By ELIZABETH WELLINGTON
STAFF WRITER
RALEIGH - Sandy Brown stops talking to concentrate on making perfect layers in Chris Basan's silky, golden hair. Brown quietly uses a small-toothed razor comb to slice soft, flipped wisps in Basan's locks so they hang like actress Jennifer Aniston's.
When she's done, Brown puts the newfangled tool down and nods her head, with its short halo of brown streaked with chunky-blond highlights. She's created that fly-away, textured look that's oh so 2002 -- and so different from the conservative haircuts that Sam and Bill's, a fixture of the inside-the-Beltline fashion scene, has specialized in for years.
Brown slips Basan's check into her cropped pants' pocket and invites her to an upcoming highlighting class where she'll serve pizza and hold a wine tasting.
These days Brown has one passion: to bring the Oberlin Road salon -- where local legends such as former Raleigh mayor Smedes York and the late N.C. State basketball coach Jim Valvano got their hair shaped up -- into the new millennium. It's a risky undertaking, akin to, say, Nowell's Clothing -- the traditional men's shop in Cameron Village -- selling FUBU.
But Brown thinks she can pull it off.
"We want the reputation of an established business, but we want to be current and up-to-date," said Brown, who worked at the shop for 12 years before purchasing the lease from owners Sam Giddens and Bill Turner in November. "I want to run it for 30 years, and I want to give it to my daughter, so she can run it for another 30 years."
Since Brown has been at the helm of the local hair empire, she's added new products, new services and new decor to attract younger customers. But the same reputation that keeps loyal customers holding on could turn off new ones -- and vice versa.
It's rare for locally owned salons like Sam and Bill's to outlive their owners, says Jill Kohler, managing director of the Arizona-based Salon Association. And trying to update can be tougher than fixing a bad dye job.
"The challenge is going to be trying to bring in new customers without alienating the old customers," Kohler said. "They are trying to make a very big leap. It's not going to happen overnight."
Hot for a minute
In its early days, Sam and Bill's was more cutting edge than conservative. When Giddens and Turner graduated from barber school in 1966, the country was in the midst of a hair revolution: Young men avoided haircuts like the plague. They were afraid scissors-happy stylists would ruin their attempts to look like the long-haired Beatles. Sam and Bill, a little shaggy themselves, had their trust.
Giddens and Turner worked at Glenwood Village barbershop before opening Sam and Bill's Hair Place at Hillsborough Street and Oberlin Road in 1969. Blow-dryers hung from the ceiling between the leather swivel chairs.
"The old barbers were like drill instructors," said Giddens, 55, his voice seasoned with good old boy twang. "We were young and innovative when we first started; no one else was using hair-dryers in barbershops."
The hairdo duo kept up with the latest styles -- the Dorothy Hamill wedge, the Farrah Fawcett feathers, the disco look and, more recently George Clooney's short hair and Tom Cruise's military cut. They used upscale Redken and Paul Mitchell products, and hired a woman in 1983 to do color and perms. The little Raleigh-
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Chris Barnes, a Barton College student who is no stranger to hipness, has his hair highlighted at the hands of Volinda Boyette at Sam and Bill's Hair Design.
Staff Photo By Denise Henhoeffer
barbershop transformed itself into a salon. Brown came on in 1992, doing foil highlights, short cuts and the asymmetrical bobs that were just hitting the hair scene.
In some ways, the shop was always a little old-fashioned. They did not advertise, nor push coupon deals. The appointment book read like a Raleigh who's who, with names of doctors, lawyers, business owners. Every N.C. State football coach except Chuck Amato went to Sam and Bill's.
But, as the decades passed, once-trendy customers who favored John Travolta's "Saturday Night Fever" wings established themselves in the Triangle with families and careers. They requested hair color, yes, but it was more to cover up gray than to make a fashion statement. They wanted looks appropriate for boardrooms; funky was not the operative word.
Tony Wike gets her short, grayish-brown bob cut every four weeks by Sammy. Wike, a lawyer, has been coming for 25 years; she's comfortable and happy.
"This look is me," said Wike, the bottom of her gray shirt, taupe skirt and brown pumps peeking out from her blue, plastic cape. "I like the service. I feel at home."
A new 'do
Last year Turner decided he wanted to retire to a life of golfing in South Carolina. Giddens wanted to continue working, but spend more time on his farm. They asked Brown and her husband, Greg, if they wanted to take over the business.
At first Brown was hesitant. But the thought of keeping a legend alive while modernizing it appealed to her. And she wanted to take advantage of Sam Giddens' expertise. After taking over the lease last year, she started turning the place into a salon that has everything minus the facials.
Brown hung a red, white and black sign with an updated name: Sam and Bill's Hair Design. She started printing fliers and advertising in local publications. Then she turned her focus to interior decorating -- the upstairs should feel like a hip, new loft. (The downstairs, where Sam continues to cut hair, retains the old salon's manly feel). Brown spent $10,000 resanding the hardwood floors, painting the walls lavender and putting in plants. She filled dainty cups with bobby pins decorated with sparkling beads.
New services were next. Brown added chair massages, manicures and pedicures. She ordered trendy products, like the spiky, fruity and gooey TIGI Bedhead and the caviar-infused Alterna. A stylist who waxes eyebrows came on board this spring; another who does relaxers, washes and wraps on African-American hair will start at the end of the month. The business accepted its first credit card two weeks ago.
Ideas pour out of Brown's copper-tinted lips at a dizzying clip. In the fall she'll start retiling the bathrooms and updating fixtures. Downstairs she plans to open a coffee bar, where she'll give away treats and coffee from local eateries such as Mellow Mushroom, Big Sky Bread Company and The Third Place.
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Every third Monday she holds an open house to introduce new services to customers. So far Brown has held two classes on updos. Next week she'll introduce gloss -- a process that extends the life of highlights. She's planning an eyebrow waxing party and a class to teach young professionals how to dress conservative yet trendy.
"I really want to encourage college-age students to come," Brown said. "We want to appeal to students and business professionals."
A balancing act
Eight months after Brown started the overhaul, changes are taking hold. Sam and Bill's now gets three walk-ins a day compared to one a week -- and about 10 percent of them stay for services, Brown said. Twenty percent of customers have started to have wax treatments of eyebrows and other unwanted facial hair, and 90 percent are using gloss with color treatments.
But there is still a lot of work to do to reach her goal for this time next year: to have each of her eight stylists booked solid.
She's still fighting the conservative image. So about once a month, Brown goes to Cameron Village boutiques to offer free services to saleswomen at the trendy stores there. What better way to sell a look than with live models?
"Getting people to budge from their hair stylists can be hard," Brown said. "I just put myself out there as much as I can. It's a numbers game."
Brown is trying to make sure the salon doesn't become too chichi or froufrou. At least 40 percent of the customers are men, some of whom aren't interested in getting their hair cut while breathing in potpourri and fruity hair sprays. To keep the men comfortable, she's keeping the girly-girl stuff upstairs. It seems to be doing the trick; they're hardly noticing the changes.
"Sam has cut my hair since 1966," says Ryon Wilder of Raleigh and owner of Char-Grill. "He's dependable and he always does a good job. There is no reason for me to go anywhere else."
But, longtime customers say, they can't promise to keep coming back if Sammy leaves.
"I might stay, but I'd definitely have to think about it," Wike said. "I go to Sam and Bill's because I'm loyal to Sammy."
On the flip side, it looks like Brown is getting through to her target customer.
"I think it's a lot nicer," said Jessica Farmer, 18, of Raleigh as she had her back-length golden hair trimmed. "It feels more inviting to me as a lady."
That could spell out a formula for good hair days at Sam and Bill's for at least another generation of fashionistas.
Meanwhile, upstairs, June
Taylor of Apex, sporting
highlighting foils on her
head, talks with Sandy
Brown about style options.
Back in the day, Bill
Turner and Sam Giddens
were stylin' dudes.
Staff writer Elizabeth Wellington
can be reached at 836-5799
or ewelling@newsobserver.com.
STAFF PHOTO BY DENISE HENHOEFFER
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