Willow Glen Resident

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Santi's Salon of Beauty is a throwback to a simpler time

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

A row of vintage hair dryers lines the back wall; trays of plastic rollers in the avocado greens and mustard yellows of the 1960s stand nearby, waiting to be pinned into a lady's hair. A lacy floral apron hangs from a workstation. It's all part of a Willow Glen beauty secret, the community's own version of the 1989 movie Steel Magnolias tucked between the Plaza Inn Mexican Restaurant and the Willow Glen Yoga studio on Lincoln Avenue.

Santi's Salon of Beauty has been open in downtown Willow Glen more than 50 years. It's home to salon owner Helen Ferro, who walks back and forth getting the tools she needs to make her customers look beautiful as she listens to their stories.

"It's fun," Ferro says. "It's long, hard and dirty work, but so much fun, and I like working with people."

The looks on her customers' faces while she primps them and shares the local gossip is what keeps Ferro opening the doors to her salon year after year.

"I love seeing everyone pretty happy," she says. "This is a place where you can come to relax."

The retro style and tools are all part of her vision for her shop.

"This is a thing of the past," Ferro says. "I use pins and curlers instead of blow dryers and hot curlers. I like it better this way."

The salon, however, has kept up with the times.

There are seven stylists at Santi's, and some younger ones specialize in modern color and styling techniques, she says.

"It all depends on the person's hair," Ferro says. " We have a variety here. If it's very fine, fragile, delicate hair, I use the pins and rollers. It's a technique that's dying out. If it's younger hair, the other gals use hand blow dryers and hot curling irons."

Yet the traditionalist doesn't shun the latest in hairstyling. She attends yearly hairstyling shows all around the Bay Area to keep up with trends and products.

It's not her techniques, however, that keep her customers coming back, says stylist Terry Stites. It's Ferro.

"She's a sweetheart," Stites says. "She takes care of them."

He has been with the salon for the last eight years. Stites came across the salon when he heard a friend mention he had been working at the location and thought Stites might be interested.

"It's a great place to work," he says.

A former artist, Stites redid the interior with a southwestern theme, but kept one wall a cupcake pink.

"Helen loves pink," he says.

The predominately female shop is Ferro's first business venture.

"I've been working at this salon since 1961," she says. "The lady that owned the salon wanted to retire, but we were all having so much fun so I bought it and took over."

When Ferro purchased the business on Nov. 4, 1980, she became the fourth owner.

Ferro, who hails from Minnesota, first came into contact with women's hair in 1948 when she began beauty school in Sioux City, Iowa.

"My family was very poor and there was no money to go to college," she says, "but I got a scholarship to go to the beauty school and I liked to fix other people's hair, so I tried it. I've been dabbling with it ever since."

The cold Midwest winters became too much for Ferro and her husband.

"I came to California in 1950 on a lark," she says. "I was young and foolish, and coming to California was at the height of my dreams."

The salon owner chuckles, her eyes sparkling with a glint of mischief.

"Actually, it was snowing and miserable," Ferro says.

Her former husband had just been laid off, and the two opted to leave the cold for warmer climates.

"We got in the car and drove to California," she says. "It was awful. We almost froze to death."

The couple made it to the Golden State on Feb. 1, 1950, but were shocked at what they found.

"I was looking for palm trees and hula girls, and instead it was just raining and terrible," Ferro says.

The couple made their first home in Sunnyvale and then in and around the San Jose area until they settled in Willow Glen.

"Now I live five blocks from the salon," she says. "I can sometimes walk to work if I want."

Ferro's dedication to keep her salon a haven for her clients has garnered regulars who come in specifically for the environment.

Barbara Copple has lived in Willow Glen for more than 50 years and has been one of Ferro's regulars for the last 25; she comes in to have her hair washed and styled.

"I love coming here because it's a constant and the ladies are always agreeable," says the mother of seven.

"When the children were younger, I'd do my own hair," Copple says. "I come here now because it feels good. Helen gives a good massage.

It's so nice to see something that doesn't change when so much else in Willow Glen does."

Santi's Salon of Beauty is located at 1184 Lincoln Ave. For more information, call 408.297.5245.