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Statesville hair stylist still cutting it after 25 years
Photo by Bruce Matlock
Ania Work (right) give her daughter, Asonia Bell, a touch-up on Friday at her salon.
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Published: June 28, 2009
Brenda Eckles closed her eyes and settled back into the reclining chair in front of the black sink.
As Ania Work's knowing hands worked the shampoo into her hair, the 67-year-old Troutman resident's face relaxed more and more. Work reached back to the shelf to grab the next bottle and pumped thick conditioner into her hands.
She smiled as she quietly went about washing Eckles' hair. Eckles been her client at Work's Shelton Avenue salon Ania's Touch of Class for nearly two years now. Her daughter and mother were clients before that.
"I like everything," Eckles said. "I enjoy coming here. It's very peaceful and it's quiet."
The quiet, along with the shampooing, has put a lot of people from Harmony, Huntersville, Charlotte, Statesville and Stony Point to sleep during Work's 25 years on Shelton Avenue.
Ania's clients tend to be a tight-knit group. Most of them have passed along Work's name to friends and family members.
Work spent a lot of time learning about hair types, what works and doesn't, and is familiar with her clients' needs. It's one of the traits her clients love about her. It is why some of them followed her from Nita's Beauty World in 1984 to the small storefront in south Statesville.
"I learned as long as I keep doing people, they keep on coming," Work said.
No one said a word. Two air conditioning units and the buzzing of the electric hair dryers are the only sounds echoing through the room once the front door is closed and locked again.
"To me, it's a private place," Work said. "I'm booked every hour, so I know when my clients are coming in."
Truthfully, she admitted, she wanted to keep sales people out because even if you put up a "No Soliciting" sign, they still come in.
The store is filled with homey details. The leopard print drapes and lampshades match her smock.
Next to the window is a basket full of cakes her sister left behind for her 25th anniversary and a silver tub filled with ice and little bottles of Welch's grape juice.
Next to her booth is an aluminum pan filled will green beans.
Work pulled the fine-tooth comb through Eckles hair and pulled up a strand.
With a flick of her wrist, she wrapped it around the bright curler and grabbed a pin to hold it in place. She reaches for another one and almost effortlessly twirls Eckles' hair again and again.
Work has done hair in some form or fashion almost her entire life. Her mother was a cosmetologist as well. So is her sister, and her daughter, Asonia Bell, has her license, too.
"It's a family business," Work said. "We always did hair. We didn't have any choice but to."
After moving to Mooresville from Davidson, Work waited until 1978, when her daughter was 10, to start attending cosmetology school. She later earned her associate master's degree in cosmetology.
Growing up, Bell said she often made the trip from their home in Mooresville to the salon. Watching her mother at the salon helped to develop her work ethic, Bell said.
"She was always a go-getter," Bell said. "It gave me an example on how to treat people."
Work flipped on one of the hair dryers and let it warm up while she finished Eckles' hair.
Cosmetology school in the late 1970s didn't teach a lot about styling a black person's hair, she said.
It's a different kind of texture, she said.
She sat Eckles down next to Velma Patterson and her mother. Patterson has been Work's customer since she went to Nita's back in the early 1980s.
Patterson said Work has always accommodated her and her mother.
While she loves what Work has done to her hair over the years, Patterson still isn't a fan of the large hairdryers she has to sit under every month.
"She's been fair," Patterson said. "We've gotten along good."
Work doesn't take a lot of new clients these days. The ones she has keep her pretty busy, she said.
One of the biggest lessons she learned over the years was to pace herself and not overbook her appointments.
Work said that during her first year of business, she would be at the shop until nearly midnight.
"I probably spend more time here than at my own house," she said, laughing.
Work said she plans to continue to style people's hair for as long as she is able.
"I've just been very successful," she said. "I love what I'm doing. I give God the glory. I couldn't have done it without him."
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