Friday, Mar. 28, 2008
Keller hair salon celebrates its 30th year in business
By TODD OVERMAN
Started in 1977 by Patty and Ralph Connolly, Hairshow marked its 30th year last year, now owned by longtime employee Tracie Tims.
The model in the ad was the Connollys’ then-13-year-old daughter. “She didn’t want to do it at all,” Ralph Connolly said. “She was not happy.”
It was a rough time for their daughter for another reason, too. Keller ISD had only four schools at the time, and half the salon’s clients were teachers. “If anything went on at school, we knew about it before she got home,” he said.
The longevity has allowed customers to grow up with Hairshow, too. Some of the kids whose hair he cut are now married with their own children, he said.
Although no longer the owner, Ralph still works a few days a week doing hair. He jokes that it’s because Tims won’t let him quit.
The work was something he was bound to do as he married into a family of hairstylists. “My wife took cosmetology in high school, her sister was a hairstylist, and her sister’s husband was a hairstylist,” he said. “Then they talked me into it a couple of years later.”
Keller has grown and changed over the years, and competitors have come and gone.
“There are lots of hair places in town, service stations, businesses,” Ralph Connolly said. “None of that was here when we started.”
That start saw the salon with two hair stylists, one of whom was his wife. Things started out slowly, but persistence paid off.
“They’d sit around all day waiting for someone to walk in,” he said. “I tried to preach to the girls, ‘You have to be here.’ ” Keeping regular hours is one reason why the salon has succeeded, he said.
“Ours had been more of a team; that’s just the way it goes. Times change,” he said. “Keller’s been good for us, obviously. We’re still here.”
New owner
Tims’ roots with the salon go back far, when Ralph cut her hair in high school. She started working with the Connollys 22 years ago as a hairstylist. Eventually, Ralph began hinting that he was looking for a buyer.
“I knew he wanted to sell at some point,” she said. “I thought, ‘I don’t want to own a business.’ I was getting worried about who might buy it. I prayed about it, and here we are.”
She has owned Hairshow for about four years now. “Luckily, I haven’t run it into the ground,” she said.
After she bought the business, Tims said, she knew the physical changes she wanted to make. She painted the walls and had a new floor installed, and has added two rooms for the massage therapists. She has turned the salon into more of a day spa, she said, but on a small scale. It offers massage, facials and nails along with hair styling for what she calls “everyday beauty.”
The widening of U.S. 377 outside the salon’s doors hasn’t really hurt business, Tims said. Hairshow caters more to regular clientele – who expressed frustration at the traffic problems but remained loyal – than walk-in customers. “That’s what saved us,” she said. “It’s much better now and it’s going to be so wonderful when it’s done.”
A challenge in the industry is keeping employees, she said, because many move on to other places. “They’re not like me,” she said. “Like I’m a piece of the old furniture.”
Business has been stable, she said, but she currently has room to grow. Five stylists currently work at The Hairshow, but she has room for two more. There are also two massage therapists, esthetician for facials and a nail technician.
It’s a big change from where the salon started, if only because Keller has changed. “I went to high school here, I’ve seen it all,” she said. “Even though I live in Justin, my heart is in Keller. It has grown a great amount.”
Longtime clients
Likewise, she said, Keller has been good to Hairshow. Some customers have been having their hair done for years there. “We do have several clients who’ve been with us the whole time,” she said.
Keller resident Trenda Russell has been a client of the salon for longer than 20 years. When the Connollys owned the business, Patty styled her hair, she said. “My mother and I both went there.”
Her loyalty comes from liking the people and the job they do, she said.
“She’s very honest, and she’s a good friend,” Russell said of Tims. “I like it because it’s a good hometown salon. It’s not fancy, like some of these places that are coming in nowadays. It’s more like Keller used to be.”
The same feelings kept Tims working for the Connollys for so long. “I felt like I was a part of their family,” Tims said. “It’s the same with everybody who’s ever come in here.
“We’re a family-oriented salon, and we’re dedicated to what we’re doing. We want to serve Keller.”
Hairshow is located at 432 N. Main St. Info: 817-431-1012.
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