Creations Hair Design in Matlacha has new owner
When Creations Hair Design’s new owner, Arline Teachout, opened her business on May 1, she brought along a staff with nearly 87 years of experience – 41 of them belonging to beautician Tomoko Garrison – and has since added a few more decades to the experience list.
Teachout says she has accumulated 46 years of experience, more recently operating several Tropic Trends beauty shops in North Fort Myers where she was for 15 years, and she spent six years in Bonita Springs.
With the recent addition of Barb Merwin, who has worked on Pine Island, Teachout said they probably total 120 years between the three of them.
How did she come to buy the Matlacha business, she was asked.
“I just saw the ad in the Shopper (Breeze publication),” she replied. “I looked at it; I liked it; and within a couple of days, I bought it.”
Diversity in business is what Teachout has long practiced, and it has helped her overcome the negative effects of new trends. Whereas years ago, many women would be in their favorite beauty shops every week, and some every few months for permanents, today’s fashion of long straight hair keeps the younger set away.
“We also do men,” Teachout said, “and one of the reason we supplement with men is that we used to do shampoo and set every week. Now, only women in their 80s and 90s still come in for that. We get very few who are in their 70s. That’s the reason why so many shops have closed – because of that. They did not adapt to the changes of the world.”
Teachout also sells what she calls “fun jewelry.” Many of her female clients, as they come in to get their hair done, also buy the colorful jewelry to match the outfits they are wearing on that day. Spending as little as a couple a dollars at a time for a set of hearings or other items, they end up with custom jewelry to match every set of clothes they have, according to Teachout.
Since buying the salon, Teachout has added two stations, so she and her two associates can have four customers at the same time.
Of course, to be a beautician one must attend a beauty school and be certified, but one of Teachout’s employees did that twice.
Tomoko Garrison explained why.
“I had a license from Japan, but in 1968 I came to the United States,” she said. “I had to go to school and I got my United States license in 1983.”
Garrison was asked whether she found the hair of American people to be different than those in Japan.
“There is a lot of difference,” she replied with emphasis. “Japanese people have very strong, straight hair.”
Do Japanese women get permanents?
“A long time ago, they did, but the younger generations don’t,” she said. “They are like us (fashion wise).”
Garrison said she is happy she went back to school in the U.S. after her American military husband had brought her to this country. In Japan, she had not learned the bleach highlighting method because Japanese hair is all black.
Well, it used to be so, but she has since learned of changes happening in her country, after she left 26 years ago. As she related hearing of new fashions, her eyes became larger and she shook her head up and down.
“Yes! We have blond Japanese!” she said. “Oh, I was really shocked to hear that.”
Before moving to Pine Island in 1979, after her husband retired from the military, she had spent seven years in Alaska.
Most customers of Creations Hair Designs at 4547 N.W. Pine Island Road in Matlacha come in for hair cuts, but one factor is considered before the cut begins. According to Garrison, the shape of the person’s head is the determining factor:
“You’ve got to know the different kind of cut,” she said.
Walk-ins are welcome, a sign on the window front said, but for appointment the number to call is 282-8484.