Close up with Lisa Fraser, owner of Pompadours Salon

Across the Boulder County Courthouse on Pearl Street stands a hair salon with abundant natural light, a list of awards and a part-owner with a passion for hair.

Lisa Fraser, 51, of Boulder, has been a stylist for 30 years — even longer than the 20-year-old shop has been open. And she thinks she’s got one of the best jobs in the world.

“I get to make my clients look good and feel good about themselves,” she says.

Most of Pompadours’ clients are women, but men are welcome.

“All women care about their hair. It’s a very important accessory. It’s the accessory we wear everywhere,” she says.
Pompadours is an Aveda salon, meaning that they only use and sell Aveda products.

“We love the philosophy of the company,” Fraser says. “Everything is 100 percent natural.”

Fraser moved to Boulder in 1966 when the U.S. Air Force relocated her father to do Reserve Officers’ Training Corps recruiting at the University of Colorado. Fraser still lives in Boulder with her husband of 10 years, Elmar Willmes, 58.

We wanted to learn more about this passionate senior master stylist and what she does when she puts away her shears and locks up the shop. So we asked her six questions:

1. What’s your favorite item in your closet?
My black boyfriend-cut blazer. It is slightly longer and looser cut, and a classic must-have item in my wardrobe. It can dress up jeans or dress down a feminine silk dress. I can’t imagine not having a great black blazer.

2. What’s your guilty pleasure?
Real whipped cream. I have cut refined sugar and refined carbohydrates from my life, but I can still indulge in an occasional treat of a bowl full of berries buried in real whipped cream. It feels so decadent.

3. What’s your favorite way to relax?
I love it when I have a day at home to putz around the house and get caught up, work in my garden weeding and deadheading and then sit in my backyard swing with a good book. I have a sense of accomplishment from getting things done and I can sit back and relax and enjoy how nice everything looks. As simple as it sounds, it is not easy to find the time to just spend a whole day at home. A nice walk and a hot, candle-lit bubble bath at the end of the day would be the perfect relaxing day.

4. What are three things on your “bucket list?” (Things you want to do before you kick the bucket)
Only three? There are so many things I still want to do in my lifetime, it is hard to choose just three.
Travel, travel, travel! There are so many places I would love to visit. As a business owner and single parent most of my life it has been difficult to have the time and money (at the same time) to do much traveling. I would like to learn to play the piano. My father played piano and I used to love to listen to him. I would also love to take art classes and learn to paint, in particular.

5. What do you wish you knew 20 years ago?
I wish I had believed in myself more and not been so afraid to take chances. It was almost 20 years ago that I opened Pompadours. I remember being so scared, and thinking that people who opened successful businesses were not afraid. The most valuable thing I learned is that it is scary for everyone. You just can’t let the fear stop you.

6. What is something about you that we would never guess?
I married my husband while he was in jail. Have you ever wondered who those crazy women are?
This is a soap opera, but the short version is that immigration services stamped his passport with the wrong stamp, despite his indefinite business visa. I married him, and he was deported anyway.

It was a 10-year deportation, but after one and a half years, and two trips to federal court, I finally got him back in the country. This October will be our 10-year anniversary and we are finally going to have a proper wedding. He is the love of my life, and I don’t have a single regret. We’ll have quite a story to tell our grandchildren!

Know an inspirational businesswoman whom you think should be featured in Close Up? E-mail us at speakup@womensmag.com.

— By Annie Brokaw

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