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Making gray gorgeous Photo by Bob Penn Sally Stone, owner and lone employee of the The Wild Hair Wig Outlet in Medford, says her supply of gray hairpieces mirrors the graying of the Baby Boom generation. Owner of wig store specializes, but stocks colors, too By SARA MURPHY Straight, curly, long or short, Sally Stone's customers can change their styles from blonde to brunette, peppered to platinum, almost as fast as she can say the word wig. "Anymore, a woman can be whoever she wants to be," says Stone, owner of The Wild Hair Wig Outlet on Medford's East Jackson Street. "You don't have to look like that. You can have whatever look you want, almost in the blink of an eye." Though there are several shops in the Medford area that cater to covering the human scalp, Stone's specialty is the color she wears on her own head -- gray. She stocks seven styles of wigs in 15 shades of gray, and colors from strawberry blonde to black. "My thought is, `Let's make gray gorgeous,"' Stone says. Stone sticks to the line that a true lady never tells her age. "Just because my hair is gray doesn't mean I'm senile," she says. Stone says she wore wigs in the 1960s, hiding her waist-length brunette locks beneath a short blonde 'do, but didn't take up selling them until about four years ago, when she owned the Wild Hair Salon in Talent. Not a stylist herself, Stone had trouble finding beauticians for the salon and closed that shop several years ago to specialize in wigs. She shares space with her husband, Orlin, who owns Stone's TV Service, a cornerstone of Jackson and Marie streets for 29 years. The wig shop opened three years ago in a tiny corner of the store but has expanded to fill two rooms -- one for display, the other for storage and styling services. Now the Stones' daughter, Robin Stoeckert, also sells Wild Hair wigs from a beauty salon in Myrtle Creek, and the Medford shop has gone online. It's a fun job, says Stone, who has packed fruit, coordinated volunteer programs and owned a full-service wedding shop over the years. "I don't get bored doing this because there's always something I can do," says Stone, who also thinks up new services for her shop such as sewing turbans for chemotherapy patients who don't want to wear wigs. Stone says chemo patients are fairly common customers, but she also gets business from people who are balding and those who never had thick hair. Many of her customers are just looking for a change. She sells extensions and falls, rats and bubbles, toupees and claw clips. The hair can be synthetic or human, and people can buy full-coverage wigs or just a few sprigs. "I have younger girls who don't want to mess around with (their hair) anymore, older women who are going through chemotherapy and men who come in for toupees," Stone says. "I have the whole shtick." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA