ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 21, 1996 TAG: 9611230008
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
When Louise Larch opened Lark Salon of Beauty on Colonial Avenue in 1966, a shampoo and set cost $2.50 and teasing was all the rage.
When she closed the salon a few weeks ago, a shampoo cost $12 and teasing had, for the most part, gone the way of the beehive.
Larch, who decided to retire after three decades in the salon business, said she feels a little bit like Bob Dole the morning after the election: She doesn't quite know what to do with herself.
"I have had wonderful customers over the years," she said. "I've had them actually pleading with me to stay open. But the time comes. I've had enough, with a capital E.''
Some of her "girls" - she calls all her stylists girls, even though some are as old as she is - had been with her almost since the salon opened. The six who were working when the shop closed all have gone to other salons, Larch said. Many of their clients followed them.
Larch herself isn't a hairstylist, and she knew nothing about cosmetology when she opened the shop. Her husband said he would help her start her own business, and she just picked a beauty salon.
"Why, I'll never know," she said. "I guess I thought there was a lot of money in it."
It was foolish for someone with no salon experience to open a beauty shop, she says now. But despite her naivete, her business thrived. She credits her managers and stylists.
"I've had some excellent hairdressers in here," she said. She started out with six stylists and later expanded to 10. The shop offered hairstyles, manicures, pedicures and facials to its clients, most from South Roanoke.
"We had a clientele from young to 90," she said. All the same, the salon developed a reputation for catering to an older clientele, Larch said. But that was a factor of its longevity more than any marketing plan. "After all," she said, "we started when they were young and I was young."
In the salon's 30 years, Larch employed just one male stylist, she said. But she had plenty of male customers. They came in for haircuts, pedicures, manicures - you name it, she said.
"I've tried to keep up with the times," Larch said. It showed in the salon. On the front wall hung a geometric modern art print. Recent copies of Salon News were scattered on tables and work stations. She and her stylists used to trek up to New York for the annual hair show, where they would collect new style and product ideas.
Even so, you get the idea that Lark's stylists didn't get much call for creating gelled, spiked, pseudo-punk 'dos like the one on the cover of the Salon News lying on the counter.
"When we started out, it was nothing but teasing," she said. "Today, it's mostly just blow dry, or roll and comb out."
Larch has sold all her equipment and plans to lease the building, possibly to another salon.
Her retirement will let her spend more time with a daughter who is blind and lives at home. She also has a son in California and another daughter in Texas.
"I'm just going to take it one day at a time and do things for Louise," she said.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Louise Larch, who called it quitsby CNBrecently, has seen a lot of change in hairstyling since she opened
Lark Salon of Beauty in 1966.