A new address, same scissors: Marylou leaves downtown Paris after 45 years

The front of Paris Coiffures II in downtown Paris, known for Marylou’s always-festive and thoughtfully decorated window displays, which will be missed as the longtime stylist relocates her business after 45 years in the core.

Casandra Turnbull

Managing Editor

After 45 years behind the chair in downtown Paris, Marylou Bergman is packing up her scissors - but not her career.

Let’s get this straight right out of the gate: the longtime stylist is not retiring. She’s simply relocating Paris Coiffures II from the downtown core to a home-based salon in Scotland, Ontario. Same Marylou. Same phone number. Same commitment to her clients. Just a different parking situation, and significantly fewer steps from the coffee maker.

“I’m not retiring - that’s far from the truth,” she said, making it clear this is a change of scenery, not a curtain call. In typical Marylou fashion, she explains the move with humour first and honesty right behind it. “I’m getting a divorce,” she joked, referring to the building’s owner, calling it “Irreconcilable differences.”

Marylou has spent more than four decades as a fixture of downtown Paris, opening her doors nearly every morning to the familiar quiet of the street waking up. On her final day in the downtown shop, that routine hit a little differently.

“This morning I got out of the car and it was so quiet,” she said. “The lights were on and I thought, this is my last day,” said Marylou during a sit down interview on Saturday in a nearly empty salon. She chatted with the Paris Independent while doing what she does best: putting her colour technician skills to good use, transforming a client’s hair while invoking a level of humour that makes the visit seem less like a trip to the salon but more of a visit with a long time friend. 

And that’s how she wanted it. Over the years, the salon became less of a business and more of a second home - one surrounded by neighbours who felt like family. She fondly recalls daily greetings with Bill Tough (formerly Tough & Son’s) and longtime neighbour John Granton (of John M. Hall House of Linens) whom she credits with being endlessly kind and a good friend.

“The world needs more Johns,” she said. “I love him. My kids love him. He’s just good to everybody.”

When Marylou broke her leg years ago, those neighbours didn’t hesitate, helping her out of the car and into the shop where she insisted on working just days after her accident. “You couldn’t ask for two better neighbours,” she said.

She’ll miss Sue across the street at Sales Decorating. She’ll miss Ed at Paris Jewellers, stopping in just to ask, “How’s Bonehead?” — the ‘affectionate (and somewhat modified for print)’ nickname for her husband. And she’ll miss the people who didn’t always have appointments but showed up anyway, just to talk about families, town news, and life in Paris.

“I’m going to miss the social aspect,” she said. “I’m going to miss folks just dropping in.”

In many ways, Marylou says her clients helped raise her; teaching her how to cook, how to can food, and how to do things she’d never learned growing up. “I asked questions and they taught me,” she said.

Client-focused to the core, Marylou is a Red Seal Master Stylist and colour technician whose dedication to her shop has never wavered. She laughs when she calls herself a workaholic - but she owns it.

“I won’t let you down,” she said. “My number one priority my whole life has been my shop. It’s what pays my bills.”

For the first 27 years, holidays were rare. Maybe a Good Friday, otherwise just a Sunday and Monday when the shop was closed. “I get it from my dad,” she said. “He was a workaholic too. I don’t think that’s a bad trait.”

Hair, it turns out, was always the plan, even if it took a short detour. Marylou once enrolled in school to become a chartered accountant but didn’t finish. “It wasn’t in my heart,” she said. Hair was.

She trained at Bruno, earning some of the highest marks in her class — so high that she landed a coveted position at a Vidal Sassoon salon in Toronto. She took the train back and forth daily for six months before realizing it wasn’t for her.

“I wanted my own place,” she said. “My own style. My own clients. Somewhere I could be myself.”

She found an ad in the paper, worked at Paris Coiffures for six months, and at just 22 years old purchased the business from Carol Sass. She kept the name, which is why it became Paris Coiffures II, and 45 years later, she’s taking that same name with her to Scotland.

In fact, she’s trying to keep everything business as usual. The phone number is coming with her, the clients are coming with her, and the door is still open — just at a new address. Downtown Paris may feel a little quieter without Marylou’s morning routine, her laughter, and her open-door conversations, but she isn’t going far. And if history is any indication, her chair won’t stay empty.