LA PLUME – When Heidi Patterson and Michelle Schubert opened A Perfect 10, their hair and nail salon, on Aug. 16, 1993, the new partners were only acquaintances through their husbands. The two women had some misgivings about entering into a commercial relationship alongside a relative stranger.
“We had only met twice before we had the discussion about possibly opening up a business together,” Schubert recalled.
The division of labor was to be explicit: Patterson would handle the hair and Schubert would do nails.
Schubert and Patterson were on the staffs of two Clarks Summit salons and desired to be owner-operators instead of employees. Patterson began looking for a retail space for their studio, and called Schubert when she found a tiny building for rent at 2055 U.S. Routes 6 and 11.
More than 26 years after they signed a lease, Schubert and Patterson remain in business at the location, with Patterson still specializing in hair and Schubert focusing on nails. Fears about making a living under the same small roof were displaced, quickly, by the emergence of a strong friendship.
“When you work this closely with another person – in close quarters like this – how often can you can still say that you’re best friends?” Patterson said. “And now she actually lives right next door to me, too.”
“We get along great and always have,” Schubert said. “She’s my best friend. My two boys call her Aunt Heidi and her three boys call me Aunt Michelle.”
A Perfect 10 is on a busy road but in an area with few other commercial establishments. Patterson did not think she was taking a chance by leaving Clarks Summit for La Plume and was not surprised when many of her regulars followed her to the new salon.
“I had a very good clientele in Clarks Summit,” she said.
Wall colorings and furniture have been changed since 1993, the two owners said, but the layout of the shop is the same. Schubert handles nails in an area on the left side of the building, behind a small front counter just inside the entrance door. A waiting area is on the right, and Patterson’s hairstyling booth is beyond it.
A number of patrons regularly use the services of both women.
“We have some customers that will sit here getting a manicure,” Patterson said, standing in Schubert’s section, “and I put the color on in this chair to save time.”
Hair and nail transactions are settled separately with each of the salon’s principals.
“We don’t compete at all,” Schubert said. “We buy our own supplies. The only things we share are rent, utilities and clients.”
Patterson believes the financial arrangement is what has kept disagreements few and allowed the friendship to grow.
“As much as we’re partners in business, we really are roommates,” Patterson said. “We’re not sharing money.”
A Perfect 10’s owners said revenues have remained steady since 1993, and economic downturns – including the recession of 2008 – passed unnoticed in their small salon.
“People still need to get their hair cut,” Patterson said. “I think I’ve always been fair with my pricing.”
A haircut costs $20. A cut and color is $50. A full set of acrylic nails costs $35, while a fill runs $22. Gel manicures, which are popular, are $25.
“Loyalty is a big part of this business,” Schubert said.
Patterson said half her customers are men, and the 50-50 split is probably unusual compared to salons in Scranton and its environs, where she feels stylists typically see more women than men.
A Perfect 10 is closed on Wednesdays and Sundays. Schubert also takes Mondays off.
“I never came to work not wanting to do what I do,” Patterson said. Her father allowed her to begin cutting his hair when she was 10 years old. Patterson later began giving perms to her little sister, and was hired by Malcolm’s Haircutters in Clarks Summit on the day she graduated from beauty school.
She has had only two places of employment: four years at Malcolm’s and more than 26 years at A Perfect 10.
The La Plume salon, which does not have a website, accepts cash or check for services rendered but not credit cards. The partners said some younger patrons – used to debiting even small purchases, like a cup of coffee – were surprised by the payment policy, though most had adapted by bringing cash to their appointments.
“We’re old school,” Schubert said. “We’re just a very casual place and I feel like our customers have really become our friends. They get to know our lives and we get to know theirs.”
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CNG@civitasmedia.com
Story and photos from Charles Erickson – email 1 of 1
Photos, taken by Charles Erickson, for use in his story about A Perfect 10 Hair & Nail Salon in La Plume:
Heidi 1 and Heidi 2
Perfect 1 and Perfect 2
