The bright storefront shop at Pringle Park Plaza lined with posh mannequin heads sporting colorful hair and styles that take you through the decades will soon be no more.
Kay’s World of Wigs, which has been stewarded by three generations of the same family, is set to close at the end of July after 55 years as 89-year-old founder Kay Staab plans to retire.
The store originally opened in 1968 at the Lancaster Mall and shortly after moved to the Pringle Park Plaza storefront where Staab has run the business since with support from her family.
Staab fell in love with doing hair early on. After working at a boutique and going to beauty school, she knew she wanted to have her own store where she could run the show.
Staab got the idea of opening a wig store when they started to become popular in the 1960s.
She found they were much easier to work with than people’s natural hair because you don’t have to color or thin them too much, said Ashley Larson, Staab’s granddaughter.
Larson grew up in the store with her grandma, sister, and cousins and has been a full-time employee for the past decade.
“I did the whole college thing and then just realized I loved hair,” said Larson.
Although Larson has taken over most of the store’s operations for the past 10 years, Staab has still shown up to the store every day to work.
When the store first opened there only had a few brands, styles, and color options. The store has now grown to hold over 18 brands all with over 100 styles, and within each style around 10 to 20 different color options.
The small storefront now has around 1,000 wigs and hair pieces at a given time that line ever wall and aisle inside.
The two main reasons customers come in for wigs are thinning hair and medical conditions, particularly people going through chemotherapy, said Larson. But the store also gets people for bachelorette parties, Halloween costumes, or other occasions.
Additionally, the rise of social media and online influencers has “bought a new clientele into our shop that was not always there” said Larson.
Shannon Ross, Staab’s daughter and Larson’s mom, said it’s special to be able to make someone feel beautiful in one of their wigs.
Ross said just last week they had a woman come in who was 90 and had been coming to the store since it first opened. Larson said how she often meets people in town who say they remember coming to the store when they were four, or their grandma would always come to the store.
We have “decades of loyal customers,” said Larson.
With the announcement of the store’s closure, “there have been a lot of emotions,” said Larson, “We have had to console every person.”
Larson and Ross both said it was time for Staab to let the store go and enjoy her recent retirement. They were also worried about her driving to the store every day as she has gotten older.
In part as a result of the sad emotions from customers, Larson has decided to continue providing services in a downsized version of the store. They will no longer have the full window storefront, but instead, Larson will work out of the back office on an appointment basis only.
The storefront is expected to close by the end of July and Larson is trying to reopen the smaller shop by the end of August or September. There will be a large sale of wigs and hair pieces starting mid-July. People can keep up to date with official timelines and sales on their social media or email. The store address is 385 High St. SE.385 High St SE
The new business will keep the same phone number, but it will no longer be called Kay’s World of Wigs. The new name is still being finalized.
Larson feels proud to continue her grandmother’s legacy and keep the business going.
When asked what she will miss most about the store, Staab was unsure how to respond. After looking at her daughter, Ross answered for her, saying, “It just hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Larson feels lucky she grew up in the store and worked alongside her grandma.
“I will just really cherish the time I have had with my grandma, it’s just been a great life to have,” said Larson.
Natalie Sharp is an Oregon State University student working as a reporter for Salem Reporter in summer 2023. She is part of the Snowden internship program at the University of Oregon's School of Communication and Journalism.
