NEW BEGINNINGS

The changes from then to now have been overwhelming, but are not so obvious until we look back. 

No longer are finger waves and pin curls the wave in modern hairdressing, but back in 1938 when Lucille “Dolly” Eilers, opened one of the first beauty salons in Steamboat Rock. Before Dolly opened her shop, only one other beauty shop had operated in Steamboat. It was operated by a Mrs. Rock, who was the wife of the barber at the time. 

Dolly finished her training at Pitze’s in Waterloo in 1935. Her first chair was in the shop run by Mrs. Margaret Hall in Iowa Falls. In 1938 she opened her shop in the southeast corner of her cousin Tom (T.J.) Eilers general store in Steamboat Rock. 

When she married Harry Folkerts in 1945, she moved her shop into the basement of their home. From 1954 to 1958, Dolly took some time off while her children were small. When she and Harry built a new home she resumed her business there. 

When she started her business, a shampoo and finger wave cost 60 cents. The permanent wave machines required the hair to be rolled on curlers that were inserted into electrically heated tubes. 

In 1942, when the Steamboat Rock girls basketball team went to the state tournament in Des Moines, Dolly went along as their own private hairdresser.