Hair salon has been a family business for 30 years
Customers have been coming to beauty shop for decades
By Eliav Appelbaum eliav@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers A CAMARILLO TRADITION- Mister Roger's Hairstyling owner Lynn Kuske has owned the beauty salon in Old Town Camarillo for 30 years.

For Lynn Kuske, life in the salon business has brought her family closer together.

After Kuske and her husband, Roger, opened Mister Roger's Hairstyling 30 years ago, the rest of the family soon followed them from the San Fernando Valley to Camarillo.

"All my family thought I was moving to Yugoslavia," Lynn Kuske said with a laugh. "Now, my mom and dad live here. And my daughter and my son and their children are all here. They all moved to Yugoslavia with me."

A full-service salon, Mister Roger's Hairstyling is less than a half-mile away on Ventura Boulevard from the Male Room, a barbershop Roger has owned and operated for 30 years.

The stylists at Mister Roger's are proficient and versatile in both older and trendy new styles, and the salon specializes in hair coloring.

The salon has become a kind of home away from home for Kuske, and everyone who works there has their own story about how they got started.

Michelle Maloney, now 28, has worked at Mister Roger's since she was 10. Janie Reyna has been in the same building for 35 years, back when it was called the Hair Palace and under different ownership.

"We all get along beautifully," Lynn Kuske said. "I want them to put God and family first, and everything else seems to fall in place. It's an extremely tightknit group. We share each other's problems and triumphs."

The Kuskes operated two shops side by side for 15 years in Studio City. When a new owner took over the building, the rent doubled. That's when Roger Kuske started looking for a new place to open up shop.

"I decided to look at downtown in Camarillo. I talked to a real estate agent, and she showed us four places. I put a bid on one shop. . . . The day after, we got a call back," said Roger Kuske, who enjoys working by himself and talking about sports with his patrons, especially if they're discussing the Green Bay Packers. Kuske grew up in Green Bay, Wis.

Before Mister Roger's, Kathy Pape launched the Looking Glass salon in the late 1950s.

Reyna, who grew up in Moorpark and still lives there, started working at the salon in 1973.

"We didn't have any hair salons in Moorpark at the time," Reyna said. "There were a couple of barbershops, but that was it, believe it or not."

Mister Roger's has become a place to build relationships. Some patrons have been coming in for decades, and new ones keep walking in the door. It's no wonder Kuske feels close to her co-workers and customers.

"I love going to work," she said. "I can't imagine not going in there and being with my girlfriends and my clientele. They're very special people. I'm so blessed. It's very successful. It's unbelievable how it keeps on rockin' and rollin.'"

For more information on Mister Roger's, call (805) 482-5212.