Tips, Tangles & Toes salon owner Shirley McFayden celebrated her 10th anniversary by moving into a newer, larger location in Southern Pines on Sept. 5.

The new place is in Ice House Square in a strip mall off South East Broad. She and the other cosmetologist, Heather Rich- mond, moved from their former location at 250 N. Bennett St. in downtown Southern Pines.

McFadyen's sister also works in an insurance office in the same building. Both sisters had their offices side by side on North Bennett.

Tips, Tangles & Toes will be holding an open house soon, to celebrate the milestone with its customers and the public, according to McFadyen.

McFadyen bought the shop where she was working, then called the Hair Gallery, on Aug. 24, 1996. At the time, the salon was in a small rented nook in Ice House Square. She moved it to North Bennett Street in 2004.

She said she received encouragement and help with an interest-free loan from "some people who are very dear to me." She was referring to two of her customers, Harold and Joyce Omer of Pinewild.

McFadyen is a 1983 graduate of Union Pines High School and earned her cosmetology license in 1988. She had been renting booths at the Hair Gallery and Ladies and Gents Hair Design, also in Ice House Square. The Omers were among her clients at Ladies and Gents. They all became friends.

McFayden said Joyce Omer called her "right out of the blue" 14 years ago, and they became loyal customers. Harold Omer has died since, but Joyce still visits Shirley's salon every Friday to get her hair done.

"Harold would give me tips on how to run a business," McFayden said.

The Omers began to encourage her to set up her own shop.

"It was scary at first," McFadyen said.

She needed enough capital to purchase her own equipment. They loaned her $4,000, she said. They allowed her to repay them a little every month. They continued to give her help with business advice.

"They had always told me about doing my own business, and always told me they'd help me," she says.

When Harold Omer's health began to fail, she would visit their home to cut his hair and do a manicure.

McFadyen has always been interested in doing hair, starting with her sister and mother, since about age 13.

"Probably ever since I got old enough to use a curling iron," she says.

She took vocational cosmetology in high school and completed her degree at Sandhills Community College in that program.

"My favorite thing to do is hair color," she said.

McFadyen said she learned in school to really listen to her customer.

"I don't think I've ever had anybody to say, 'I don't like it,'" she says.

In 2004, she and her sister moved their separate business locations into the former home on North Bennett. McFayden changed the name from Hair Gallery to Tips, Tangles, and Toes. She and Heather not only do hair but also manicures and pedicures.

Two years later, they began looking for a new location. They decided to move back to Ice House Square on Sept. 5.

With Richmond, she has found "the right person" to share her salon space with.

"We both think the same thing at the same time," McFayden said. "I don't have to say anything, and Heather knows what I'm thinking."

They both "do" each other's hair and manicures. "We both have to look good for our business," she said.

McFayden credits her own family for her success. Her husband, William, her mother, sisters and father are very supportive. Her mother has a shop called McDougald's Country Gifts at 175 W. Pennsylvania Ave., two doors from The Pilot office and next to the Moore County Telephone Directory offices at the corner of North Bennett Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

The phone number for Tips, Tangles & Toes is 692-3888.