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The scissors sisters Mail Tribune / Jim Craven From left, sisters Judy Welch, Doris Hanna and Bobbie Meyer have cut tens of thousands of heads of hair since they started in the business back in the late �50s and early �60s. They�ve seen and done it all, they say, with some styles making a comeback again and again. Come to these three with an idea for a new hairdo, and chances are they�ll have seen it before. After all, they�ve done �dos for about four decades each. Now they�re working together for what one of them calls their �last hurrah.� By Jessica Smith From beehive to bob, pin curls to pixie, flip to Farrah � these three sisters have seen it all. After more than 120 years combined in the hairdressing trade, Judy Welch, Bobbie Meyer and Doris Hanna say they�ve done it all, too. "We�ve gone through everything," says Meyer. "There�s nothing new under the sun." With scissors, straight-edge razors � even broken pieces of glass � they�ve each cut and styled tens of thousands of heads of hair since the late �50s and early �60s. "Everything is retro," says Welch, sitting in the salon she shares with her sisters, who nod in agreement. The simple, short bob has come and gone at least four times since 1960, they say. And women recently began asking for the flip, an ends-turned-up hairdo that looks fresh after a hiatus of more than 30 years. Along with the changing hairstyles have come changes in the sisters� lives. The three were born and raised in Medford but were separated in the 1960s when Welch moved to Roseburg and Hanna relocated to California. When Welch and Hanna moved home in the �90s, the trio reunited and soon after decided to close their individual businesses to open The Hairdressers salon on Black Oak Drive. "This is kind of our last hurrah," Welch says. "I missed my sisters," says Hanna, who lived in the Bay area for 30 years. "I�ve had the chance to get to know them again in a different way, and I think that�s pulled us together." Working together has taken some getting used to, the sisters admit, but they insist they had no real problem adjusting. "There was never a hatchet that had to be buried," Welch says. "But we are such diverse personalities." Meyer � the first to graduate Medford Beauty School in 1958 � is the middle sister, a no-nonsense 60-year-old businesswoman. Welch, who decided to leave college for the beauty biz in 1959, is the bubbly big sister at age 61. And baby sister Hanna, who took up the trade in 1963, is a gentle, quiet woman who celebrated her 58th birthday Thursday. She was licensed to practice massage therapy in 1989. Their salon, which they consider a halfway step to retirement, makes room for what each does best. All three cut hair, but Welch specializes in colorings and permanents. Hanna also keeps busy with as many as five massages a day in the tiny parlor she keeps at the rear of the salon. Struggling with aching arms, throbbing fingers and sore feet, they�ve cut back from the 10- and 12-hour days they used to work five to six times a week. The salon stays quiet � save for muffled voices, the snip of scissors and the occasional hum of a sit-down dryer. The sisters have enclosed work stations to give one-on-one attention to clients. They say they�re proud of the fact their place is nothing like old-school salons, where gum-smacking peroxide blondes gossiped while they set heads of hair in rollers and finger waves. Those were the days before back-combing. No one had even heard of a hand-held hair dryer. Those were the days, too, when beehives made the perfect spot for black widows� nests. Hanna learned that little tidbit when a girl in beauty school discovered one of the venomous spiders in her client�s towering �do. "She just screamed," Hanna says, laughing now. And Welch can laugh now about the time she turned a client�s hair pumpkin orange. Turns out the woman�s shampoo contained copper, which reacted badly with the chemicals used to dye her locks. But early hair-raising experiences didn�t scare the sisters away from their career choice. "We know our business so well," Meyer says. "Why would we quit and do something else?" They stuck with it, practicing and learning every day how to cut hair and shape hair that flatters the face. Angie Adee of Medford began visiting Meyer when she was 10. At 34, she says she�s never felt comfortable letting someone other than Meyer or Welch touch her tresses. "I can come into them and just say I want something different," Adee says. "I�ve always really trusted their judgment." Even with 16,534 licensed hairdressers in Oregon to choose from, clients come back for what they know, the sisters say. And they know it all. They�ve coaxed hair into curls with pins, rollers and electrical shocks. They�ve trimmed tresses with candle flames to eliminate spilt ends and layered hair with cut glass. They�ve made high school girls feel grown up with French twists and soothed recovering cancer patients with short cuts that suit their unruly new hair. They�ve kept up on the latest advancements in coloring and perming. They�ve learned "precision" cuts and taught themselves how to style hair with a hand dryer and round brush. They�ve attended seminars and classes to rediscover tricks they�d forgotten. They�ve turned their hands into well-oiled machines, tools they use to keep clients happy. And if this threesome has learned anything in the past 40-odd years, they say, it�s that happy customers make for a long career. Reach reporter Jessica Smith at 776-4481, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.