Family inspires passion for styling for 40 years

Jaz Hanson, Todd Anderson, Kim Hanson, Rod Anderson and Sheila Anderson prepare to trim the locks of Le Mars Beauty College student Joselyn Joeten. The Andersons and Hansons represent three generations of involvement in the beauty college, which is celebrating its 40th year under the ownership of Rod Anderson and family. [Click to enlarge]

Thousands of students have graduated from Le Mars Beauty College.

This week, June 19, the Rod Anderson family celebrates 40 years owning and operating Le Mars Beauty College.

Throughout the last 40 years, one constant Rod and wife Sheila Anderson try to do is teach their students to have passion to be successful.

"I love what I do," Sheila said. "I don't know what I would do if I didn't do this."

Rod agreed.

"I enjoy it, too, or I wouldn't be here 40 years," he said.

Customers like Norma Schuster, a client of the beauty college since it became the Andersons', appreciate that passion.

"I came here when Rod was a student," Schuster said. "He was very patient. He was here to learn."

Schuster said she keeps in touch with students who have styled her hair once they graduate.

"I have a great time with all the students," Schuster said. "I've never come out of here with a bad haircut."

She doesn't mind when a new student is assigned to her because they need to learn, Schuster said.

"You never go out without an instructor checking your hair," she said. "That's what's nice."

Schuster said she plans to continue going to Le Mars Beauty College to have her hair cut and styled for as long as she can.

"I've always been well taken care of at the Le Mars Beauty College," Schuster said. "Le Mars would be lost without the beauty school."

The beauty college provides all salon services from cutting, styling and coloring hair to giving manicures and pedicures.

There are often groups of people like wedding parties that come to the college because of the amount of students available to style their hair at the same time, Sheila said.

Part of the success of the beauty college is the recommendations from past students. Rod and Sheila also travel to area schools to recruit.

The school has 30 to 40 students at a time, and it takes each student 2,100 hours to graduate. Students must also pass the Iowa State Board of Cosmetology test to be licensed.

Sheila said clients come from places other than Le Mars, usually within about a 30-mile radius.

"Customers that come here, they shop here. They eat here," Sheila said. "I think it brings revenue to Le Mars."

In the last 40 years since Rod and Lee Russell, an instructor until 1991, first purchased Le Mars Beauty College there have been a few changes.

Sheila said when she first started she did sets and back combs, which were a "big hairstyle" for women.

And in the 1970s, cosmetologists were allowed to cut men's hair for the first time, Sheila said.

That was when the state lifted a regulation that said cosmetologists couldn't cut men's hair, she explained.

But the one constant throughout the 40 years has been the family aspect of the Le Mars Beauty College both in the business and in the clientele.

Sheila and Rod passed their love for what they do through two generations.

Son Todd Anderson manages Mantrap, the salon they own across the street in downtown Le Mars, daughter Kim Hanson is an instructor at the beauty college and grandson Jaz Hanson is a current student.

That family atmosphere is also found in the people served and the students that choose to learn their trade at Le Mars Beauty College, Sheila said.

"We have second generation students here," she said. "That tells us they like it here."