LAURINBURG — Claudette Beane never thought the day would come when she put her clippers down for good.
Even though her heart and spirit wanted to keep going, her body made the decision that it was time to retire after 53 years as a beautician.
Beane and her husband, Glenn, closed the doors to Claudette’s Beauty Salon this week after fixing the hair of her final three customers.
“I didn’t plan to retire,” she said, “I thoroughly enjoyed my work — and to think I got paid for it. I’ve never worked a day in my life, but my body just wore out. I started having back trouble and a few months back, I had knee surgery and I told Glenn it’s time.”
The couple opened the salon that sits on the corner of Launchwood Circle in June of 1977 after Beane graduated from McIntyre Beauty College in Bennettsville and had worked for a few years in another local salon.
“After I got done with beauty school I had a small shop in my home, that was wonderful because I was able to be there when my children went off to school,” she said. “I ventured out and worked with a lady for nine years, she has since retired. I rented a space for a few months while we were building this place. There was nothing but fields back then and some of my customers told me it was too far out of town, now we’re right in the middle of everything.”
The beauty shop hasn’t changed much in the 39 years since it opened and neither have the techniques or clients that come in to see Beane. The long-time beautician has taken on one new client in the past decade — Louise Ann Robinson. The rest of her clientele has been coming almost as long as she’s been in business.
“Most of my customers have died — it’s sad,” Beane said. “Louise Ann was the last new customer I took when she moved to Laurinburg in October of last year. I just happened to have an opening on Thursday mornings. Most of my customers I’ve done their hair all my career — I’m going to miss them worst of all.”
The relationships that Beane has built with customers is biggest thing she will miss. According to her, the clients are family. As Robinson was leaving her final appointment on Thursday, she blew Beane a kiss and told her how much she would miss her.
“My clients are my extended family, so it’s been hard on them too,” she said. “This has been my home. I will still see a lot of my customers at church and at the grocery store. They allowed me to be part of their life. I’ve seen their children and now their grandchildren grow up. My son was in the second grade when I started being a hairdresser and now he’s getting close to retirement … he’s 62.”
Even though being a hairdresser was Beane’s dream, she admitted she wished she had more time to spend with her children when they were growing up.
“It has fulfilled my life, but I missed out on a lot” she said. “I worked late at night, early in the morning so I never got to a lot of my son’s ball games. I regret that. I have younger hairdressers who mark off for those events. I told them, ‘you are so wise’ because I can’t go back and change that.”
The Beanes three children — two sons and a daughter — are all grown and so are her six grandchildren, the youngest a sophomore at the University of South Carolina. When her granddaughters were younger they would come in and help her at the shop, a memory that still brings a smile to her face.
“When Amanda was young she would come in and help me. The two other girls would come help when they would visit for Thanksgiving. They would take the rollers out, the customers still remember that,” she said.
Even though the quaint shop holds decades worth of memories, Claudette and Glenn plan to put the building up for sale once they clean out their personal belongings. The couple isn’t particular about what the new owners do with the building, but if they choose to keep it as a beauty shop, the Beanes are happy to leave all the supplies.
“We plan to sell. I don’t really care if they pack bread in it, as long as it sells,” she said.
Before she closed the shop for good, Claudette Beane made sure that all of her customers had cards with the information on what products she uses in their hair, what type of treatment they normally get and a recommendation of a new hairdresser.
“I wanted to make sure all of my clients found hairdressers they could trust,” she said.
The Beanes haven’t decided what they are going to do now that they’ve both retired.
“I think once we realize that, we’ll take off until the first of the month, come home to pay bills and then leave again,” Claudette Beane said with a laugh.
Amber Hatten can be reached at 910-506-3170.
