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PITTSBURG —
For 36 years Carolyn Vediz, owner of Styles Unlimited, didn’t have to drive to work because her beauty salon was located next door to her home.
That changed on the night of Feb. 28, when straight-line winds of 100 to 120 miles per hour blasted through the area.
“I didn’t hear anything but heavy wind,” Vediz said. “We didn’t know we’d been hit until my husband was called in to work by the county and he got up to check.”
What Francis “Eggie” Vediz found was that the roof had been torn off his wife’s salon at 506 E. 520th and the walls had fallen in. Fortunately, many of the salon’s contents were salvaged.
“Within 30 minutes of me calling, the girls (her stylists) came out to help, the 911 people and the neighbors,” Vediz said. “It was amazing.”
Even Julie Parsons Sandness, who formerly worked at Styles Unlimited and now has her own salon, pitched in.
“Julie came and helped us get stuff out that night,” said Christy Cooper, who has worked with Vediz for 25 years.
Sandness helped even more. She allowed Vediz and her stylists to work out of her business, Allure Salon and Spa, 2113 W. Fourth.
“Julie cried right along with us, and that very night she said, ‘Come and stay with us as long as you need to’,” Vediz said. “We could not have done this without Julie. She and her girls welcomed us and worked us in so we could work on our customers.”
Sandness doesn’t have any extra work stations at her salon, so it was necessary for Vediz and her crew, which also includes Tamara Born and Kim Carrington, to work around the schedules of the Allure operators. Vediz said that it was snug, especially on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
“It always worked out,” Sandness said.
“It worked out so well that we miss them,” Cooper said.
Still, the change was hard for Vediz.
“The first day I drove to Allure to work, I cried all the way there and I cried all day,” Vediz said. “I must have put my eyelashes back on 20 times.”
The loss of the salon, which had been there 36 years, caused a lot of confusion.
“I still get calls from some customers who only come every three or four months,” Vediz said. “They still show up at the old place and there’s nothing there. Somebody from the State Board came by to do a random inspection and found an empty lot. She called me and I probably had her so confused.”
For 36 years Carolyn Vediz, owner of Styles Unlimited, didn’t have to drive to work because her beauty salon was located next door to her home.
That changed on the night of Feb. 28, when straight-line winds of 100 to 120 miles per hour blasted through the area.
“I didn’t hear anything but heavy wind,” Vediz said. “We didn’t know we’d been hit until my husband was called in to work by the county and he got up to check.”
What Francis “Eggie” Vediz found was that the roof had been torn off his wife’s salon at 506 E. 520th and the walls had fallen in. Fortunately, many of the salon’s contents were salvaged.
“Within 30 minutes of me calling, the girls (her stylists) came out to help, the 911 people and the neighbors,” Vediz said. “It was amazing.”
Even Julie Parsons Sandness, who formerly worked at Styles Unlimited and now has her own salon, pitched in.
“Julie came and helped us get stuff out that night,” said Christy Cooper, who has worked with Vediz for 25 years.
Sandness helped even more. She allowed Vediz and her stylists to work out of her business, Allure Salon and Spa, 2113 W. Fourth.
“Julie cried right along with us, and that very night she said, ‘Come and stay with us as long as you need to’,” Vediz said. “We could not have done this without Julie. She and her girls welcomed us and worked us in so we could work on our customers.”
Sandness doesn’t have any extra work stations at her salon, so it was necessary for Vediz and her crew, which also includes Tamara Born and Kim Carrington, to work around the schedules of the Allure operators. Vediz said that it was snug, especially on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
“It always worked out,” Sandness said.
“It worked out so well that we miss them,” Cooper said.
Still, the change was hard for Vediz.
“The first day I drove to Allure to work, I cried all the way there and I cried all day,” Vediz said. “I must have put my eyelashes back on 20 times.”
The loss of the salon, which had been there 36 years, caused a lot of confusion.
“I still get calls from some customers who only come every three or four months,” Vediz said. “They still show up at the old place and there’s nothing there. Somebody from the State Board came by to do a random inspection and found an empty lot. She called me and I probably had her so confused.”
She and her operators worked out of Allure a little over three months, but have now moved into the new Styles Unlimited in Chicopee, just across the street from the Chicopee Community Center, formerly St. Barbara’s Catholic Church.
It is located in an old miner’s house owned by Anna and Jerry Lomshek.
“My husband, Darren, is good friends of the Lomsheks’ son, Jurij,” Cooper said. “They just got the idea in their heads.”
But the house was not in the best condition.
“They stripped it down to the nubbins and rebuilt it like new,” Vediz said. “Now we have a washer and dryer, which we didn’t have before. We’d take turns taking the towels home.”
Also working on the project were Danny Scales, Cory Mason and Gregor Kalan, the Lomsheks’ son-in-law. Kelci Cooper and CDL did the sign.
It was necessary to go to the Crawford County Zoning Board to get a variance for the business to be in an area zoned as residential.
“If one person had bumped against us, we would have had trouble, but nobody did,” Vediz said. “Not only did nobody complain about us coming in, several people wrote letters to the board supporting us.”
As a result, the zoning board recommended that the Crawford County Commission approve the variance, and it did.
There will probably be more confusion now that Styles Unlimited has moved to Chicopee.
“I had one of their customers who just came to Allure looking for them,” Sandness said.
Eventually, Vediz hopes, everybody will know where she and her girls are working. Even though she has to drive to work now, she’s crying tears of happiness.
“We’ve moved a new double-wide onto our lot and we’re tearing down our old house, so I’ve got two new places,” she said. “I feel like I need to pinch myself. I just don’t know what we’d have done without everybody being so good.”
