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Stan, of Fran's Coiffures, hangs up his scissors after 52 years in Port Coquitlam

If you wanted to book an appointment with Stan Mehrer, Port Coquitlam's longest-serving hairdresser, well, you're too late.
Stan Mehrer
Stan Mehrer, who has owned Fran's Coiffures in downtown Port Coquitlam for the last 50 years, retires Friday.

If you wanted to book an appointment with Stan Mehrer, Port Coquitlam's longest-serving hairdresser, well, you're too late.

And if you were ever confused in your search for Stan's Coiffures, perhaps based on somebody's helpful recommendation, rest assured that you weren't alone.

After cutting hair in downtown PoCo, in a little shop on Shaughnessy Street for two years and then in his own digs — under the banner Fran's Coiffures — for the next 50, Mehrer is putting away his scissors and locking his Elgin Street door for the last time today (Friday). In his wake he leaves more than 100 dedicated clients, 15 of whom have been seeing him since Day 1.

"I always had a loyal following," Mehrer said in his shop, mostly empty of the antiques and collectibles that used to fill the space.

"People say, 'Stan, we're going to miss this,' and — you can't write this, oh wait, you can, I'm leaving town! — but I always said I'm not that good of a hairdresser. I think I've gotten away with it because of my personality," he ays with a wink.

He's opened his doors at the crack of dawn to squeeze in a client before a trip to the airport, and stepped in to help for a handful of harrowing medical distress moments.

Many of his clients count Mehrer as a close friend, one who has shared the ups and downs of their lives and his own over the years (he is proud to say he has welcomed customers from all walks of life, and treated them all the same).

But it's likely that many are drawn to his cheerful warmth, his easy smile and sense of humour, counting the haircut as a bonus.

Stan Olga
Olga Moffatt chats with hairdresser Stan Mehrer, whom she's been seeing since she was 40 years old. Mehrer has owned Fran's Coiffures in downtown Port Coquitlam for the last 50 years and retires Friday.

FRAN'S OR STAN'S

Mehrer came to B.C. after leaving Saskatchewan at the age of 17. Once he arrived, "I just forgot to go home."

His sister, who was living in Abbotsford, suggested he attend a hairdressing school.

He followed her advice, finished school, got married and took a job in a salon on Shaughnessy, saying he didn't want to work in Abbotsford, where his wife's large extended family might feel obligated to become clients. About two years later, there was a For Sale sign on the salon around the corner on Elgin Street that had only been open for about six months.

Mehrer jumped at the chance to be his own boss but in the chaos of taking over the business and tending to a newborn baby at home, he couldn't be bothered to change the name — Fran's Coiffures — and pay the $2,000 fee.

"I've been stuck with her name ever since," Mehrer said of the mysterious Fran. "I still get cheques that say 'Stan's Coiffures' but I just stamp over it and the bank still takes them.
"I always said if I changed the name it would be like Prince — The Shop Formerly Known As Fran's."

Over the years, the shop grew, and there were three hairdressers in what used to be a much larger space. Business boomed through the 1970s and ’80s, and eventually Mehrer opted to fly solo, with part of the salon closed off and incorporated into neighbouring businesses.

Along the way, Mehrer amassed an impressive collection of antiques and Marilyn Monroe memorabilia.

The perm cart was an old tea trolley. His desk was more than 100 years old. The garbage can was a coal pail and a clock was of the King George V era. The bathroom boasted an antique typewriter display, and in the salon were five rows of shelves packed with antique cameras.

"I don't even take pictures with a new camera," Mehrer joked, explaining he inherited the first one in the late ’70s, a friend gave him another and the collection kept growing.

"All these years, I never bought a camera. People always thought I knew stuff about [photography] and I really have no idea. People would just come in off the street and say, 'I hear you collect old cameras — here you go.'"

Even today, there are few nods to technology in Fran's Coiffures. Mehrer's client list is handwritten, in tiny script, on both sides of a plain piece of paper. Scheduling is still in a large book and payments were kept not in a locked cash register but in a mammoth dictionary on the shelf.

"No thief is going to steal a dictionary," Mehrer figured.

Stan and Helen
Stan Mehrer, finishes up with longtime client Helen Parker. Mehrer has owned Fran's Coiffures in downtown Port Coquitlam for the last 50 years and retires Friday.

CAMERAS & CUSTOMERS

Antiques weren't the only thing Mehrer collected. In 52 years of trimming, washing and styling, he heard stories, and lots of them.

Most of the time they were about children, work and friends, new romances and lost loved ones. But from time to time, there was a hush, a quick check to see who else was in the room before the sharing of an eye-popping story of soap opera-esque scandal.

"No one's heard the stuff I've heard," Mehrer guffawed. "But I'm pretty good at keeping my mouth shut — I think I have to be."

Weekly clients shared stories with one another and formed new friendships in the time it took Mehrer to spruce them up for the days ahead.

"It was a good meeting place," said Marg Simpson, the owner of Simpson Jewellers, who has been a client of Mehrer's for all of his 52 years in PoCo. (She saw her daughter's hairdresser, once, during a trip to Alberta but it "wasn't as good.")

"I knew a lot of people from Port Coquitlam who would go there and get their hair done, and I'd see them and have a little visit," she said.

What about Fran's Coiffures reputation as a bastion of good gossip?

"It's a bit like Peyton Place," Simpson said with a laugh. "You know what a small community can be like, but I won't repeat any of it."

Joan Husband has also been a customer since the beginning; she was working at a shop across the street at first, so it was convenient, but she stuck with Mehrer because she was always happy with the results and the friendly atmosphere, and brought her daughter to Fran's for her first haircut nearly 50 years ago.

"I used to say to myself, 'What's worse, when your doctor retires or your hairdresser retires?' And now both of them are. He's a very nice fellow and I wish him luck."

stan chairs
A couple of the antique chairs are left at Fran's Coiffures; one of them has a built in ash-tray.

TALK & FRIENDSHIP

Ask any of Mehrer's clients, particularly the ones who have seen him almost every week for decades, where they plan to go now to get their hair down and few are able to answer.

"I don't know," said Olga Moffatt, a client since the 1970s, said recently. She had a perm booked the following week and then one last regular visit but wasn't sure what to do after that. "I've lived through all his children, his grandchildren, and he knows about me. I've gone through a lot of hairstyles with him."

Maureen Brandt said she'll miss Stan's friendship and the camaraderie of the salon.

"We laughed a lot and I knew all about his family over the years, and he heard the same about mine…so even though I haven't met all of his family, I sort of know them. He's just so extremely nice and I don't know what I'm going to do."

Simpson mused that she might just shave her head rather than try to replace Mehrer, saying, "I will certainly miss him… but I just wish him well in his retirement."

And for Mehrer, as difficult as it is to let go of his 52 years in downtown PoCo, he believes it's time to move on.

His wife is struggling with medical problems and Mehrer wants to spend more time with their grandchildren and tending to his large garden, though he is mulling offers to teach hairdressing at an Abbotsford middle school and work part-time at a Fort Langley seniors' residence.

"No one will miss their job as much as I will."

And it's likely no hairdresser will ever be quite as missed in return.

spayne@tricitynews.com
@spayneTC

frans window
Stan Mehrer, seen inside his salon, Fran's Coiffures in downtown Port Coquitlam, retires Friday after 52 years in downtown Port Coquitlam.