Document text
ret.I-10-9
Fi iFhed.F(L.E-9
The Orchid Beauty Shop
1424 ClFyton Street
Athens,GeorgiF;.
Where Beauty is Assured.
f'vned ty Miss Fgzrie Emerick T.1(1 Miss Edna Seeves.
When I opened the door of the Orchid Beuty Shop,I WPS greeted by the
two open tors;in their freshly lrundered orchid uniforms,witil a cheerful
'good morning,what crn we do for you?.
I explained my visit,:'nd asked if they would be kind enough to tell
something about their business Pn6 how they run their shop? They ens-
wered with a rlers#nt grin,nd spid,businesa hes Gone With the Wind. But
we will tell you about our shon.laiii: stay n-ound with U6 for e while and
you will see how the 6-y of a beauty oper-tor goes.
WE open et nine A..7. r1.7' close at five thirty,except on Moryeyr
nd Friday•c:.eningr'hen we st-y o7en late for the te,,efit of the girls
thet=rk ni cE:Jilt get here during the dc,y. Andwe are usuPaly very tUry
on these evenings'jor we h;ve a good nvny_customers 'mong the tusness
girls.
nur work is not so easy ab.most people think it isfor it keerr you
fert Ell y;except for the time that ft ...tikes to give Tr-Tnicureet
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we -like our work,for ye meet so-mny new reorle,as well as our regular:
customers. And we C.o lave such nice customersit is a 7)le• sure to wait on
th:Are erch hve our en€cil customers tht cF11 for us.tul: if either of
us are 'Lucy they run in without n appointment;they are good sports,
t:nd will let the first that get to them do the work.
And we-hnve customers from out of town also,in ft•ct we -Ret e _good
-buSness from the smf--11 towns.We like our customers vnd appreciPte them.,An
.when they keep coming tck to us;then we feel like th-t we 11,cve been able
to rle7-se the -1. Ana we also h're quite few men 7mong our customers,fOr
more -en r7tronize the te-uty shore: th7n you would think. All of our cuOt-
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tomFrs seem to like our shop,and come to see us;even if they don't need_
anyprk done. And one,the &lighter of a banker r7y7that when she opens
the door of our shop thFt it is just like coming into a friendly home.
The door opened,'-nd a. girl came in srying,'did you ever know me to be
-n timej m lteasUsurl, snd in a hurry to catch the lus to AtI.F.,ntF,es I
am going home toeu,y. C,1 you fix me in time? Assuring her that she would
be ready in plenty of time ,one of t:he operstors started to getting her
rendy for a shampoo,set mFnicure.
As she ?shed her hed,theycerried on a friendly convers7-tin.
And the other oner.tor said how do you like our color scheme in ur show)
I looked around the shon ,nd noticing that the 6ressing tbles and chairs
cabf,nets a well as rushions were all acne in orchi black. It V:FS
2c7cly I s•.id so,and aske6 her what gave them the idea for that color
scheme?
She lsw,:hed and snid,"Tell rdly kncx:: or remember now, But back
'in the first of I57) when I was pining,for a shr of my o7n,I.decided
that I would use these colors. I -Went to MolOrs Belity College. in Atlanta
Ga. After finishing the course there,I went to Thomaston Gs. end a
shon. for a women there over e year. Then the nerth of my step -mother
brcht me home.
"After tht, I was needed at home,End could not go br-ck to 7.11:: work.
I worked at home giving shr.mpoos,finer. sves.a
some norm rite wnver,rs
I hod an old machine. Then one of mv friends completed -.beauty course,and
e decided to onen P. shop of our own. We rented this place:or at lest
od it,for lO.a ;onth.
"Ueither of,ur had any.money,and it was e job -to plan to go in busr-
A,
iness. ry brother is a ctnetmkerand he made our table-s,chairs,supply
crbinets F.S welles our displey'cabinets. We did the peinting,ourselves.Rnra
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'how we worked to get things just as we wanted them But FS I have all Waye
r
heurd,where there is a will',they,e is a way,and even efore ,:e Tere
y
for our formal÷openingy customers that I had been waiting on,were Qoming
to the shoo being us to do their work.
"It Was on May the fourth,I97,thnt we had our formal opening. We did.,
I no work work on that day,justiintertined our friends,nd served ice cre-am and
cake. She laughed end said and it was what you cP11 home-made at that,for
we baked the cakesUade the cream and of course the furniture was made by
brother. But we are still using th4nd they look as well as you will
find in any beauty shon.
K
Our other equipment consisted of one old. ,shampoo outfiten old
model dryernd my old per-nt;nent waving machine, We borrowed fifty ',(Dllars
to make nayment &own on a new machine:tut of course it did not Ret here
in time f r our formal opening. Our friends remembered us with flowers,
every table,windows d most of tie floor spece WPS filled with baskets and
It was a happy day for us.
Oh,how -id we decide_ on the name? Well a salesman did that. He was
in getting orders for our sunplies,While we wRe paintingflnd he gave us many
suEstions thot were oT a ,,7ret, help to us,as well as the nameAfor our sho
we were discussing a rihmend he said."w1th your color scheme,I c'nit see
vases of the lost gorgeous spring flowers.
how you can very well c-11 it rlything else excent.The Orchid Shonso he WRE
the one that realy need it.
"It was a herd rull for us for we had so m-ny exrenseean
I of course'
we also had to live on what what we mac';e. Put we sorked hr&built up a
good tr,:deand in December of the same ye,r,we had to have another onertor.
And that is when miss Richards cme with usnd she has been here since thatf
time. She She boupbt on interest in the shop,and the three of us ownedltogether.
And you want to knmw how we managed about the slary? well, there waa three
of usry;e -Ovided the mTney in fourtha tAte- fourth was for the shon:And the
c:
other for us. Some times we had to nut more in for the shop,but we divided
our
slFry even between us.
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"But now we have a very modern shop,equired with all the very latest
equipment. We traded in all of the old machines for new ones, and we keep
up with the new equinmentss well as attend all the beauty shows,for that
is something that is necessary to keep un with the new idess
d different
stles in our line of work. Miss 1Richar(s ,=nd I lawn the shoo now ,as the
ti —t, went in with me at the beginingAhas married nd left town the
first of this year.
We bought out her nart of the shoplyeswe real miss
her,but as business is dull now we are able to manage without having Pny
one else at the nreeent time.
Two lore customers came in, and she excused herself to wait on them.
rThe teleph-ne was continuously ringing;
t
customersA ming pointments
for the week end :nd esPecially for Friday evening. As I looked around the
shop from where I was sitting in a very comfortable chair near the circul-
ating he -ter which furnished the he-th f the sho'nd made it very com-
fortble.
The reception r,-:)om wasjfurnished 7'el=71,A0out comfort5,b14en
overstuffed settec took up one side of the room ,and the telephone F t on
a: small t-tle at one en he settae. By the Thre roT]ble windows uas
the vry moCern manicure t-ble on rollereso that it can be be rolled over
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to the dryers, the customers get their manicures while their hair
is 'clrying,
Tite--4r-F-€44.-8--- The latest tyre of Hoffman °ryers with comfortable
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AM CH4,IPS under each dryer At one eide is R. m7g&zine rack with all the '-te
1L-4,-eM paners -nd magexines in it. Tie reception room is cen?rated from the
other room by an rchway,,,nd I had a good_ v146 of the room, It cont-ined
the "CFFill-:: tables; two them were nl'ce(=. toether,and a long mirr4
went over loth of the tables. I?,7 the 1 .n ows was a t'ble with
a reCio on it. At
ting hair.
e other tile was a large reo7ul-r lo,rber -ha;-
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The Shemroo bPsin and comfortable'reclining chair,was at one side
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of, the room. On one side of it Wee, a tnble of shPmpoo solutions and rinses
also a small c.binet for 141piels. On the other side was a 1Prge cabinet
with towels and shampoo aprons. On the top of it woe bottles, of finger
e:.ving solutions. It was all very clean and attractive. The nermenent
wavin ma.chihe was in one corner of the roomnlso a_ small dryer.
The two dressing tables with the large mirroAihad small shelves on e
each sidejthese were filled with the different kinds of cosmetics that
are.uded in their work. There weP-elso curling irons thrt are used for
marcel wpves.
ors as well YR the custo-lers.
The th.al, was in .9 hurry to get 14.e -y. bus out of town.tcme and.
s/it down neer me,Pnd ,snid She still hrd n few minutes an, 4:1:n7e would cool
off a little before she went out in the cold. I do like to come here,
they are so nice nd friendly with every one. ffid, then to they do such
with
me. But I must get out or I will miss my bus,tellinz the orer-tors good
bye,rnd thPnking them fo heir good wishes for a very plepstnt visit,
she gone.
grand work. I feel like t_i•t I nm just ri.ght when they get through
Eve
thin,, war rlaced where it wee convenient for onerat-
As they fixed the lest two customers under the dryersthe door
opened md a women c -me n,with one arm in a. sling. They seemed very hap-
py to see herX:nd o s they removed her coat nd hnt for her,told her how
they hod missed hernd were so glad that was able to be out again. She.
was e,rly for her arpointment,nd e -id she wanted to rest for a while.
They pulled 7 chair near the heeter,and p1Pced e cushi-n for her arm to
rest on efore the. went tack to their other custorlers.
The customer n -id to -1e,"Aren't they nice,but then they are nice to
every ore. Why we cPn send_ our children do --7n here rid never worry about
how they will Tat the work done. For they cPn do more. with the children
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es,oecially in ?jving them P. permenent,than'7:e can,and the children all
like them.
The two 1Pdies were out from under the dryers'APnd after their hair
had been combed for them they went out. A very young girl,dressed in a
dark wine colored suit c -me in. She ,r7idn4t have an Prpointent,but wanted
.to know y could give her a. shampoo,set,-nd manicure,as she had to got
to a party that evening.
They told her that they could,and one ot' them gave her a. shampoo,
while the other one g ve the woman with a broken -a:rm a hot oil treatment.
AL they lm.s busy with them wom!,,n came in end told them that she was
expecting her son to meet her there rfter school,-nd she had some more
shorpin to do n' if he cme before she got back,to tell him to wait on
her.
As the young :1.-r1 was placed under the dryer,the manicure table
was rolled in front of her;nd by the time her heir was'ary;the man-
icure 'Ps9 finished,r;nd she was rea- to The other customer was -.:!;iven
a manicure while she was under the dryer also ,and they used ,zret care
in workin,-; on he hand on the arm th-t was broken. .As she went out they
-low -bout lunch? lin you eat with uSre fix our lunch here in the
shop. They latOled Ps I looked around,and siAd,come on
trt you haven't sren yet.
e
have -i-lother room
They opened a door at one side of their work room,and we went in an-
other Iage room. It was also one in orchid' black.- It was another wolik
e-r-
room,,s. they called it. Pd R shampoo bPsin, ressin table and permanent,
machine. Also two large supply cbinets,also one for their 'Aniforme..
As
.ird up these cabinets to show t
for thel- waveses well es the D,S tht, were used with it.
em to 4one wes for solut!ons
There were surplies of every. kind t'!"7,4-4* used in their work. And in--
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sire of one -,f the cabinets,was a few dJishes,pans,percolator,caned goods,
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crackersiloread;,and things that would be easy to fix a lunch. And on a- smaiU
table was :n electric rlate ,r-i'd ,::rill. I asked if I mi7ht get somet*
thing far the lunch also. They hesittedo,and then seid,well we would XX
like fo-e you to just eat with us,but if ::ou DOMMIXXXXXXXX had rather
it will be
We planed what we were 2soim-7 to have. I went out and bought some
•c,•_,..‹0,
barbecu;; mestAthey rade coffee,r-Ixe4 soup and toasted brer'd. When I
j..th the meat they hed -.Aie-eta t,ble ne,r the fire,,nd every
-thin was ready. They didntt have any annointments or an hournd ast
we ate our lunch)the t about their work and their homes.
One of them s,We co have such nice cLiV,omers,and we try to
be nice tT themiandwe will not use anything on them that we would not
use on oUr nselves. Some of the cheap soluti7,ns we Th net he in
our shon,We guar- ntec ,-11 of our worketnd to do this we have. to know
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what we are usi:Ig. Th4iore we use enly te beat. Oh, yes, -we h-ve had
to turn down orWontht account. But we eillfnot give a cheap WOW
permnent. Some times it is alrihtj,nd ten gain it is not and the
hair will be ruined. It just dOes not 1 -)ay.
At first some of our customers could, not understand thisV;ut KKW
after they tried the cheap wor4-nd then our workthey didn't want any
more of the cheap waves. And we have built up our business on our work,
Our out- of -town customers tlaat-cams-Ltatiteere nice;they also want the
best,and hardly a week -passes tht, we do not h ave an invitation out
to some of their ces ob parties. And when it is possible we accept
these invitations for we re4y enjoy them.
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we both have to work hardgor we have to help surnort our f milieS•
My Fther ha1th is bad:na I have rly sister and her little 1r1 to
help. I hope to be !'ble to send her through school. I went through
el(
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high school and then hod to go to work, But My
sister nd three brothers thro101 hi4gh school,rnd I hone thr,t I can at
lest -,h,t much for my little ne e. Her mother keeps house for us rnd
looks after our Dad. But I have a very nleaseht home,rnd we have our
dry time I
sent all of US my
friends in for cRrds and dinner. And. when I am at home in the
like to work in our flowers or I like flowers of 913 kinds,r,nd then it
is not any trouble to get away for a day, on Sundays in the car. And we
very often do that.
Miss Richr,rOs 1st hr FI:t•hertand she rid her brother are tryinor
to seri:their younger brothers through school. So you see we,h-ve our ob-
ligations to meet. But we very often to movie f•ter we close the shop
or play crds with our friends and so -le times with our customers. And our
shop hours are such thFt we c n get away for the weelsiend in our car,and
be back in time for work on Monday morning
B Ut the post month has been the, worst one that we hove had sines
we have been in burliness. Of course it is lways dull right after MIX
Christmas but never so bad as the past month. Our busiest times ore,just
before Easter,for the ladies must have hhiei, hair fixes for the new EasteR
bonnet. And the fall of the ye r is good1But the last week before Christmas
is when we ere ruFhed to death.
We also get cliet a bit of work from the school girls when they
are planing for their dances and tritert.inments. And especiallY' during
the summer,for there is always something being planted for the summer
school girls. But business is not what it use to be.One thing is beceueE,
-there -.re so many beauty shops here. Athens is not large enbuh.to support'
them all. Yet I guess we do. fairly well considering the dull season and
so many shopsbesidesthe opertora that to this work in their homes.
We try to kecp our prices in y-Fnge with the other shops. But
what hurts the shops,24-0 the operators in their homes. Thry do not 11,,ve
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the over head expenses of a shop,and therefore can do the work so much
cheaper than we can. And of course that helps the people that do not feeIl
like they can go to a beauty shop.
Most of our work is done a cash basis;but we have our charge account.
for some of our regular customers
nd it is not often that we lose any
thing in this way. But we have lost a. littlthat way. We iv--ve a good
line of cosmetics that we can recomend to our customersnd sell a great
deal of it. But we do not recomend any that we would not use ourselVes,XX
and our customers have confidence in "hat 're yi
Yet after all
the beining. For we
from just enou,-Ji equipment for one booth,we have as you see three rooms
nd,
guess we have made good with the start we had in
onened our shop on e credit
borriowing the money. And
well equiped with modern machines. Our rent has increased from the orig-
ins]. $10. to $25: a minth. Our gas ,electricty, md water are reasonable
for the 'mount that we use.
WE lEve e 111P1_6_ that comes in and does the cle.ningiafter she gets
out of school. She is just a girl but she is very smsrt,'nd we he 1.ter
',,11- t, de can keep her -11 the tile. We only ptwy her a dollar aT week,Pnd
some times more especially when she works all y on Saturday. But we help
her with her clothes for school. S he is well s-tisfied and wants to stay
with us.
As the old.saying goes V:ve still count dur pennies, for we nut aside
enou:11 to t.ke care of our shopefore we t,ke any for ourselves. Of MN
course since there are only two of u0 -$t will mean more each way. But
when there wilit4Ahree of us we seldom drew under $I6or'1,48r cle-1-1--.-1-e- a week
but some ',1-1-,9 it Is less Al sole tiles it is lore,bat it all amounts
1
to how much business we rTo. But Ps I said we still t ke care of the shop,
and pay our bills promply.
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io not belong to any union,nd if there is one here we have never
herrd of it.nd we keep in touch with all the other shops. During the sum-
mer we cooperate with the other shops and the storesy closing one after-
noon during the week. And when there was three of us,then we each took one
day e week off during the dull season. This gave us a rest -,nd also a
ch-nce to o -ny work that we mi,c2ht want to do at hcrie.
And we will have to plan 9 little different this yePr for our I/PC
ions. We h-ve each been t, -king two weeks off. But onecan't run the shop
I guess we will h -we to just ;et SDA.? pa? tp :/ork while we t,Ake our vacT4—
loas. But that is a long time off isn't itknd I guess that we had better
get our dishes cle-red up\r or it is about time for appointments. And one
of them is a young man.
It did nci t ke long to get our dishes washed up and nut away. I
had realty enjoyed the lunch and told them that I did. 7!i,s 71Chnr"S
A '4
f
this N4x4y often of cou-se when 1,e ,-,re busy -Pn't -o
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But we enjoy it; nd we Pre:lad that you ate with usin stead of going
out to lunch. Sometimes we h-ve customers that like to eat with us. And
they very often sen6 us c,ndy that they m.ke,Pnd some of our customers
,-end us cakes,-nd they are delicinus.
The door onenPd -nd m n c -me in. I thou -ht it would be the man
customer. But 1 was a salesman from one of the sunply houses They
asked him T.-_hy he was lnte that he 'should h-ve been hare two .1.-jsbeorej
t they couldn't wait qid had Plre-dy o-dered. He laughed .nd said,
well I am sure the ,orc-er went into our house just the sPme For I know
what you girls use d we re the only neonle that carry the best. They
laughed but admitted the order went to his house. He t-lked a few minute5
then thanking them for tvie .ent -)1t.
—lcs loss said he w -s ri/h- .t that,we get what we think is our
very best solution rom him. But we also get supplies from AtlrntP.,
and South Carolinkit And there is hardly a day passes thet we
not have' a. renic4aentive from one of the supply houses. It is not often
that they let us hve to send the order ourself.
As she finished talking two customers came inAand one of them was
is man. I was very ani4ous to see what work he would have done. He had
a shampoo and m7tnicure,and was qui
particular about the manicure. More
so than an:7 of the ladies had been esnecially tbout the polish. After
he had left the other custOker mnde a comment on seeing a man in a beauty
shop. The onerators told her that they had several regular customers
among the men.
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Every —one that cfliOe in the shop seemed very much at home,rnd KKK
there was a friendly conversation among them all. The lady came back to
meet her son. He came in and showed his report card to them all. It was
a very good. report and he was 'congrtulted on it. His mother said she
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was afraid that it wouldn't be so ;;c1c) this time as he had lost so much
time Aaile he ci.s sick. They went out to finidh their shonping,learing
his books in the shop.
The telephone rnigii,one of. the opr=rators answered -aid, I am
sorry but I will not be able to take any more nrpointments for today.
would you like to co -le to 1-)--,-);/? That was evi ontl, c;r-e-able s'ae
said,a itht I will put you own for thirty in the morning. Turn
ing to me Fhe said I h-ted to o thtbut we do not t ke more than we can
take care ofanz, I on't feel that people like to sit around -ma waitat
is to ti—=sone.
AS she waited for her customer
we are going out to a bridge party to night -nd know that we will enjoy
it. And this week end we are going out to an old country square dance.
You should o with us sometimes to one of these.or you would enjoy it,:
eework hard,but we also like to get out and enjoy life. And I think every
to get her hair dried
she said,"
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one should get a little pleaiurs as
as work
I knew thet they would have no moretime for me,es it would keep
them busy until it ws tire for them to close sllop. And I thilked
7.)r tia9 story and for tIr pleasure of hLving lunch with them. Telling
me -"bye ,the F-i6..come back to see us again. we h!,Ive been glad to have
you with us. 4