Pam Dudding
Contributing writer
Few ladies in their 70s can say that they have worked their dream job and loved everything about it.
Betty Hughes, owner of her Hair Design Beauty Salon in New Castle, began styling hair as a little girl, something she would spend endless hours doing. Little did she know at the time that she would continue her passion for the next 55 years.
“I’ve always loved doing hair,” Hughes said. “As a young teen, my mother asked me to start cutting her hair and giving her home permanents.” Before long, Hughes had accepted an after-school job being a shampoo girl.
Speaking in a soft voice, Hughes said, “Even in all this, at the age of 16, I met the love of my life, Jerry Hughes. He was my high school sweetheart.”
Hughes then accepted a three-year apprentice program and started working towards her Cosmetology Degree. However, she was blessed with a different scholarship, which allowed her to attend college for only nine months and obtain her license.
After they graduated from high school, Jerry joined the Navy. “We got married at 18 in 1964. I joined him at the Naval base in Boston, and then we transferred to Norfolk,” she said.
Two years later, their daughter Jodi was born at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital.
“The most wonderful time in our life was in 1970 when we both gave our lives to the Lord,” Hughes said. “After that, Jerry sang gospel music in different groups for seven years before the Lord called him into fulltime ministry. Jerry attended Shenandoah Bible College in Roanoke.”
They were Independent Baptist, and their first church was in Culpepper, Virginia.
For the next several years, he pastored in Illinois, Pennsylvania and California until ending up at the First Baptist Church in New Castle in 1996.
Wherever they moved, Hughes said that she set up her hair salon except in for California due to costs. In 2003, she opened her salon in Craig County.
“Jerry spent 15 years proclaiming God’s Word until the Lord took him to his final destination in Heaven in 2011,” Hughes said. “It’s been eight years that I have been without him, but God has continued to bless my beauty salon and hair design.”
Hughes said that she has the “best clients in the whole world.” Adding, “They are my friends as well as my customers. They pray for me and have stood by me during my whole time here.”
Now, at 73, Hughes shared that she is ready to retire and wishes to sell her salon business.
“I know God has someone out there to buy it. He will sell it in His time and not mine and I am ready for a new chapter in my life,” she said. “Until then, I will continue to work and praise his name.”
Hughes still attends First Baptist. “I love Pastor Kevin and Missy. He’s a wonderful pastor and minister and loves people. Many have gotten saved under his watch. He stepped right in when Jerry died.”
She has priced the business – not including the building – at approximately $9,000. It is a turn-key buy and she is leaving everything in her salon. It includes all her equipment and products, including hairdryers, curling irons, permanent rods, curlers, supplies, towels and her clientele and much more. Interested individuals are encouraged to contact 540-864-8788 for more information.
Hughes noted, “I am always booked solid.”
She wishes to retire to have more time to spend with her family, including her daughter, son in law, granddaughter, grandson and her siblings.
Said Hughes, “Doing hair is my passion. I love it and I love my customers. I have a positive attitude about going to work every day and doing the best I can and giving God the praise for it. I’m really going to miss my customers.”
