By Khalida Sarwari
If the walls of Kirk & Co. Hair Design could talk, some of the stories they’d tell would rival those published by TMZ and Us Weekly.
Since 1991, Terry Kirk has heard it all while applying color to one client here, snipping another client’s hair there. The conversations at the cozy salon tucked away on Big Basin Way have at times been as exciting as the new looks debuted by Kirk’s loyal clientele. It is those moments that the veteran hairdresser will miss the most as he looks toward retiring at the end of this month.
“That’s going to be the hard part,” said Kirk, 71. “It’s going to be one tear-jerking goodbye after another.”
After 50 years in the business —45 of those in Saratoga—and 23 years at his current salon, Kirk is putting down the scissors on March 29. His customers, a number of them who’ve been coming to Kirk for more than 30 years, will find it hard to say goodbye. The physical labor aspect of the work aside, Kirk indicated it wouldn’t be any easier for him.
“It’s a unique job that way,” he said. “You get to know people and you get to know them for a very, very long time. I’ve watched them grow up. I’ve watched their children grow up and now their grandchildren grow up. It’s a generational thing.”
On a Friday weeks before his retirement, Kirk made the routine trek from his home in Scotts Valley to the salon for a half-day shift before embarking on a lunch meeting with a friend. Because of the physically demanding nature of the work, especially on the back and arms, Kirk works two days a week. The rest of his time is devoted to his many and varied hobbies, among them working on his cars, dirt bike riding and traveling in his RV.
“I’ve got plenty to keep me busy,” Kirk said, and after a pause, added, “Actually, I’m too busy to work.”
For someone who still goes dirt bike riding and claims he can “build a house from scratch” if he wanted, it’s hard to imagine how Kirk found his way to a profession that involves cutting and coloring hair. Prior to attending beauty school in San Jose, Kirk worked as a truck driver for the U.S. Navy. It took a series of events to guide his attention to the world of cosmetology.
At the time, Kirk’s mother was married to a man who was a hairdresser, and coming home from school and seeing him at work piqued his interest, Kirk said. What’s more, the result of a career aptitude test he took in high school gave him hairdressing as an option, he said. The fact that a few of his girlfriends had been hairdressers was the clincher for Kirk.
He followed his hunch, and though he came close to quitting a few times because the styling aspect of the job didn’t come easily to him in the beginning, went on to enjoy a successful career, married a hairdresser with whom he’ll be celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary this year, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“Hairdressing has been very good to me,” Kirk said, “but it was purely on a lark.”
At the end of the month, Kirk will turn his salon over to Adriana Raissinia, a fellow hairdresser who Kirk said plans to remodel the space.