small fee for my hair dressing
services. All were thrilled to get this service, and they knew the
price was right. That's when "my beauty parlour" first began. My
kitchen customers, and neighbors, soon got the word out to others.
A successful business and career, plus 5 million pin curls, were
made during the many years to come.
My husband
and I wanted to move into a bigger house. Our children was almost
school age, so we started looking for a certain location near a
good school, and walking distance from where we would be living.
We found a nice vacant lot in a beautiful neighborhood, near a grade
school that we both had attended. Our plans for building a new home
were about to begin. We both wanted my father, who was a contractor,
to build it for us. He was getting up in age and I was afraid he
wouldn't want to do it, but he agreed and the blue prints were started.
How happy we were to be able to get our loan and a new house to
soon be our home.
When I
look back and see what I did in those days I almost can't believe
it. In 1950 my father built us this beautiful little home. He taught
me and my husband many things to do to help build our home, which
saved quite a bit of money for us, and also helped him while he
did his daily carpenter work. We lived in a rental house that was
not desirable, and we wanted desperately to get our new home built
before school started. I tried to work on our new house as much
as possible. Our children were quite young, and I would have to
take them with me, using a cab to get us there. It was quite an
experience -- me building a house -- almost unbelievable. Of course
the work I could do had to be done inside -- lathing, insulation,
window painting, buffing floors, etc. Things were coming along quite
nicely until an early winter set in with an unbelievable 3 month
freeze. We had much of the inside finished, but the furnace had
not been installed, therefore keeping all the workers from finishing
their jobs, like plastering, electrical, plumbing etc.
School started,
but our son had to miss the first semester. The winter freeze lasted
until March -- the house was completed quickly after the furnace
was in. We moved in though many little finishing touches had to
be done but soon we had most of it done. It was beginning to look
so nice, our very first home to ever own, and to think we helped
so much toward building it. My father was an excellent teacher,
and I will never forget how much he taught us about how to build
a house -- plus it gave us a good self esteem and feeling of accomplishment.
Two years
later our little daughter was entering school, and this gave me
plenty of time on my hands. I decided to put some beauty equipment
in our basement and start my beauty parlour. I kept most of my kitchen
customers, and their friends. I decided to work only 3 days a week,
with no night work, but after a few months I found myself working
day and night to satisfy my steady customers. I needed more space,
plus new equipment, and a housekeeper. My father, and his carpenter
partner, enlarged my work space. New equipment was purchased, and
I found an excellent housekeeper to keep our house clean.
My beauty
parlour was a pleasure -- pleasing my wonderful clientele was most
rewarding to me and to be able to earn a nice salary was quite an
achievement. It helped us afford our household expenses, plus those
extras that we couldn't have had on my husbands salary alone. He
had a nice position with a big company, but it consisted of a large
traveling territory and he was home only on weekends.
A few years
had gone by, and our 16 year marriage was breaking up. His traveling,
and my long working hours were not a good recipe to hold a marriage
together. My beauty parlour was my Godsend. I hired another stylist
to assist, and take over as many of my customers as possible. This
was a must for me with so much paperwork, and incidentals with running
a prosperous business--plus, maintaining our home. I kept the business
going several years, and was doing very well financially. Both the
children were older, and leaving their nest to start their lives
in the big business world. They both were educated well, and beginning
their professions. Our little family of three was all going into
different directions. I was still a young woman, but burned out
as a beautician when an offer came to me. I couldn't turn it down--it
was a traveling position with an international hair cosmetic company.
I closed my beauty parlour after 18 years and moved to Dallas to
become a District Supervisor for the company. I did extensive travel,
covering 7 states, supervising and teaching 15 young women to become
hair color technicians. I became successful at my new profession
and loved my new life. In a short time I became the #1 District
Supervisor in Sales for the whole United States, quite an honor
plus a generous bonus. I stayed with this company for 8 years. Too
much travel forced my resignation, but the most deciding factor
for me to leave this job was a plane crash after coming in from
a hard day of work. The passengers all escaped injury but the shock
took its toll on me. I was almost a senior, and this glamorous position
is for a younger person. I must concede to getting older, my time
has been served, and I must move on.
My replacement
wasn't as lucky as I. She was a beautiful young woman, very well
qualified and was with the company only 6 weeks when she was brutally
murdered in a hotel room. How sad to lose a great person at such
a young age. She was so happy to fill my shoes, and she would have
been a wonderful, dedicated representative making me proud that
I recommended her. A tremendous loss not only to our company but
to her loving family. I will never forget her.
I do often
think of my beauty parlour though, and wonder about my beautiful
customers that I made more beautiful, and how great it made me feel
always to see their eyes light up after they would look at their
new coiffures in the mirror, and the smile on their faces that have
stayed with me to this very day. As I finish my story here I must
disclose a deep secret -- this little salon never had a name nor
was it ever advertised until now. It operated on its own merits,
and served many women of all ages. Throughout these years it has
brought joy, laughs, and a few tears to me, and my great customers.
It was hard to close those doors, but it left me with wonderful
memories for my golden years.
My father,
my new house, my beauty parlour, my successful position, and most
of all my great kids have proven to me that life is certainly worth
living, and where there is a will there is a way. May God be with
each, and every one of you, as He has been with me. I'm a very grateful
person for all the blessings that have been bestowed to me and the
tremendous success of operating "my beauty parlour" 50 years ago.
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