Hairstyling Center owner, stylists retire; Hair Forum to move in

By Mary Pieper, Special to the Charles City Press

It’s the end of an era for the hair salon at 100 N. Main St. in Charles City, but it’s also the beginning of a new one.

Effective at the end of today, Deb Bauer, owner of The Hairstyling Center, and three long-time stylists – Barb Geiner, Reggie Shirley and Ardith Gronwoldt – will have retired.

However, the two other stylists at the salon, Sue Wilkinson and Renee Weiss, will continue working there, including after Kelli Nauman, the owner of the Hair Forum on North Jackson Street, moves her business into the building on Aug. 3, bringing her current staff with her.

“I’m thrilled that this location and this salon, no matter what it’s called, will remain,” Bauer said.

Bauer, Geiner, Shirley and Gronwoldt have all been in the cosmetology business for nearly 50 years.

Along with Wilkinson, who has been a stylist for 40 years, Bauer, Geiner and Shirley all once worked at the hairstyling salon at Spurgeon’s Department Store, which had a location in the Cedar Mall in Charles City before the chain went bankrupt in the early 1990s.

“We have worked together for a long time,” Bauer said, noting she and Shirley shared an apartment when they were both single and just starting out in the cosmetology business.

After Spurgeon’s closed, The Hairstyling Center opened at its current location with equipment the owner purchased from Spurgeon’s.

The Spurgeon’s stylists went to work for the new salon, so it was like an entire family moving to a new home, according to Bauer.

Gronwoldt came to the new salon from another hairstyling business in town, while Weiss began her career at The Hairstyling Center 25 years ago when she was straight out of cosmetology school.

Bauer purchased The Hairstyling Center 12 years ago.

“This has been a really good location for us,” she said.

Over the years the salon has employed anywhere from six to 10 stylists at one time.
The long-time staff members have watched each other’s families grow, according to Bauer. She said a number of other stylists have moved on to work somewhere else, but they have still stayed in touch.

The stylists at The Hairstyling Center are close-knit, not just with each other, but also with the customers, according to Bauer. She said some of the customers have been coming to the salon from the time it opened.

“Saying goodbye has been really hard,” Bauer said.

When people have been coming to a salon for years, stylists get to know more about them than just their hair needs, according to Bauer.

In some cases, the staff has watched long-time customers’ children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren grow up, she said.

This spring when Bauer decided to retire she sent letters to other stylists in the area to see if any of them wanted to buy her equipment and take over the business.

Nauman said she was interested in Bauer’s offer because the Hair Forum’s current location isn’t large enough for her increasing number of customers.

“It just kind of happened,” she said.

Nauman plans to do a little remodeling to the Main Street salon. She is bringing three cosmetologists with her, as well as a female barber, a nail technician and a massage therapist.

The Hairstyling Center will close on Aug. 1, but Nauman hopes to have it reopened two days later under the Hair Forum name.

She said she doesn’t want to have a lot of down time because, like other salons, the Hair Forum had to close earlier this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nauman said the arrangement is good for everyone because it gives her a place to grow her business while allowing the remaining Hairstyling Center cosmetologists to keep their jobs at the place they’ve been for years.

“It evolved the way it was supposed to,” Bauer said.