Hair salon offers more than style

[salonsofamerica.com]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...eadlines-swest


DAVENPORT -- Saturdays are the busy day, when every dryer is full and women, one after the other, have their hair washed, cut, permed, dyed or get whatever the do of the day is at Linda's Hair Center on U.S. Highway 17-92.

But, really, it doesn't take long here to figure out that hair isn't what Linda is really all about.

Oh, she cuts hair all right.

For 20 years, Linda Tyler has called the small storefront home for her beauty shop. The place could have served as a study for Truvy's place in the movie Steel Magnolias, where Dolly Parton's character served up one-liners and a sense of community for a group of Southern women.

"I used to have this doctor who would tell people, 'go get your hair done, you'll feel better. Linda can do more for you than I can,'" she said, on a recent weekday between clients.

A typical week sees up to 75 "regulars" who will come for weekly visits, and a busy day will see her stacked with 16 customers on the schedule book that's etched with scribblings of appointments made and canceled and filled again.

The beauty shop is one of a few businesses that call small downtown Davenport home.

Davenport resident Harriet Rust has been visiting Linda's hair shop for about 20 years.

"They're just always so cordial," Rust, 64, said. "That's something you don't get in a large city. Service, service, service."

Throughout the years, Tyler and Rust have become friends as they've shared stories about their families and talk a lot about the city.

"We're all like family in here," Tyler said.

You never know what might come up. They've learned a few lessons along the way about gossip.

"I told [Linda] we're never going to repeat anything about who died until we go to the funeral home and see it ourselves," said nail tech Lynnette Bachelor of Haines City.

On the gossip, Tyler said, "That's just the way beauty shops are."

The place is a landmark in the little town of about 2,000 and they take walk-ins and welcome new regulars. They do hair and nails and sell a variety of small knickknacks like craft supplies and hope to have a cookbook made from customers' recipes one day.

"No green-bean casseroles, but the real thing, stuff you have to dig deep for," Bachelor said.

The shop is at the corner of U.S. Highway 17-92 and County Road 547.



Amy L. Edwards of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.