Life at Francesca's

By Donna Ryan

I happen to think beauty shops are interesting places, and I wonder why the thought of doing a television show based on one never occurred to anyone.  But I have a fictional show about my salon that only a few know about.

​Welcome to the Life At Francesca’s reality show.

​Our show began over 20 years ago in the elementary school yard that both our children attended.  Fran told the parents during dismissal one afternoon that she was opening a hair salon down the street from the school.  Not only did I find a hairdresser that day, I found a lifetime friendship.

​Like most beauty shops we had a colorful cast come through the doors. ​Let me start with Francesca (better known to all of us as Fran). She’s always got a million things going on at once. She owns the building where the shop is, so the telephone is always ringing; tenants are coming in for various reasons; the customers are arriving and through it all she styles all our hair and asks how we are doing.  She has the biggest heart.

​Last month I played my final episode; my husband and I are moving out of state.  When Robin, another beauty-salon friend, heard, she came with bouquets of flowers for both Fran and I as well as a gift and a beautiful note for me.

The three of us sat and talked about the years gone by. There were happy and sad times: births, deaths, illnesses and everything in between. ​We all have different life journeys, but the one things we have in common is that we were all blessed with sons. Not a girl in the bunch.

Our boys went through lots of changes and we shared the tough times as well as the proud moments.  At one point we all were crying at the same time as we realized how fast the years have gone by and our little boys suddenly became grown men.

Hair salons are places many go to share stories. just like we did.  Everyone wants to feel loved, comforted and understood, and I felt that every episode of Life at Francesca’s.  The color that best describes it is yellow for it is a bright sunshiny place.  No matter what the weather was like outside, it was never gray at Francesca’s.

​​Now I’m saying an excited hello to the new chapter in my life, and a sad farewell to Life at Francesca’s. No matter how far away I am from it, Life at Francesca’s is a beautiful, heartwarming show I’ll never forget.