SHEARLY CONFIDENTIAL

It was five days before Christmas 2005, and the rush to look beautiful under the mistletoe had scissors endlessly snipping at the Capri Hair and Nail Salon. The humid trace of ammonium thioglycollate stirred in the air, along with the sawing noises of buffing blocks sanding down thick fingernails and the endless chatter of clients disclosing their most personal secrets.

Here, at 15605 E. Sprague Ave., the bottles of product were sitting half-empty at styling stations where stylists toiled to make the “real you” look real.

This place, this confluence of Spokane Valley residents being “put together” for the holidays, seemed like the perfect site for the December Valley Voice profile of a community hub.

Gathering places like this are featured in the Voice the final Saturday of every month. We could have picked any beauty shop, but chose this one because on the day we stopped by there wasn’t a still pair of scissors in the business.

This is where people let it all hang out.

After all, this is where they know that your hair isn’t really naturally curly, that your lips are somewhat thin, that time really isn’t on your side. Not to mention that from the time you take your coat off and sit down, the experience is all about you, especially the talk.

“People tell hairdressers things they will never tell anyone else,” said Marsha McDermott, who bought Capri just a few months ago with partner Michelle Danielson. “My first client – I was working in Seattle – she sat in my chair and told me she was having an affair. She told me everything.”

As that first client unloaded, McDermott listened quietly in disbelief. And she’s been listening ever since.

There’s nothing like attorney-client privilege in the beauty business, no HIPAA-type rules that keep doctors from spilling the beans about someone’s colitis.

There is, when it comes to letting someone’s secret slip, the real likelihood of losing not one customer, but most or all customers, like firecrackers tied to the same fuse.

Salon customers come in threes, fours, 10s and 12s. It’s entirely possible for one stylist to coif the hair of an entire bank branch, coffee shop, or tight-knit family, provided the first cut sparks a recommendation.

“Joelle Chester’s sister referred her to her hairdresser with the instructions, ‘You got to go.…’ ” Chester’s sister had been referred to the hairdresser, Michelle Danielson, by a co-worker.

That referral was nine years and many children ago. There are now 10 members of Chester’s family who get their hair cut by Danielson.

On the Wednesday before Christmas, Chester sat waiting as her daughters, Kendra, 10, and Jessie, 14, took their turns in the chair. The mother planned on bringing her son by for a trim the following day.

“She makes me comfortable, and she remembers everything about every one of us,” Chester said of her hairdresser. “She always remembers what’s happening in my life, and she always asks how’s it going.”

For Tracy Daelyn, Capri Salon is the transformation station for the “Glitter Girls,” a tight-knit group of women three generations deep in her family. The ladies love cosmetic glitter, which can be sprayed all over one’s body for a sparkly finish.

Daelyn’s aunt then composes pictures of the family divas posing in front of exotic, far away places, like the Taj Mahal.

McDermott is the repository for the women’s secrets. It falls on the hairdresser to keep the women’s collective story line together while keeping their more personal details away from each other.

Daelyn shows up McDermott’s manicure table every other Monday with the reliability of a nun going to Mass. The two women chat with an intimacy rivaling that of old friends or client and therapist.

Daelyn talks while McDermott sands, paints and buffs. On weeks when Daelyn can’t make her morning engagement, she catches up with McDermott at day’s end with a bottle of wine and ample gratitude.

“I’ve been doing Tracy’s nails for four of five years, and we’ve become friends,” McDermott said. “I see her more than I see my family.”

Salon appointments are seldom broken, however and older clients will book their appointments months, if not an entire year, in advance.

“Oh, I know women who schedule their vacations around their hair appointments,” stylist Lynne Boatsman said. “They’ll reschedule doctor appointments but not their hair appointment.”

Her appointment book for 2006 is mostly full already.

“One gal referred to (hair appointments) as like landing at the airport,” Boatsman said. “You got one chance to land, but if you miss it, you may have to circle in the air for hours before you land.”