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All in the name of beauty
Women have endured more than just a little discomfort to obtain curls in their hair. The ancient Egyptians heated irons to curl royal wigs and the Greeks used rollers to curl hair. In 1905, an Englishman created the first permanent wave machine that involved winding the hair around a rod and coating it with an alkaline paste enclosed in hot clamps. Electricity was used to heat the clamps until the hair had been sufficiently cooked. It required from six to 18 hours of this torture to either electrocute the person, or at best give them frizzy and damaged hair.
Today, Jill Jones, of rural Schell City, can give a perm in an hour or less. She uses a lot of cold waves, but can still use heated with acid or alkaline, but not the electricity -- and the results are beautiful and undamaged hair.
Not every young woman of 24 knows what they want to do with their life and have made the dream come true. Jill knew from childhood that she wanted to work with hair. She practiced on her sisters, and even her Barbie doll. Her classmates and friends benefited from her growing expertise as she fixed their hair for proms, weddings and homecoming events. When she graduated from high school at Northeast Vernon County, she enrolled in the Cosmetology College at Fort Scott, Kan. While taking her required 1,500 hours of classes, she learned a lot more than how to cut hair and give permanents. She was required to know, among a lot of other things, all the names of muscles, bones and nerves from elbows and knees down, and the neck up.
She also experienced Pediculus humanus -- or head lice. She discovered that a person had them while at the college beauty shop. Her instructor required the person to leave and everything had to be cleaned and sterilized. Sterilizing and disinfections became second nature.
Jill is trained as a manicurist as well as a beautician. She can do artificial nails and also give pedicures.
After college, her husband, Barend Jones, and her dad, Dennis Vantellman, built her a shop on the farm they owned. She opened it July 5, 2004. Later, Jill and Barend purchased another farm and moved the shop to its present location west of Schell City.
When Jill was trying to come up with a name for her shop, she knew she wanted a western name as she was decorating in a western theme. Her dad saw a sign on a building in an old western movie, it was, "Y'all Come Back." She liked the name and applied it to her beauty salon.
Jill is required to renew her beautician license every year and the shop license every other year. The shop is inspected once a year, but the inspector "can pop in anytime." She takes a class each year for updating information on new product techniques or if things have changed in brands or colors.
"Hair coloring is the hot trend today," Jill said. "All colors are open game."
In the 4th century BC, the Romans dyed their hair black with a mixture made by boiling walnuts. In England during the time of Elizabeth I, red-orange hair was popular. The first American company to sell a commercial hair coloring was Clairol, but Jill's favorite brand is Matrix. She uses that in all the conditioners and all products.
She has never had any problems giving hair colors, but had a woman come in that had tried to give herself a home color and had messed up. She left with a beautiful color. One thing that is very apparent when Jill does hair on a consistent basis is the health of the person involved. Once, a person came to get her hair colored and Jill noticed three bald spots that had not been there the last time. The woman went to a doctor and got the problem resolved due to the early warning given by her hairdresser.
One time she was giving her sister, Marissa, a shampoo and something happened to the sprayer on the water faucet. Spray started going everywhere. Her sister came up sputtering and yelling, "Why are you spraying me in the face?" Then she noticed the sprayer was going wild spraying all over the floor, ceiling, and both of them.
They got the runaway sprayer corralled and had a good laugh, but Jill said, "Thank God, it was just my sister!" She got that repaired before another client arrived.
Jill said that mothers and daughters do not always agree on haircuts, but neither do mothers and sons. She said she has given lots of children their first haircut. She recommends bringing the child in and letting them sit in the chair even before they can talk, and have a fake hair cut.
"That way they are used to the chair and sound of clippers and we never have any trouble," she said.
She hasn't noticed a lot of changes in hair styles in the last few years except they are straight, but lots of layering and lots of fringe or bangs around the front for the longer styles. The A-line bob is popular now, also. The biggest change in her six years has been in her confidence level. "I feel that I can satisfy most clients in anything they want. As to products, they keep making more for all desires, and they keep getting better all the time." When asked if she tried to get any of the older ladies to try a new hair style, she answered, "Not unless they want to. They are the ones that know what works for them. I just try to do as they ask."
There are no other beauty salons in the Schell City area so Jill is a busy person. Most days begin at 9 a.m. and some don't end until 7:30 p.m. It's after one of those days that she wonders why she couldn't have wanted to do something less active, but loves her job and enjoys her part in keeping her community's heads and fingernails beautiful.
The salon is open Tuesday through Saturday. Just give her a call at (417) 432-3640, and you'll hear, "Hello, this is the Y'all Come Back Salon."