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Hard work and
a good husband
made dream a reality

On March 2, 1985, my family and I celebrated the grand opening of my mother's beauty salon, Hairstyles by Flora at the Gentry Waipio Shopping Center.

The 20th anniversary quietly came and went, but the celebration continues as generations of families and loyal customers continue streaming into the salon.

Some of my mother's longtime customers have become good friends, to the point of attending our high school graduation parties and my sister's and brother's wedding receptions.

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ROSEMARIE BERNARDO / RBERNARDO@STARBULLETIN.COM Harriet Weissman of Waipio Gentry has kept weekly appointments with Flora Bernardo since she opened Hairstyles by Flora 20 years ago.

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Some also lend a hand at the salon by answering the phones or sweeping the floor when my mother and her employees are midway through a haircut or their plastic gloves are covered with hair dye.

My mother, Flora, the second youngest of 11 children, was born and raised in rural Pangasinan in the Philippines. When I was a child, she rode the city bus from our Ewa Beach home to Ala Moana to attend beauty college. During that time my maternal grandmother baby-sat my brother, sister and I while my father, Carlos, now a retired Naval officer, was deployed in the Pacific.

After she graduated, she worked at a beauty salon in Makakilo. We moved to the mainland after my father received orders to go to Georgia, Washington and California.

Nearly four years later we returned to Oahu, and Flora started working at a Pearl City beauty salon. After hearing about a shopping center to be built in Waipio Gentry, my parents jumped at the opportunity to open a salon of their own, my mother's dream. They worked closely with the contractors, though my dad added his personal touches, tiling the shop's floor and painting the walls light pink.

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ROSEMARIE BERNARDO / RBERNARDO@STARBULLETIN.COM Carlos Bernardo helps his wife Flora manage her beauty salon by answering phone calls, handling the salon's bookkeeping and washing the towels.

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MONTHS AFTER the grand opening, my mother practically lived at work, juggling three customers at a time -- rolling a a woman's locks with perm rods, cutting a toddler's hair as he squirmed in his chair, and managing to squeeze in a customer or two who walked in between her scheduled appointments.

She continues to work incessantly, while welcoming customers with her warm smile, chatting about their recent travels or how their family members are doing, while my father handles the salon's bookkeeping and washes the towels. He, too, puts in time answering phone calls or carrying a large plastic bag filled with freshly dried towels to the shop.

Since the shopping center opened, many stores have come and gone, but the salon is one of a few that continues to serve customers at its original location with the same owners.

When asked what her secret is to having the salon last for two decades, the answer was simple: hard work and my father.

"Without him I couldn't make it," said my mother.

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