Faye’s Beauty Salon To Close After 65 Years

After 65 years in business, Faye’s Beauty Salon will close its’ doors on December 31. Owner Kay Crosby hasn’t run the salon for those 65 years, but she’s been there for all of it.

"I was raised in the beauty salon," Crosby says. "Me and a few other kids skated all over the brick streets."

Crosby’s mother, Faye Laney opened Faye’s in 1944, in the back of a dress shop on 4th St., located in the empty building next to Cody Sherrard’s Insurance at the corner of Commerce and 4th.

"Nona McKinney had a real nice dress shop there – a high end dress shop." Crosby recalled. "Mr. McKinney was an optician and had his store there, and it was also a jewelry store."

In the early 50’s, Faye moved her shop to James St., where the Christmas Store is now located. It remained there until 1996 when Kay moved to the present location at 138 N. 4th St.

Kay went off to college at Lon Morris where she met John Crosby. The two were married and moved to Kountze where he attended Lamar Tech in Beaumont, and she went to beauty school.

In 1959 the couple returned to Wills Point, and Kay went to work in her mother’s shop, and remained for the next 50 years. Faye remained active in the business until the early 80’s.

"It was a hard decision," Crosby said of the decision to close the shop. "I’m going to miss the people, but I am tired of the responsibility.

"This is a very personal, one-on-one business and you develop friendships with the customers. Through the years, a lot of customers have passed away, but there are still some from my mother’s days. I’ve had some customers for 25 or 30 years."

For much of the salon’s history, it employed four operators at a time. Today Crosby and Lynn Hood, who has been with her for 10 years, are the only operators.

As to what is on the agenda for January 1 and after, Crosby is leaving her options open.

"Travel is a big word," she said with a laugh. "But I want to go somewhere. We don’t have any definite plans, but my husband is thrilled that I’m closing. I think the main idea is to be able to wake up and decide that day what we’re going to do."

She added, however, that she did renew her license just in case.