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Pin curls, perms and the art of conversation: Sask. hairdresser hangs up shears after nearly 60 years

It's been a long, happy career for a Saskatchewan hairdresser who spent nearly 60 years behind the chair, even if the pandemic trimmed a little off the end.

COVID-19 cuts stylist's nearly-6-decade career a little short

Stefani Langenegger · CBC News ·
Eileen Mitchell, who worked as a hairdresser for almost 60 years, sets a client's hair. (Submitted by Eileen Mitchell)

Eileen Mitchell fully intended to mark her 60th anniversary as a hairdresser in June of 2021. Then the pandemic hit.

"I'm really not ready yet to quit," Mitchell told Stefani Langenegger, host of CBC Radio's The Morning Edition on Tuesday.

Despite her reluctance to do so, the precautions required for hairstylists in a post-COVID-19 world have prompted Mitchell to hang up her shears just shy of the six-decade mark. 

A lifelong passion

"I still don't know why I had such passion for it, but I just, that's who I was," Mitchell said. "I just loved it, right from the time I was a little girl."

She remembers doing pin curls when she was as young as nine years old. 

"I used to get out of a lot of Saturday work," she laughed. 

Mitchell went to Marvel Beauty School in Regina at 16, after finishing Grade 10. She trained for nine months before returning to her home north of the city to open her own salon.

"It was a little bit challenging," Mitchell said. "There was nobody to ask questions."

She had to read the instructions for every perm and every colour.

"You couldn't Google any of that," she said.

In fact, Mitchell did not even have running water in the early days of her salon. A delivery man would fill a barrel or she would melt snow to do all the washing and rinsing required in a day.

Doing customers' hair was not always an easy thing. When Eileen Mitchell started her career, she had no running water in the house and had to melt snow to do perms. (Submitted by Eileen Mitchell)

Learning the art of conversation

Eventually Mitchell married and had two daughters. The salon moved into the family's basement.

"We would get called fairly regularly to come and help," Shauna Rosloot, one of Mitchell's daughters, said. "Maybe take curlers out when mom was doing sets. We'd take the rollers out. Every once in a while she'd let us wash, generally younger kids' hair."

Eileen Mitchell was a mother and businesswoman. Her children would often join her downstairs to help wash clients' hair or take out curls. (Submitted by Eileen Mitchell)

Rosloot and her sister were mostly there to listen.

"That was one of the places where we learned the art of conversation, because mom was really good at it to keep those conversations going," Rosloot said. "We learned all kinds of interesting things."

"Sorry," her mom chimed in.

Rosloot said she doesn't like how her mother's long-time career as a hairdresser and business owner was derailed so unexpectedly by the pandemic.

"I want her to know that even though she may be having to end now, her career has been wonderful," Rosloot said, choking up.

Mitchell seemed to have made peace with it. 

"I was going for 80," said the 77-year-old hairdresser. "But I guess maybe eventually there's a time when you have to quit. Maybe this was the time."

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