EPISODE 51

Sasha’s studio was located in the Cortez Plaza mall in Bradenton.  The original Cortez Shopping Plaza had opened in February of 1959.  Boasting 185,000 square feet of shopping space, the Cortez Plaza was actually the largest mall on the west coast of Florida at that time.  This may seem incredible given that 50 years later, the 20 largest malls in the country would each claim well over 2 million square feet of air-conditioned splendor.  Still, in the late 1950’s, this was a big deal and the Cortez Plaza was the place to be.  The anchor for the mall was the Belk-Lindsey department store.  By the time that Sasha decided to locate her studio there though, Belk-Lindsey was long gone and had been replaced by a Montgomery-Ward.  This mall appeared to have a far from certain future during the winter of 1995-’96 and during the next 10 years, it would end up being bought and sold several times.  However, when Sasha had signed her lease in ‘93, the deal she had gotten on her space was so remarkable, she couldn’t say no to it.

It was an odd place to put a hair replacement studio.  The front of the studio featured a huge window that faced right out on Tamiami Trail.  The view from inside wasn’t that spectacular, given that all you could see through the window was the parking lot and the traffic on the main road.  Most studio owners avoided large windows, as they intruded on the level of privacy that most of their clients demanded.  But Sasha was a very resourceful person and she installed honey comb shades inside the big window.  These accordion blinds blocked the ugly view of the lot, prevented pedestrians outside from peering into the studio, and still allowed almost all of the natural light to pass through inside.  It must have cost her a mint, but she did it anyway.

The attention to the natural interior light bore striking results. During the heat of the day (which to my mind begins precisely at 7:45AM in Florida and extends until the after-work cocktail hour), the rooms facing the window in the studio were so well lit by the natural light that Sasha often left the overhead fluorescent lights off.  The clients and the technicians seemed to really like this too.  There’s a theory that the reason why fluorescent light often gives people headaches or hurts their eyes is related to the blue-tinged color of the light that they produce versus the color of natural sunlight, which is decidedly of a yellow hue.  If the sun were out all the time, this issue would have never come up, but nighttime forced people to adapt.  The practice of man controlling fire to suit his purposes dates back at least 200,000 years.  Not only did fire cook his meals and keep him warm, it also gave him the ability to see a small portion of his surroundings at night.  This was useful for defensive purposes against predatory animals or hostile bands of humans.  It also meant that he could choose to walk a little further away from his domicile to take a leak after dinner.  But the color of the light from the fire was also very comforting to early man’s eyes, given that it gave off the same yellow tone as the sun.  Up until Edison’s December, 1879 demonstration of the incandescent light bulb, all of humankind’s attempts to beat back the darkness involved burning something; either wood, gas, oil, or animal fat.  But because the light bulb’s brightness came from the burning of a filament inside a vacuum, while it offered electrically generated light, even that was yellow, just like the sun.  This in part explains why after tens of thousands of years of gazing at yellow light, blue light appears unsettling to many people.  Granted, incandescent bulbs do produce some blue light, but not as much as the fluorescent kind.  This is due to the fact that minute quantities of mercury reside in the fluorescent tubes and that when they are activated by the electrical charge, they emit ultra-violet light.  Fluorescent lighting has evolved and now the more diffused waves they produce appear to be of a more orange hue than before.  But most people still don’t like fluorescent bulbs and many still claim it gives them migraines. 

Probably without even realizing it, Sasha had created an environment inside her studio that actually relaxed her clients far more than any of the new age music, aromatherapy, or piped in forest sounds that many high end spas utilized to contrive a calming ambience.  I remember visiting a remarkable spa/studio in Atlanta once where you were greeted with the cries of Japanese snow monkeys.  Upon asking the owner why he had chosen this rather bizarre soundtrack for the waiting room, he responded, “They have the most remarkable sex drive, you know.”

No, I didn’t.

But “Sasha’s” was really quite unpretentious.  The design on the glass front door located to the right of the window was almost Spartan.  It only showed her logo, which was her name, written in script and the telephone number of the studio.  Below that was the simple message: “By appointment only.”  There was no mention of what kind of business was inside.  In fact, every so often a carful of tourists would come in, wondering if it was a restaurant.  The receptionist in the foyer would assure them that it was not and then offer a few recommendations of appropriate dining facilities nearby that Sasha had personally selected.  The visitors left without ever knowing what kind of business had been going on behind the reception area.

The waiting room was quite small and that was because clients rarely had to deposit themselves there for more than a few minutes.  Sasha purposely worked short breaks to be scheduled between client appointments.  This served three purposes.  First, if a technician was running a bit behind, it offered a buffer that would allow for the tech to finish up before the next appointment was set to start.  Second, in the event that everything was running smoothly, the technician had time to straighten things out at his or her station and even to take a quick break to grab some coffee or hit the bathroom.  Third, it provided an incentive for technicians to work efficiently, so as to earn that short break between clients.  This may have seemed odd thinking on Sasha’s part, given that technicians obviously made more money based on the number of clients that the studio could service each day.  However, Sasha felt strongly that since she paid a very competitive wage that the inducement of free time would be a motivator.  She was right too.  Her techs worked efficiently and they all seemed to be very happy.

You left the waiting room via a door on the left wall and that led to a hallway.  There were three doors on the left hand side of the hall and another three on the opposite wall.  The doors on the right held the stockroom, the repair room, and Sasha’s private office.  The three doors on the left opened up into the consultation rooms.  Sasha had constructed walls that ran right up to the huge exterior window so that even though each room was private, they were all lit by the sunlight that filtered through those honeycomb shades.  At the far end of the hallway was another door that led out of the building.  In this way, technicians could quickly sneak a peak down the hall after finishing with a client to let them out discretely.  As I mentioned, privacy was something that Sasha really valued and the design of her studio was a major reason for her success.

The next episode of SlipNot will be published on August 19th.

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