Hairdressing History Lesson

Excelsior beauty Vera Mason Handy presents a turn-of-the-century coif. Photo: Lake Minnetonka Historical Society

While men’s barbershops predate Minnesota’s 1858 statehood, women’s salons were nonexistent in the lake area before 1900. Those of wealth and privilege enjoyed hairdressing house calls, their long hair arranged on top of their head for ease of care. It wasn’t until the Roaring Twenties that modern women hopped in the barber chair next to the fellas to get a bob and a shaved nape, made popular by Hollywood starlets.

Curls were achieved by curling irons, heated on wood stoves or gaslights, singeing bangs and scalps alike. By the 1940s, cold wave perms were on the scene. Visiting a salon for a weekly wash with a “shampoo girl,” a set, time under the dryer and styling with a beautician was routine.

In the 1950s and 1960s, “beauty shops” sprang up around the lake, providing feminine social hubs. Early, longstanding lake area salons included Bouffant Beauty in Tonka Bay, Colony Coiffeurs in Wayzata, Myr-Mar Beauty Salon in Navarre and Villa Beauty Salon in Excelsior. Beyond providing postwar employment, these establishments offered women the opportunity for entrepreneurship, as the business of beauty burgeoned into a nationwide industry.

Joanie Holst is a member of the Lake Minnetonka Historical Society, which tells the story of Lake Minnetonka by collecting, preserving and sharing its history. Discover more at lakeminnetonkahistory.org.