Several of the tuxedo rental businesses and hair salons are experiencing the typical upsurge in business due to prom season. Often the area school schedules are staggered, so it’s not just one or two weeks of hustling. It can turn into five and sometimes six weeks of intense service to the young clientele wanting everything to be “picture perfect”.

Virginia Bell of Bells Formals in Live Oak and her son Quinn have been servicing the generations of juniors and seniors for their proms for almost 30 years. She thinks their business goes a bit above and beyond the competition.

“Our business, I think is extra good,” said Virginia Bell. “We offer one day service.”

She said if you were to come in their shop in the morning, by evening you would be walking out with your tuxedo.

“The only thing we haven’t gone into is the color which are just coming back,” said Bell. “The main reason we don’t go into all this, is because it doesn’t stay. You have to know what’s going to stay because it costs too much.”

Fads come and go, but Virginia sticks to what she knows. For a tuxedo, she recommends black.

“If you’re going to go formal, go formal,” said Virginia. “If you’re going to use a color, go buy yourself a suit.”

Bell said they also have an extensive inventory they own and very seldom do they have to special order an item.

She said after serving Suwannee High School for the prom Saturday, it doesn’t end there.

“The next week is Branford and Madison,” said Bell. “And in two weeks there’s Jasper.”

Other businesses in the area are also experiencing the heat.

Donna Morgan of Suwannee Styles says that as far as proms go, she mainly gives haircuts to young men rather than cutting or styling the ladies. She said a lot of the younger women are doing it themselves at home.

“A lot of women are doing their own coloring and getting away from the perming,” said Morgan. “A lot of the highlighting, the companies sell so many of the products, Walmart, CVS (pharmacy) a lot of them (girls) want to do it themselves and save a couple of bucks.”

Morgan said business picks up for her usually two days prior and the day of prom. She said her customer base is not limited to just Suwannee County. She has young folk coming in from Columbia, Hamilton and Lafayette counties.

Nelda Croft of Celebrations says two or three weeks prior to prom, her business starts really picking up. She not only does tuxedo rentals, but boutonnieres, bouquets and corsages.

“The boys will come in to get fitted for their tuxedos and they try to match up a vest and a tie most of the time to the same color as the dress that their date is wearing,” said Croft. “And then they’ll order flowers and everyone so far this year is getting a wrist corsage and then they’ll match up the the boutonniere for the boy for his lapel for the flowers that the girl is getting.”

She said business in the last few years has gone down some in numbers, but it’s still a few weeks of being super-busy.

“We’re usually busy just the day of prom,” said Lisa Croft of Studio 1400. “We’ve been known to do 12 to 13 girls a piece.”

Croft said she can remember one year when they had four women working and they cut and did 50 girls hair in the one day.

Today though, was just another day at the shop.