Coloring their legacy with joy

ELIZABETHTOWN – Born into the hair care industry by way of a unique mother and father who both cut and styled hair for a living, Crystal Hayes became a top stylist in Bladen County and also mentored her daughter Kayla Elkins into yet another generation of this legacy set forth by Charles and Kay Barr.

The tree of hair care specialists also spreads out to Hayes’ sister, Charlotte Lyda and her daughter Christann Lewis. This true tale and incredible path to the Elizabethtown salon begins for Hayes in southern North Carolina.

“We lived in Lake Waccamaw for a few short years and then moved to Clarkton where I’ve been ever since,” she said. “My dad is a barber and my mom’s a beautician and they had a salon in Whiteville. I went and worked with them and the name of their salon was Barr Hair Styling which makes the name of my salon, The Hair Barr – a kind of an offshoot.”

Growing up inside an industry… literally, where you not only trust and love your parents, but are with them all the time has a way of shaping a future and cutting a swath through life’s journey.

“I started hanging around the salon when I was 6 years old,” she said. “They had it on Main Street and we would sit in the window and we had a great life – and did what they did – first working on the hair on mannequin heads. We played with hair and wanted to help of course, but were not supposed to.”

Her parents made life an enjoyable adventure and as a result, it became her passion.

Before they carved out a niche out in the hair care industry, Kay Elkins was in Real Estate and then she went to school with Hayes’ older sister and they both got their cosmetology degree at Bladen Community College.

“The first time I gave a haircut, I was in the salon with my mom and dad,” she said. “My dad was teaching me how to do it. I can remember I was so scared. I hid in the back and did not want to do a haircut. That was 30 years ago. Kayla was a baby and I took her to work with me. I actually went to Bladen Community College and got my 1200 hours and then worked as an apprentice under them.”

At far back as Hayes can remember, the salon had her mom, dad and sister all working there with two other girls, and Hayes. It’s unusual to have a couple working together in the hair business, but then more so that their siblings also took up the profession.

“My mom was brilliant and she introduced foils for hair color in Whiteville,” Hayes said. “Up until then people used those caps with holes in them and it was very difficult for people with longer hair. I can remember going to the store and getting aluminum foil and then cutting them into squares for my mom.”

When Hayes’ sister Charlotte Lyda moved to Greensboro when her husband got a job there, Charles and Kay decided to follow and cut hair there as Charles absolutely loved the city. It was then that Hayes stayed behind and bought the Whiteville salon from her parents. Barr Hair Styling is still operational in Greensboro, run by Lyda alone since their parents have retired.

It was at that time that Hayes’ salon business took a bit of a detour as she got a little restless and decided to try something different. She went back to school to do respiratory therapy.

“It was also very disappointing to me when my parents left,” she said. “It was hard for me and I really didn’t want to do it by myself. It wasn’t in my brain to own a salon; it was that I just wanted to work with my parents. I also had children at home and I didn’t feel that I could give a business the hours it needed. I went to get a job where I could get a paycheck and still have time to be able to spend with my children.”

She had Elkins starting school, her son Daniel Elkins starting preschool and she went to Robison Community College. She got her license and began to work for Columbus County Hospital. As a natural caregiver, she found that she thrived in her new profession. As she started doing home health and pediatric ventilators in a large rural area that kept her on the road.

“I started to see that I was missing my children growing up,” she said. “A 9-5 versus a job where I could set my own hours and start going to ballgames and school functions. So, back to hair I went and stayed contracting with respiratory. I started do hair at Blondz in Clarkton. I worked there until 2013. It was then that I decided that I wanted to own my own business. At the time I was also doing Real Estate.”

She purchased the building on Broad Street in Elizabethtown, remodeled it and it became an instant success. It was called “Crystal’s Salon on Broad.” She ran that business until the pandemic hit. It hit hard especially for haircare workers. The states all over the nation came in and completely shut them all down.

“COVID hit us pretty hard and then after putting a lot of money into the building and not owning the shop,” Hayes said. “I called Kayla and said ‘I think you should go work in a salon that I don’t own because I think I’m done.”

At that time, Hayes took some time off and stayed at home and did the books for her husband’s (Milton Hayes) electrical company. She also did a lot of babysitting grandchildren and just took a breath waiting on God for the next set of instructions and to reflect upon where this life began even before she was born.

Haye’s dad, Charles was born in Scotland and he came across the pond when he was 5-years-old with his parents. They settled in Philadelphia in 1947, trying to find a better life. He went to high school in Philadelphia and after graduation, his plans to move to and live in California were cut short as he was drafted into the Vietnam War.

While stationed at Ft. Bragg, he met his wife, Kay who was a Bladen County girl and her family lived in Council, North Carolina. After Vietnam, he came back and found her and they were married. And the legacy began.

When the couple eventually moved to Greensboro several years later, Hayes purchased their house and their salon in Whiteville.

When Charles and Kay were just married, he worked at International Paper.

“He got laid off,” she said. “My mamma looked at him and said, ‘You are going to barber school so we can have a business where we can make money.’ I’m a twin, so they had three children and no income. So, she made him go; and he went and began his career working in Whiteville at a barber shop. I can remember that when I was really little with all those men in there cutting hair. Eventually my mom and sister followed. It’s in my blood.”

At that time, the family lived at Lake Waccamaw and they were working in Whiteville. When they made the move to Clarkton, Hayes said that the sisters had a bit of a hard time with the move explaining that it was like city girls moving out to the farm – complete with scurrying mice across the kitchen floor.

It was then that Charles and Kay decided to go into business together. They were one of if not THE first unisex shop in Whiteville where they had a barber and a beautician. They had to work under two different sets of regulations back at that time with a state barber board and a cosmetology state board. They made sure they could coexist in the same building.

“They made it work,” she said. “They had to put a wall up because you couldn’t work in the same stations. The girls were in the front and the barber was in the back. He was the only barber and the rest were cosmetologists. He had his own man cave in the barber shop. And… he was the one who taught us all to cut hair. You have to remember that we were all mentored by my parents – whereas they had to learn without that luxury.”

They were self-made North Carolina entrepreneurs who honed their talent and mentored their children to be able to make it on their own one day. At first, there were plenty of challenges.

“One of the challenges was that they weren’t making a corporate paycheck,” she said. “You got paid what you made daily. And when you start a business with ‘no business’ and nobody coming in, there’s no money coming in and they had three mouths looking up to feed them. So, I think the financial burden to actually start the business was the hardest thing for them in the beginning. And tipping wasn’t a big thing even when I started back in the industry.”

Another thing in establishing yourself in business is having to be there and on your feet all day. Trying to get the walk-ins, making sure you are squeezing all the juice out of that rural orange. And though there are repeat customers, hair just doesn’t all grow back in a week.

The other side of that coin is getting established – being as good as they were, having a “go-to” reputation and then having to be on their feet all day long without a break. Which comes to the thoughts on booking haircuts.

Hayes’ daughter, it was noted, hid in the back room as her mom once did. And history started to repeat itself.

“I had to drag her,” she said with a laugh. “We worked downtown (Elizabethtown) for years. I had a shop in the Cross Plaza and when she got out of school, she would go and hide. She would make appointments and I was slammed and I finally said, ‘If you’re not going to learn how to do this, quit booking appointments.”

She went to school and got her required hours and then got to the salon where her education continued.

“I said, just get your hours, I will teach you,” Hayes said.

The mentorship program was now second generation and Elkins was learning from the best.

“She was opening her shop here,” Elkins said. “I thought that perhaps I could go to cosmetology school. I thought I was going to hate it, but I absolutely love it. I cut some people’s hair and they will tell me that my grandfather used to cut their hair.”

That’s when you feel the pride of family passion and tradition and reputation and suddenly your feet don’t hurt as much and the shoulder pains are not as bad and the knees hold up for just one more hour.

Hayes said that the profession does take a toll. She said that her parents now retired are in poor health when it comes to legs and back.

It is so interesting how the parent’s passion is carried over to the children when done correctly. And it may not even be the same profession, but the passion is invaluable when it’s inherent and inherited.

It was that passion that spoke back through the daughter to the mother, bringing them both together again in a profession they both adored.

“This one right here (Elkins) called me and said, ‘MOM, there’s a place for sale in Elizabethtown,’” Hayes said. When she asked if I wanted to buy it, I pretty much said, ‘no.’”

“I really felt this,” Elkins said. “I asked her if she would just come and look at the building. That was in 2022. I wanted to be back in Elizabethtown because I could get more business there.”

Again, that desire to work with her mom runs deep in her roots. It wasn’t long before Hayes had her husband, Milton helping with the remodeling of the new shell of their business at 1005 West King Street.

“I know that I wanted her to be in this business, though I didn’t know if she wanted to do it,” Hayes said. “She was not on board to begin with because she didn’t think she would like it. She has turned out to really enjoy it. She’s good at it and she’s a people person.”

Hayes works Tuesdays through Saturdays, 9 to 5 with set appointments appreciated and they also take walk-ins. Elkins works not only at the Hair Barr, but on her days off from Elizabethtown, she also works at North End Salon & Co. two days a week.

Elkins is a clone of her mother with a heart of gold and a way with people that goes perfectly with a talent that has come from two generations of mentoring. In addition to being a mother, she has adopted a handful of cats that find their way inside even though they are supposed to be outside cats, but once again, she has three children and that’s all you really have to say about that.

She tells the story of a small cat she rescued from under a car who was described as “so little and shaking and vulnerable. I just couldn’t leave it there alone.” Perhaps the strongest thing to say about Elkins is that she’s not afraid to take on the challenge of strays and people in need. (Nor cats.)

A natural caregiver and creator of dreams, she works hard, is focused and yet always has time for her children as they have full run of the salon. And one can’t help smile as her daughter hides in the backroom. Evidently a prerequisite to one day being in the family business.

Hayes is a woman who has worn many hats, but the common thread is being a care giver each place that she’s been called to – whether that is physical infirmity or for keeping the secrets of the human heart. In addition to her many jobs she has worked, she has carried with her a strong faith. Her love is working with youth ministry and she hopes that one day she will be able to devote more time to that.

“I’d like to turn over the reins to Kayla and at some point, hand her the salon,” Hayes said. “I’d like to work for her if I’m still doing hair. It would be hard to walk away totally because I’ve tried to; twice. And it didn’t stick.”

At middle age she says that her health has only suffered a few surgeries, but overall is good and she remains active.

“Ten years from now, I’d still love to be working,” she said. “I don’t want to stop because I feel that it keeps you young. I see people that stop and their health starts to play a factor. I don’t think I could ever sit still.”

Another of Bladen County’s hidden gems and incredible stories.

You can visit their business online at: https://www.facebook.com/crystalssalononbroad/