Favorite Recipes for Mixing Business, Pleasure : Relationships: Service industry workers say forging ties with their clientele is a key ingredient in personal and professional lives.

To hear Sherry Ventle tell it, she gets paid to chat with her girlfriends.

“I don’t think of it as work at all,” Ventle, 37, says of her job as a manicurist at Geoffrey’s Salon in Dana Point. “I’ve been at it for nine years now, and I think the reason I still enjoy it so much is that I’ve built a business around people I enjoy, people I’d probably hang out with if we both had more time.”

Instead, Ventle mixes business and pleasure, doing acrylic nail fills as she gets her weekly updates on her clients’ lives.

“I guess I’m a good listener, because people tell me some pretty incredible things,” Ventle says. “One of my clients tells me all about her marital problems. I have one mom who comes in and tells me how proud she is that her daughter is settled down at college. Then the daughter comes in for an appointment a few days later and tells me about the rad parties she’s having at school. I never have a boring day.”

Ventle, who lives in San Juan Capistrano, has become so chummy with some clients that she’s literally willing to go the extra mile for them.

Jonel Howard of South Laguna has kept a standing appointment with Ventle at the salon every Tuesday for three years. But last month, when Howard started premature labor and was ordered by doctors to stay in bed for the last five weeks of her pregnancy, Ventle came to the rescue. She began making house calls.

Howard says her relationship with her manicurist is different from her friendships, but in some ways is even more intimate.

“Sherry came to my wedding, and we’ve gone clothes shopping a couple of times, but we don’t really socialize,” she says. “But even though I only see her one hour a week, I find myself telling her things I don’t tell my closest friends. For whatever reason, we’re connected enough that we confide in each other and give each other advice.”

Ventle says that sometimes, the wait between visits with some clients is more than she can handle.

“If something big is going on in a client’s life and I’m really curious or concerned, I’ll just call them,” she admits. “A couple of weeks ago I had a lady in here whose son didn’t come home the night before. I called the next day to check in on her and make sure that everything was OK. . . .”

Joey Wright, a hairdresser at Linear Hair in Irvine, says it’s easy to blur the boundaries between professional and personal relationships when working in a service industry.

“They trust you already or they wouldn’t be putting their appearance in your hands,” says Wright, who’s been cutting hair in Orange County since 1980. “Whatever relationship you develop with them personally builds on that trust. It just sort of flows naturally.”

It’s also easy, Wright notes, to get drawn into the drama of clients’ lives.

“Seeing people every four to six weeks is sort of like reading a long book,” he explains. “Every so often, you pick it up for the next chapter. After a few minutes, it all comes back and you remember exactly where the story left off. Sometimes the stories are funny, and sometimes they’re really heartbreaking.”

And sometimes the drama even unfolds right there in the salon.

“I had one client who kept telling me about how her husband was having an affair,” recalls Wright, who lives in Long Beach. “She even knew the girlfriend’s first name. I had another client who was telling me about an affair she was having with a married man.

“I never connected the two until the day the mistress walked in while I was cutting the wife’s hair. All of a sudden, I put all the pieces together. The two women sat within a few feet of each other, and neither of them had a clue who the other one was.”

Wright says that after working with people for 14 years, he’s become shockproof.

“Some of the stories my clients have told me over the years make the soap operas look like Mother Goose,” he says, laughing. “Something happens when people sit down in my chair. I guess they feel relaxed and isolated from the real world. Pretty soon, they start talking. It’s sort of like confession, only you leave looking better than you did when you got here.”

Wright, 37, has worked for the Carlton Hair chain for twelve years. During that time, he’s cut hair at seven of their salons. He says at least 60 clients have followed him every step of the way.

“You get comfortable with each other, and loyalty builds,” Wright says. “People like that familiarity. Even though I don’t think of most of my clients as friends, the relationships are certainly friendly.”

“I’ve gone for drinks or to dinner with lots of clients over the years,” Wright adds. “A couple of months ago, one of my clients paid me to come to Palm Springs for her wedding. I did her hair, but the rest of the time I just hung out with her family and drank champagne.”

Ventle says it’s so important to her to enjoy her clients that she refuses to book people for a second appointment unless she likes them.

“I’ve turned dozens of people away over the years,” she says. “I don’t have time to be hassled at work. If someone is consistently late for their appointment, I’ll give them a couple chances and they’re gone. Same goes for complainers.”

Hairdresser Ron Matranga, who works at Finesse Salon in Irvine, shares Ventle’s desire to make his work pleasant and personal.

“When I go to work, it’s like opening my front door and having company come in,” says Matranga, who lives in Lake Forest. “I don’t want to deal with difficult people. I like being able to check the appointment book first thing in the morning and look forward to seeing the people who are going to be dropping by.”

Matranga says that over time, he’s come to think of his clients as an extended family. More than 70% have been with him for at least 10 years, some since 1974.

“I’ve discovered that I can really count on them,” Matranga says. “Last year, I asked my clients if they’d like to sponsor me for the Orange County AIDS Walk. I had 75 clients pitch in more than $1,000. Another time, I formed a singing group to do fund-raising performances for a home for abused children. Twelve of the 16 singers who volunteered were clients of mine.”

That generosity can be a two-way street. Ventle, Wright and Matranga all say they’ve provided free services to clients who found themselves in a financial pinch.

“If I like someone, I’ll do what I can to help them out,” Ventle says. “I’ve even loaned my car to clients before.”

Matranga sees his relationship with his clients as a partnership.

“In a good relationship you give and you take,” he says. “Right now, I have eight people whose hair I do for no charge because they’re out of work and I know they can’t afford it. I figure they’ve helped support me over the years, so I’m glad to return the favor. I’d rather cut their hair for free than to see them get a bad, inexpensive haircut somewhere else.”

That loyalty has paid off. Virtually all of Matranga’s bookings are the result of referrals. A handful of his clients drive down from Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Some travel even farther.

“I have one lady who flies down from Oakland every five weekends to get her hair woven and cut,” Matranga says. “She could find someone up there to do the job, but she insists on coming down. I do a good job, but I know that it’s our personal relationship that keeps her coming back.”

“When she calls to book her appointment, we never talk about her hair, but we always get caught up on what’s been happening in our lives.”