{"id":2449301,"date":"2019-09-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=313638"},"modified":"2019-09-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T06:00:00","slug":"business-monday-aspen-hair-co-cuts-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/business-monday-aspen-hair-co-cuts-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Monday: Aspen Hair Co. cuts out"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hairstylists Karen Birach and Bea Haggerty, owners and operators of The Aspen Hair Company, bid farewell to their business of 32 years and thanked their longtime customers with a casual party Friday.<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Rare are the Aspen businesses today that don\u2019t take credit cards and operate on handshake agreements, while their hands-on owners enjoy the freedom to work on their own terms.<\/p>\n

Yet for 32 years, The Aspen Hair Co. \u2014 synonymous with its owners who\u2019ve simply gone by Karen and Bea \u2014 managed to pull it off.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Karen Birach and Bea Haggerty bid farewell to their business and thanked their longtime customers with a casual party at the salon tucked away upstairs at 420 E. Hyman Ave.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started 32 years ago because we wanted to have a job with more flexibility, where we could have our own hours and we didn\u2019t have to answer to anybody, and so we found this spot,\u201d Haggerty said.<\/p>\n

With the closing, Haggerty, 68, is now officially retired, and said she\u2019s looking forward to a relaxing winter with morning coffee and cross-country skiing. Birach, 61, said she\u2019ll keep working as a hairstylist, but at Ajax Salon & Spa upstairs above the Grog Shop at 720 E. Durant Ave. Like the other businesses at the Hyman Avenue mall building<\/a> \u2014 Annette\u2019s Mountain Bake Shop, CB Paws, and the gallery run by Guadalupe Laiz \u2014 The Aspen Hair Co. is vacating the building because of its pending demolition and remodel.<\/p>\n

Birach and Haggerty, who both moved to Aspen at different times in 1978, came to knew each other through the salon business, and decided they\u2019d had enough of working for someone else. No sooner had they agreed to put up their own shingle that the Hyman spot became available.<\/p>\n

The late George Vicenzi<\/a>, who also owned the former Aspen post office space on Hyman where the old Wienerstube restaurant would later open, owned the Hyman building as well, and was a friend of Birach\u2019s. They reached an agreement the same day the two hairstylists quit their jobs. \u201cThe doors just flew open,\u201d Birach said. \u201cWe were just hoping we could make it one year, and now it\u2019s 32 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

First they had to overhaul what had been a loft apartment unit boasting shag rugs and a Budweiser Tiffany lamp.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the true party central,\u201d Birach said, recalling that some of their early customers relayed they\u2019d had a few late nights there.<\/p>\n

As The Aspen Hair Co. built its stable of clients with Birach and Haggerty running its daily affairs, their building changed landlords, but their rent stayed the same. They both admit that was good fortune in Aspen\u2019s cutthroat commercial environment. They didn\u2019t enter lease agreements until their most recent landlord, and even that was a loose arrangement, they said. There were some growing pains, however, like their first year when the two neophyte business operators realized that they\u2019d need to start paying taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always had a great deal; it\u2019s been a sweetheart deal,\u201d Birach said. \u201cOur owners were really good to us. It\u2019s as if we\u2019ve had a guardian angel here from the get-go, the way the doors were opened and then it was sold and they didn\u2019t raise our rent and it was sold again and they didn\u2019t raise our rent. That doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two ran their hairstylist operations independently, but split the rent and other costs. It also helped that they got along well, they both said.<\/p>\n

Their customers mainly were working-class locals who could afford their prices \u2014 $45 for a men\u2019s cut and $60 for women\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Over the three-plus decades, Birach and Haggerty made a number of friends and acquaintances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s been fun is, 32 years ago we saw our clientele and you watched them get married and watched them have babies and then those kids grew and we did their hair and then their babies\u2019,\u201d Birach said. \u201cWe\u2019ve watched people get married and divorced, their parents die and their dogs die.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cI\u2019ve been brought to tears sometimes, and laughed harder than you ever think. People would tell me things I wouldn\u2019t tell my best friends. Then there are people who are amazingly shy and quiet, and those who tell it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hairstylists Karen Birach and Bea Haggerty, owners and operators of The Aspen Hair Company, bid farewell to their business of 32 years and thanked their longtime customers with a casual party Friday.Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Rare are the Aspen businesses today that don\u2019t take credit cards and operate on handshake agreements, while their hands-on owners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2449301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 13:21:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}