As Sarah Jones approached her college years, her parents had high expectations. Her father, partner in a law firm, expected the Castilleja School grad to choose a lucrative career path, in business or law, perhaps.
Instead, Jones was an art major whose direction in life was at a crossroads.
“They didn’t expect me to be a hairdresser,” said the San Jose native of her parents.
Neither did she, but that’s what happened. The hair-styling career Jones backed into has been an unqualified success spanning four decades.
Jones, 62, retired last month after operating her Sarah Jones salon at 280 Second St. in downtown Los Altos for 25 years. During that time, she built a positive reputation among clients and stylists alike. The demand is such that customers usually have to book three months in advance. Her talent and high standards for styling, honed by apprenticeship with some of the world’s best, has generated longtime, loyal clients. She cites several whose grown daughters became Sarah Jones customers.
A friendly, energetic personality, Jones worked with the famous Mister Lee (Bledsoe) in San Francisco. During a two-year stint in Florence, Italy, in the mid-1980s Jones worked with stylist Massimo Donnini at the Diffusione Moda salon. In Italy, Jones witnessed the reverence paid to stylists.
“They’re treated like surgeons over there,” she said.
Rather than the customer dictating the style, Jones said an Italian stylist sizes up the head of hair and says, “This is how it’s going to be.”
“It changed my whole outlook,” she added.
She returned to the Peninsula in the late 1980s, got married and continued styling at McArthur Ross Salon in Menlo Park. At her husband John’s suggestion, Jones opened her own salon on St. Patrick’s Day in 1992 on Second Street, directly across from where Walgreens is today.
Drive to be the best
One thing that hasn’t changed about downtown Los Altos is its numerous salons – there was plenty of competition 25 years ago, too, Jones said. Still, she stood out by recruiting excellent talent around her – stylists work as independent contractors rather than employees.
Nail technician Tina Emmons, a 24-year business partner with Jones, admires “the dedication (Jones) showed to filling her salon with the best stylists the industry had to offer, in our area. … The six of us who had to find a new location due to Sarah’s retirement have worked together for 20 years. This is very unusual in our business.”
Emmons also pointed to Jones’ “unrelenting drive to be the best and showcase all of our talents in strikingly elegant surroundings. … (This) set her apart not only in Los Altos, but the entire Bay Area.”
Jones smiles as she recalls her uncertain college days. After graduating from Castilleja in 1972, she attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and an art school in New York City. She applied – and got in – to UC Berkeley. But she needed direction.
A family friend suggested cutting hair. She enrolled in a beauty college on the Peninsula and a new career beckoned.
“Early on, nothing was appealing to me,” she said. “I didn’t like hair – I didn’t like anything about it.”
But her experience at Mister Lee’s changed that. His work styling socialites’ hair seemed like sculpting to her. And it proved inspirational for an art major.
Jones said there isn’t any one reason behind her decision to retire.
“I was coming to the end of my lease and thought this is a good time to see what else I can explore,” she said.
Coming from a “long line of political activists,” Jones said she is concerned about women’s rights and the environment, and she might want to get involved at some point. For now, she’ll take a well-deserved break.
Other stylists at Sarah Jones are not leaving Los Altos anytime soon. Emmons and five stylists – Laurence Collins, Anna Marie Provines, Jayna DelTessandoro, Suzanne Sheridan Fanelli and Christina Collins – have transferred to Voila Hair Design at 221 State St.
“I think this is also quite an unusual situation,” Emmons said. “It was very kind and open-minded of our new owner, Trina Ngo, to take us all on, and for a group our size to insist on moving together to remain a team.”
