Shampoo, styling, rinsing, coloring — Ann Corner has been working with hair for more than five decades. Retiring last week after a final five-year stint at Grondin's Hair Center, Corner reflected on a career that has forged friendships, provided a living and kept her learning all the time.
Paging last week through a detailed scrapbook of her career, put together by her daughter, Corner recalled the many good times.
"I loved it, I loved meeting the people — it was the most interesting life," she said. "I didn't realize I was going to do that, build relationships with clients."
Corner attended beauty school part time and was one of the older students there, already married with children, the youngest of whom was four. She had always liked doing hair, and had been informally styling for a few years before her formal training. Corner really wanted to be a barber but the course cost more and required relocation, so she enrolled in the Northwestern Beauty Academy.
Graduating in 1959, Corner first worked at a shop downtown. At the time there were only a half dozen or so hair styling salons in town, she recalled.
Living with her family in Grawn, she began chafing at the long commute. In the early 1960s, she opened Hair Styling by Ann out of her house, the small one-room operation offering ladies haircuts for $1.50 and children's cuts for $1.
People questioned her decision to set up so far from town when Grawn was a sleepy small town, but she was determined and turned a profit. In fact, because of the dearth of styling salons around the region, she had clients traveling to her from as far away as Frankfort and Glen Lake.
"I wanted to have my own salon at home where I could raise my children," said Corner, a Traverse City native and Traverse City Senior High graduate. "I figured if I can make $25 more than I spend"¦"
Her location in Grawn and later at another shop on Silver Lake drew many clients associated with the Interlochen Arts Academy's summer music camps. The homey atmosphere, featuring coffee and treats, often brought by clients, made time there fun. Some women returned to her every summer for decades and a scrapbook of her career includes post cards, photos and letters from them.
"I have gotten close to many customers over the years," Corner said. "I did hair by sign language during the Interlochen national music camp one summer when [the clients] didn't speak English."
Corner retired for the first time 11 years ago but was lured back into the profession when Milliken's asked her to come aboard. She worked there for six years until they closed and then went to Grondin's Hair Center. She worked part time there, two or three days a week, until last Friday.
During her career, Corner has seen styles come and styles go, bouffants morphing into natural tresses, bleaching transformed into high tech highlights. Ultimately, though, hair can only go so many ways: up or down, short or long, all in the pursuit of beauty.
"I think hair is one of the most important things to a woman," she said. "Whatever you see on TV is what they will be promoting."
One era remains etched in her memory: wigs. She owned one shop on Garfield for a time and had a plague of wigs, which 30 years ago or so were a fad. She purchased the business including a $2,000 inventory of wigs and did everything possible to get rid of them.
"What we had left over we gave to the playhouse," Corner recalled. "I learned to take care of wigs, to wash them and set them; went to a wig salon to learn."