Customers become friends
story by Logan Riely
Two sisters sit along the wall in the back room of a house-turned-salon with a bag of Arby’s breakfast in hand.
Hair stylist Flora “Flo” Casey, 51, greets them as she walks in. One sister hands a sausage-and-egg sandwich to Flo at the start of their weekly appointment at Flobie's Hair and Nails.
"I have been going to Flo for more years than I can remember,” customer Sue Gravitt, 72, says. "I would follow her to wherever."
Flo has a special connection to many of her customers, which she says keeps her going even as she fights serious health problems and personal battles.
After every appointment, she hugs her clients.
“Come here and tell me that you love me,” she says.
Flo grew up in Frankfort as the second oldest of four children. While growing up, she started to feel out of place. After her mother died in 1982 following open-heart surgery, Flo's concerns about how different she looked from her siblings grew: They all had brown hair. She was blonde.
When she confronted her father, he told her: “Legally I am your father, but biologically I’m not."
“That was the day my world stopped turning,” Flo says.
A few months later, she tracked down her biological father. The revelation in some ways set her on the path for the rest of her life. In 1995, when she enrolled in cosmetology school, she knew she was in the right place when her instructor turned out to be a half sister Flo never knew.
"It's just funny how God plays things out," Flo says.
Twenty years later, Flo owns Flobie's Hair and Nails on the outskirts of Frankfort. She loves what she does and she considers her customers friends.
Flo is in pain from a variety of medical conditions, including having part of her abdomen removed and replaced after complications following liposuction. She also fights diabetes and arthritis, and recently had pneumonia and kidney stones. Still, Flobie's sustains her.
"I didn’t want to give up my business and my clients," Flo says. "And all of my clients become my friends."
Flo, owner of Flobie's Hair and Nail Salon, smiles while washing an elderly customer's hair. "I like cutting hair," Flo says. "But I don't know why, I just do."
Marilyn Dooley gets her hair set by Flo at Flobie's Hair and Nail Salon on the outskirts of Frankfort.
Sisters Stella Cook (from left) and Sue Gravitt, 80 and 72, respectively, eat breakfast with Flo before getting their hair set at Flo's salon in Frankfort. The sisters come to the salon every Thursday morning. "I like her as a person — she never changes," Sue says of Flo, who has been her stylist for at least a decade.
Christina Chadwell checks the back of her hair in the mirror after her appointment with Flo at Flobie's Hair and Nail Salon on the outskirts of Frankfort.
Flo hugs her client and long-time friend Betsey Powell after her hair appointment. "I tell every customer, 'come here and tell me that you love me.'"
Flo kisses her granddaughter Molly Witten, 2, before the girl goes down a slide on the Bridgeport Elementary School playground.
Flo injects herself with insulin once a day to control her glucose levels. She was diagnosed with diabetes four years ago.
Flo stands on her back deck overlooking a small pond on her property, which is just down the road from her salon.