Hair stylist ending 50-year career

JoAnn Prestegard is putting away her hair cutting scissors after 50 years as a hair stylist.

“First we were beauticians, then we were hair stylists or cosmetologists; the words change,” but Prestegard said she’s always loved her customers.

A month ago Prestegard sold her business, The Cutting Edge to Sarah Jackman, who returned to Cathlamet after living in Montana. The business is now located near the Shell Station on State Route 4. Jackman expects to keep the hours, Tuesday through Saturday from 8 to 5 p.m.

Prestegard is telling her customers one by one, and some like Kathy Hogan are begging her to stay.

“You don’t really want to retire,” Hogan wheedled at her weekly hair appointment.

“She’s gentle,” Hogan said. “The very first time she fixed my hair, she back-combed it, and she didn’t hurt me. She’s kind, and she knows what she’s doing.”

Prestegard provides a range of services, including color and perms, and for some, pin curls.

Prestegard, 73, said she looks forward to gardening more and expects to travel. She is a priest at St. James Episcopal Church.

“Priests are expected to be on call 24-hours a day. If you work that’s a problem,” she said.

She styled hair in upstate New York and San Antonio, Texas, as an Air Force wife. Her husband, Teed Prestegard, hopes to retire at the end of the year as well, she said.

Prestegard said she would continue to cut and style people’s hair at the nursing home on Wednesdays.

But it will take customers some time to get adjusted, as Hogan teased before she left the salon, “I know where you live.”