Couple Take Hair-Dressing Act on the Road in a Mobile Salon

Max and Maureen Derseweh pull into a parking lot near a tall office building in Orange towing their long, silver trailer.

They’re not there to camp, they’re there to cut hair.

The Dersewehs operate a hair salon on wheels called Rendezvous Images. They’ve equipped a 30-foot RV with two styling stations, a long lighted mirror, mauve-color counters and gray curtains with matching wallpaper and a sink in the corner where they wash clients’ hair.

“Have blow-dryer, will travel” is their unofficial motto. They’ll go anywhere within a 50-mile radius of their Anaheim home to clip and primp their clients.

“They say the three most important things in any business venture is location, location, location. We’ve got that down,” Max Derseweh says.

Rendezvous Images offers the same services as a standing salon, including perms and hair coloring. A generator provides energy for blow-dryers and curling irons, as well as the air conditioning and heater.

Max, 35, has won first-place awards in four out of six national hair-styling competitions and does most of the cutting and styling. Maureen, 31, helps with styling and acts as the image consultant.

On a typical day like this one, the Dersewehs park near an office and, one by one, employees who have made appointments with the salon drop in for a haircut or styling. The salon has a list of regular stops, including Pacific Bell, the Anaheim Plaza Resort and Ramada Inn, escrow companies and law firms that it visits about once a month.

Donna Maryanski, an attorney who works at a law firm frequented by the salon, arrives at the trailer looking like she just stepped out of a courtroom in her ivory dress and paisley scarf. Maryanski used to drive to Newport Beach for a haircut but for the past six months she’s let the salon come to her.

“I do it for the convenience. I can walk out the door and be here,” she says. From her office window, she can point to the trailer parked below and tell her secretary: “I’ll be there if you need me.”

The salon makes it easier for her to fit a haircut into a busy schedule. When Max calls to say the salon’s coming to town, she knows it’s time for another cut.

“It’s nice because I have so many other things to keep track of,” she says.

Some have found that Rendezvous Images not only saves them time in traveling to and from a salon, it saves money.

One woman who worked for an escrow service forgot to sign important loan documents before showing up for her hair appointment. Because the trailer was close by, a co-worker was able to slip her the papers for the crucial signature and send them off in time to save the escrow company $2,500.

In another incident, a hotel manager was having his hair cut when an employee hurried in to tell him he thought one of the rooms was on fire. From his chair, the manager instructed the employee on emergency procedures and averted a crisis.

The salon caters to business people who scarcely have time to sit in a barber’s chair. One client directed his staff from a cellular phone while Max cut his hair.

Another woman, determined not to miss a sale at a nearby boutique, left the salon midway through her perm and walked down the street to the shop with her hair still wrapped in foil.

“We told her to be back in 40 minutes, and, boy, did we watch the clock. She was a few minutes late but the perm turned out OK,” Maureen says.

Employers like the service because it encourages employees to keep up their appearance, Maureen says. “If we’re there, there are no more excuses.”

Because employees pay for their own cuts, the perk costs the companies nothing.

Jim Taylor, owner of Buddy’s Bouquets in Anaheim, which delivers bouquets of chocolate chip cookies, has the salon visit his business once every two weeks.

“I used to go to a salon in Irvine and it took me 30 minutes to get there and another 30 to get back,” Taylor says. “The turning point came when I got caught in a traffic jam on my way to my standing appointment and (my stylist) bumped me for someone else.”

Then he met Max at a seminar and learned about the salon’s door-to-door service.

“When Max comes to my office building, he’s just outside the door,” Taylor says. “This is convenient and it’s comfortable, although I have had my friends stick their heads in the door and laugh at me.”

After his secretary complained about not having time to get her bangs trimmed, Taylor invited her to the salon and paid for her haircut as “a fringe benefit.”

In addition to haircuts and salon services, Rendezvous Images offers “mobile imaging.” In the rear of the trailer, there’s a room that sports a full-size mirror where Maureen offers makeup lessons and color analysis.

The Dersewehs also bring the salon to weddings to help members of the bridal party with their makeup and hair.

While they usually visit places where there is a group of clients, they do offer single appointments. To have the salon come out for just one haircut, however, costs $100. Betty Couch, mayor of Monterey Park, is one of their single customers willing to pay for the convenience.

The Dersewehs hit the road with their salon three years ago. Max had been working at a stationary salon in Fashion Island, Newport Beach, and often had clients ask him to come do their hair at their homes.

“Those were not ideal conditions for working. You’d have to wash their hair in the kitchen sink,” he says.

That’s how he got the idea to bring the salon to his clients. He and Maureen hired a trailer company to build a prototype salon according to plans they made up themselves.

When it was finished, “people stared at us like we were crazy,” Maureen says. “But we both had faith in it.”

The two began approaching companies such as Pacific Bell to persuade the management to let them do the employees’ hair. To attract customers, they’ve kept their fees in line with ordinary salons. Haircuts cost $30 for women and $23 for men, including a blow-dry.

While they have never lacked for clients, they have had trouble with city officials who didn’t know what to make of the silver trailer.

“We’re bigger than a floor cleaner. They can’t ignore us when a big salon rolls up,” Max says.

Some cities first classified the trailer as a commercial vehicle, which would have prevented the salon from parking for more than half an hour in one spot. So far the Dersewehs have successfully argued their trailer is a recreational vehicle and not bound by the code.

Such run-ins with city officials usually occur after another salon complains to the city that Rendezvous Images is taking away from its business.

“We don’t try to steal (clients) from other salons,” Max says. “We don’t accept walk-ins. We always have appointments, so we’re not taking business from anybody.”

They already have more accounts than they can handle and hope to sell more salons to hairdressers who like being on the road.