Loyalty in style

Make no mistake about it. Electric curling irons and blow dryers play an important role at Top Options Hair and Nail Salon, but it’s the plastic curlers that keep many of the clients coming back week after week. “We did six or seven shampoos and sets this morning,” hairstylist Vangie Duffey said recently of the dying technique of dolling-up hair with simple rollers.

The shop is one of about 15 small businesses at Heritage Square, 9421 N. Division St., north of the “Y.” Owner Eileen Moffitt owned a shop on Garland for 10 years before she took over one of the 20 spaces in the strip mall in January 2003.

“It’s a bigger location, better landlord and has potential for growth,” Moffitt said.

Last summer, Duffey closed her shop after 14 years, and she and her troupe of veteran stylists went looking for a new home. She approached Moffitt, whose business went from part-salon/part-gift shop to full-service family salon, complete with a tattoo-removal artist who leases space in a cozy office.

Remarkably, the six independent stylists have 185 years of cutting, curling and coiffing experience between them. Christine Cassano leads the pack with 50 years. Moffitt’s daughter, Kelli Moffitt, is the baby with five years at the chair.

“We take care of husbands, wives, children and children’s children,” Eileen Moffitt said.

Many are loyal, which is not unusual in the hair and beauty world, where clients follow their stylists from shop to shop.

But mention “old school” to these loyalists, and they’ll think the subject has turned to 73-year-old Rogers High School. Many of the women have kept their routine of getting their hair washed and set once a week. And yes, some styles involve teasing, or what is euphemistically referred to as “back combing.”

“We can basically do it all,” Duffey said, “where you don’t see that in a lot of shops anymore.”

While the shop’s techniques may seem old-fashioned to some, they’re newfangled to others, like Jack Babcock. He’s 105.

Duffey has been cutting Babcock’s hair every five weeks for the past 20 years.

On his 100th birthday, she told him the haircuts will be on her from now on.

“He told me, he’s going to live until 115,” Duffey said. “That was five years ago.”