Kara Hackett, Online Editor
You've probably walked past the sign between campus and the Marathon gas station without noticing it.
"Students go by here all the time, and we get people in here who say, 'I never knew you were here,'" said Paula Luthy, owner of the small square house just north of the Delta apartment building.
The sign in front of the house reads "Craig & Friends" in white and blue letters, but the house isn't a home.
It's a hair salon that looks and feels like a home.
Paula's husband Craig started Craig & Friends salon in Wabash, Ind., in 1976. Now Paula has owned and operated the salon in Upland for about 30 years, continuing her husband's vision for a "down-home," family atmosphere that makes customers feel like friends.
"That's why we named it Craig & Friends," Craig said.
Although the exterior of the building is plain and white, the interior is warm hues of yellows, tans and reds.
Let yourself in the back door behind the building, and you're greeted with the soft smell of hairspray and the sound of upbeat music.
The main room is divided into three spacious sections to accommodate everything the salon offers, from cuts to color, perms to eyebrow waxing.
Along the righthand wall is two shelves lined with hair products - blue bottles of "It's a 10," silver tubes of "Kenra." The bottom shelf has a bowl of Dum Dum Pops.
This time of year, the whole place is decked with garlands and Christmas lights, all contributing to the family room feel.
On Wednesday, a woman in the room closest to Main Street sits under a hooded hair dryer reading a book as the bowl-like contraption over her head sets her red hair color.
She's been coming to Craig & Friends every five to six weeks for about six years now.
Paula lifts the dryer from her hair covered in plastic and leads her across the room to the "shampoo area," a chair reclined over a large salon sink.
"This place is like 'Steel Magnolias,'" the woman says, referring to the 1989 movie about a group of women whose lives converge at a beauty parlor.
She and Paula laugh loudly at the comparison.
"(Craig & Friends) is not gossipy like that, but you just see everyone here," the woman says.
"Yes," Paula says, smiling as she rinses the woman's hair. "Put that in there: Not gossipy. We're just a down-home salon."
After attending barber school in Indianapolis and then beauty school in Kokomo, Craig opened the salon in Wabash for two years before moving it back to his hometown Marion in 1978.
He met Paula in 1979 while she was a hairstylist in Michigan, and the couple married in December 1980.
Living in Upland, they ran the Marion salon together until they had their first child. Then they opened an Upland shop so Paula could work closer to home.
The Marion shop closed about 15 years ago, and Craig is now working for a different salon, but Paula still runs the Upland salon by herself.
And out of everywhere she has worked, Paula says Upland has the most down-home atmosphere.
"I like that," Paula said. "I'm a more down-home kind of girl."
Her silver hoop earrings sparkle next to the shiny striped scarf peeking from her black trench coat.
"We've had customers who've come in for 30 years," Paula said. "You get to know your customers. They're like another family to you."
The Upland shop originally sat where Wolgemuth Hall is now. It moved to its current location on Main Street in July 2010, when Taylor traded property and cash with the small salon to buy the land, says Vice President for Business Administration Ron Sutherland.
But even before that, Taylor and the hair salon were not strangers.
Craig's father, Fred Luthy, taught in Taylor's religion department for 33 years, and the Luthy's children, Chad Luthy ('05) and Chelesee Jones ('06) both graduated from Taylor, so the family has always been close to the university.
"Taylor has always been a huge part of our lives and our business lives," Craig said. "They've been instrumental in everything we have done professionally in the hair business."
Paula says she and the three other stylists at Craig & Friends all have their own clientele, some of which include Taylor students and faculty.
Junior media production systems major Chase Geyer has gone to Craig & Friends for haircuts since he transferred to Taylor two years ago. He's had several different stylists there, and he says he has yet to leave disappointed.
"It's very chill," Geyer said. "It's laid back and very personal. . . . It feels like you're going there for your own personal hair cut."
