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Salon Owner's Style Works

CANDACE C. MUNDY/TAMPA TRIBUNE PHOTO

Donna Montagnino, a stylist at HairCrafters, 10047 W. Hillsborough Avenue, owned by Linda Wuerker, works with new client Cristy Mattson.

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By ANGELA DELGADO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 21, 2007

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Linda Wuerker is a self-professed people person. A team player.

Years ago her love of interacting with people led her to become a teacher, but a move to Florida from Illinois pointed her in another direction.

When she arrived in Florida, she earned her license and began working at a friend's hair salon. It was the '70s, Wuerker said, and at that time the salon business was a wide-open market. Because of that, she decided to venture out and open a salon of her own.

Wuerker opened her first salon, a HairCrafters franchise, in 1976 at Buccaneer Square on West Hillsborough Avenue. That salon later moved to 10047 W. Hillsborough Ave., where some of her most loyal hair stylists operate. Despite the hair business being a new one for Wuerker, her salon took off, and now she and her family own four salons in Hillsborough County, two salons in Wisconsin and two in Illinois.

Although the salons are a franchise, Wuerker said they are homegrown and locally operated.

"The hair business is a personal business," she said.

Her bond with her customers and employees may explain why she has been successful and why more than 50 percent of her staff has been with her for more than 10 years.

Donna Montagnino has been working for Wuerker for 22 years. She has worked in all her shops in Hillsborough County, and although she has wandered a couple of times, Montagnino has found her way back.

"You work for a good lady, why leave it?" she said. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The people, my job. I like it a lot."

"I've always told my staff, 'you have to like coming to work,'" Wuerker said. "I don't want people doing what they don't enjoy doing. We work together as a team."

The upbeat and friendly atmosphere at the salon has kept Marie Gill, 80, a client for more than 20 years.

"They always please me," she said about her hair styles. "They all know me."

Today, Wuerker dedicates her time to office work and payrolls and not so much time "behind the chair."

Her salons offer haircuts for men and women, hair color, perms, hair treatments, waxing and tanning. Most of Wuerker's salons are full-service; she likes to provide a mixture for her clients.

"That's our thing, we want to make people feel their personal best with whatever means we have available to us," she said.

"We make people feel good by making them look good," Wuerker said. "We give them something exciting, a change. A lot of times, if they're down and they get a new look, it brightens their day."

HAIRCRAFTERS

LOCATIONS: Town 'N Country, 10047 W. Hillsborough Ave.; Seffner, 730 Martin Luther King Blvd.; South Tampa, 4475 Gandy Blvd.; Temple Terrace, 5507 E. Fowler Ave.

CALL: (813) 886-6354

PRICES: Women's haircuts are $17; men's cuts are $15; hair color starts at $58; spiral perms start at $100

Reporter Angela Delgado can be reached at (813) 865-1501 or adelgado@tampatrib.com.

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