New coiffure can help put spring in one’s step

There’s something very uplifting about getting your hair done. Aside from the rare bad cut or color mishap, what woman doesn’t walk away from the salon feeling like a million bucks? Being well-coifed is guaranteed to put a smile on your face and a spring in your step.

That’s certainly true for Bobbie Travis, 77, who has her hair done every week at D’Lor Beauty Salon in Bangor.

“It’s partly for the mind. It’s the most pleasant and relaxing thing I do,” said Travis. “I fell in love with the way [stylist Teresa Millett] treats me and my hair.”

Millett weaves her magic with Ida Schiro, 97, as well.

“I’ve had my hair done all my life. I’m conceited for an old hen,” said Schiro, with a devilish twinkle in her eye and a wide grin. “But it does make me feel better.” Her weekly appointment is seldom missed.

Bette Clark, 69, who has owned D’Lor for more than 30 years, understands the sentiment.

“We always did, and many still do, have a set every week and a perm every three months,” she said. “They feel good about themselves and that makes it easier to look at the rest of the world,” she said of her senior clientele.

“My mother is 93 and in a nursing home. She still has her hair done every two weeks. It is still important,” she added.

“I have two or three clients in their 90s and if the weather is OK they come in every week,” said Ruth Wert, 56, a stylist at Kathy’s Hair Fashions in Bar Harbor since 1966. Clark also owns Kathy’s. “They never learned how to do their own hair, they always came to a salon. And they don’t want their hair to look messy.”

Clark and Wert have seen many changes in the beauty business through the years.

“We don’t do up-dos now -everybody had up-dos back then,” said Clark. “And back then you’d be in the shop for an hour and a half, a lot of people longer than that. Those styles took time.”

One thing that hasn’t changed too much is a woman’s desire for color at any age.

“Many seniors are still coloring, but usually a lighter color than they did in the past, while highlighting is very big with the younger people,” said Clark.

Wert agrees. She sees some clients only when they need coloring, usually once every month or six weeks. Unlike seniors, these clients come in to have their hair specially “done” only for an event such as a prom or wedding.

But a few members of the shampoo and set crowd have relinquished their previous ways.

“People used to sit under the dryer a long time. For some, we now do a cut and blow dry and they’re gone,” said Clark. It is the clients’ preference, added Wert.

“It’s a very interesting business,” said Clark. “Clients tell things to their hairdressers that they wouldn’t tell anyone else, even close friends. The girls are psychologists to a point.”

It is really a matter of trust. The image we present to the world is quite often determined by the woman or man standing behind our chair, as we sit – freshly shampooed and vulnerable – facing the mirror. The stylist is like family.

This is especially true at D’Lor, where two of the stylists are second-generation employees.

“It’s a friendly place, a family type,” said Clark.

Always was. I still remember watching my mother have her “up-do” there every week when I was a child. As much as the business may have changed, the essence of D’Lor remains the same.

Carol Higgins is director of communications at Eastern Agency on Aging. For information on EAA, call 941-2865 or log on www.eaaa.org.