‘I Have Always Wanted My Own Salon’

By Codie Wyers
VERMILLION, S.D. – Waxing off half a girl’s eyebrow two weeks before her wedding and accidently coloring a customer’s hair pink were the beginning of Amy McComsey’s career as a stylist.

“Yes, it was bad,” she said. “But they still came back to me.”

McComsey is the owner of Amy’s Whoopti Do Hair Salon. Open for three years on Sept. 12, the salon has customers that come in regularly.

“My oldest customer is 96. She comes in every Friday morning at 10 and brings me goodies along with the ‘Enquirer’,” McComsey said with a smile.

McComsey said she came up with the salon’s name after getting ideas from the Internet.

“I am a fun person so I wanted a fun name,” she said.  “I have had customers come in and say they stopped by just because they liked the name.”

As McComsey cut her husband’s hair with rhythm and flow, she began to talk about her seven-year career as a hairstylist.

The humming of the hair clippers sounded like music flowing with the movements of McComsey’s hands.

Originally from Onida, S.D., McComsey’s desire to be a hairstylist began at an early age.

“I was always cutting my Barbie dolls hair off,” she said.

After high school, McComsey attended the Lake Area Technical Institute’s cosmetology program in Watertown, S.D. It is a 15-month program–three months are for training, and 12 are for practicing on customers.

“It takes 2,100 hours of training to be licensed in South Dakota,” McComsey said.

After finishing at the institute, McComsey moved to Vermillion to work at the Vermillion Beauty Shop. She worked there for four and a half years.

McComsey said she loved her work so much she decided to open her own hair salon.

“I didn’t want to work under someone else and I have always wanted my own salon,” she said.

McComsey said she enjoys coloring hair the most. She does foil, all over color, and pulls through a cap.

Her least favorite thing to do is updos for events such as prom and other celebrations, but McComsey said she still does it and puts 110 percent into every updo.

“I have always wanted to be a hairstylist,” McComsey said. “I have never wanted to do anything else.”