WAUPACA COUNTY POST

July 3, 2002

 

Stephens Celebrates 35 Years in Business.

By Angie Landsverk

Post Staff Writer

 

 

            Ever since Dorothy Stephens was a young girl, she had dreamed of becoming a home economics teacher.

            However, when she took an aptitude test in high school, hair dressing came up high for her.          

            Her mother told her that she could have a shop and basically name her own hours as a hairstylist.

            “It’s the best decision I’ve made besides marrying Jim and having our children,” said Stephens, who is celebrating 35 years in business.

            The owner of The Hi-Style grew up in Thorp and attended the Harrington School of Cosmetology in Eau Claire.

            In the business a total of 47 years, Stephens graduated from cosmetology school on June 7, married Jim one month later on July 7 and the following June 7 had their first child, Dawn (Telfer), who has worked with her mother in the shop for about 26 years.

            The Stephenses lived in Rhinelander when they were first married, and moved to Waupaca 44 years ago.

            The move to their home on Sixth Street is when Stephens decided she wanted her own salon.

            “I started with a small salon,” she said. “One shampoo chair and two dryers.”

            Through the years, there were additions, with the most recent one being 11 years ago.

            A neighbor lady watched Dawn, daughter Terri (Schultz), who is the executive director of the Waupaca Area Chamber of Commerce, and son Stacey, who is the wardrobe supervisor for “The Lion King.”

            Stacey was just 2 weeks old when Stephens opened The Hi-Style.

            Today, there are four hairdressers and two receptionists/bookkeepers. Dawn is the manager.

            Ann Verdon was with Stephens for 26 years, and Stephens still has about seven clients who have been with her since day one.

            Stephens remembers the days in cosmetology school when four rollers were put on the top of a woman’s head, and pin curls with a finger wave on the back.

            Along came curling irons in the early 1970s.

            She has seen every hairdo there is and said beehives were fun to do; and she always enjoyed styling a woman’s hair for her wedding day.

            Today, she likes to keep on the current trends by attending classes at least twice a year, and says that hairdressers are people’s confessors, often hearing things that clients’ families do not even know.

            Through the years, Stephens has been a 4-H leader, a leader of Girl Scouts and Boy Scots, a baton twirling teacher and a member of the choir at St. Mary Magdalene’s Catholic Church.

            She is also the “flowerpot” lady of Waupaca - the one who plants all the flowers downtown, selling Belgian waffles each year at Strawberry Fest to raise money for next year’s flowers.

            Stephens enjoys crocheting, knitting, china painting and most crafts that keep her hands busy, she says.

            Spending six months of the year in Florida, she even works one to two days a week there.

            And she describes hairstylists as artists, saying everyone has their own way of doing things and creates art every time.

            She notes that pedicures, manicures and facials have really blossomed the past several years.

            “It’s amazing,” Stephens said of the business.  “I’ve enjoyed it.”