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Community Corner

Suspended In Time

Ben Lomond stylist, in floor-length dresses and trademark red tresses, gives customers refuge while doing their hair.

Elizabeth “Buttons” Smith’s one-chair salon has been an oasis for 32 years, located in Ben Lomond's oldest building. Buttons cuts, colors, perms, shampoos and sets while talking to customers, some of whom confide in her more than any other person they know. She’s the favorite of local police, firefighters, hippies, business owners, massage therapists, musicians and veterinarians, to name a few.

According to one customer, who preferred anonymity, “Buttons has watched me change over the years. She saw me before I was treated for an emotional problem, and she’s seen me go through relationships and jobs and medication adjustments. Now she tells me I’m doing better than ever, and it’s true. Oh yeah, and by the way, my hair never looked better.”

In her salon hangs a painting on the wall of Guinevere, King Arthur's queen. In addition to the obvious similarity of the long red hair, Buttons is a sort of Cinderella figure not appreciated as a youngster for her talents or respected for her independence, but who grew to be queenly in bearing, style of dress and benevolent treatment of animals and people.

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Where her twin wore glass slippers, Buttons wears Birkenstocks. But the elegant spirit is the same.

On The Way To Nursing School

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It was a fluke that Buttons became a stylist. She intended to be a nurse and had received her nurse's aide certificate at Cabrillo, but missed the sign up date for the nursing program lottery. A friend from high school said, “Why don't you try Wayne's College of Beauty for a change of pace?” Thirteen months later, she took the State Board, figuring she'd go back to nursing if she didn't pass.

“But I passed. I worked at a couple salons. The lady who owned this Park Hall shop was retiring and I knew I wanted to work for myself,” she said.

Buttons is a legend in the San Lorenzo Valley, and beyond. Customers drop by with home-made treats and gifts for her birthday or “just because.” They call to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and some have said they'll shave their heads if she ever goes out of business.

They count on her for proms, weddings, holidays and every important event, to which she’s also an invited guest. In spite of having an additional night-time clerical job for the past 35 years, she manages to make 150 customers a month look the way they want to. She charges people now whatever they paid when they first came to her, five, ten, twenty or thirty years ago. Customers leave substantial tips to supplement the puny fees, which still comes out to less than they’d pay for the same high-class services elsewhere.

“Her skills are up to date. She knows the latest in hair services,” said customer Darlene Woodburn, director of the Scotts Valley Montevalle Chorale. “I don’t know when she finds time to take classes, though.”

Sensitive And Shy

“My father was a doctor and our family ran a residential school for physically and mentally challenged children at Blake Hammond Manor in Ben Lomond,” Buttons said. “I played with the kids and loved life on a ranch.

“When I was 7, we traveled around the world for a year. It had a profound affect on me because I saw absolutely beautiful and absolutely horrible things in the world.”

When she returned to school at San Lorenzo Valley Elementary, she discovered that what second-graders cared about wasn't important to her. That's also when she became shy and introverted.

“I felt so much older because I'd seen things like a death house in Malaysia, where people who were sick and couldn't afford end of life care lived in their coffins until they died. In Africa I saw all the wild animals on the Serengeti. I wasn't able to go to zoos again. Too sad once you've seen animals running free,” she said, though she acknowledges that zoos are improving habitats now and attempting to save species.

Wildlife Safety Zone

A picture above her salon mirror shows her kissing two baby possums that she rescued, while two more cling to her hair. She is a champion of wildlife and her favorite animal is the possum.

“They're such incredible little animals, the only North American marsupial. They're immune to rattlesnake venom and they never stop growing. The bigger it is, the older it is. They usually live only three years in the wild," she said.

In addition to rescuing possums, Buttons has given R&R to wild animals in her house, in addition to her pet dogs and cats. She's rescued ferrets, rats, a chinchilla, bats, rabbits, hedgehogs, wild mice, hamsters and various birds.

Long before it was popular, Buttons became a vegetarian.

“We had dairy cows. When the pasteurization laws went into effect, the cows had to be butchered. I walked into the barn after one was killed and realized meat and animals are the same,” she said. Not one bite of meat has passed her lips since she was 8 years old.

Customers Are Friends

Mary Moore has been Buttons’ friend for 30 years.

“She’s done my hair for that length of time, too,” Moore said. “I love her! We’re each other’s sounding board. In the old days I was her astrologer.”

Another customer-friend is Karla McCulloch, a Ben Lomond teacher who has come to Buttons for more than 25 years. McCulloch was the pre-school teacher of Buttons’ son.

“Buttons is a very kind, good-natured, compassionate individual. As a stylist she wants to know what you want,” McCulloch said. “She doesn't impose her ideas.”

Zachary Coleman studies culinary arts at Cabrillo and plays the viola.

“He can make your dinner and play while you eat,” quipped mom Renee Coleman, also a customer. Zachary was on the verge of getting dreadlocks when he first came to Buttons years ago. He has very curly hair.

“Buttons can cut it well. Not every stylist can,” Coleman said.

Stylist As Counselor

Asked when she first realized that being a stylist is a front for being a counselor, Buttons said, “In beauty school they told us that stylists and bartenders become unofficial psychologists.”

She both gives advice and sometimes just listens.

“I give advice from my own experience if I think it can help. I give medical advice, too! I’ve diagnosed a couple cancers and hypothyroidism in a couple customers. Having been raised in a medical family and worked toward being a nurse, my night-time job at a medical clinic just continues the original career interest,” she said.

Has she ever said something she later regretted?

“I sent a birthday card showing a burning house, and inside it showed a lot of candles on the cake, making a joke about the person getting older, with so many candles. What I didn’t realize was that they’d just had a house fire! People who saw the card thought it was bad taste, but I didn’t have a clue about when I sent it," she said.

Buttons regularly sends greeting cards to many customers, especially “older individuals who don’t get out much. Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas, that sort of thing.”

After 10,000 Haircuts . . .

“What I’ve learned from putting my hands on thousands of people’s heads is that everyone is unique and interesting. They all have a story to tell," Buttons reflected. "The longer I know them, I find out they have incredible lives and have achieved incredible things. Yet most people go unrecognized.”

She added, “Oh, yeah, and they have bumpy heads, too!”

Mary Moore captured the poignant essence of the little shop when she said, “Buttons gives children their first haircut, and the elderly their last.”

For an appointment with Buttons Smith, call 831-336-5402.

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