In S.C., Beauty Salons Are Also Political Soapboxes

A long bob with short bangs.

A short bob with tall 1980s bangs.

A mini-bouffant as a brunette.

A straight slick cut hitting at the chin.

"Go 'head, woman," someone in the audience said. "You've got more power than any woman in this whole world." Bringing news and a DVD of Clinton's presentation back to Charleston was Katie B. Catalon, a retired beautician who is also Bell's sister-in-law. Catalon, in her fourth term as president of the National Beauty Culturists' League -- an 8,000-member organization of black hairstylists founded 88 years ago -- is a seasoned beauty shop campaigner in her own right and an eager Clinton volunteer.

Catalon met Clinton at a reception in the 1990s when Bill Clinton was campaigning in Charleston. "It was strange, because we were there at the reception, and I walked toward her, and she was walking towards me. And we held hands. She said thank you so much for being here, and I said, 'I should be thanking you,' " Catalon recalled.

When the senator from New York announced her run for president, Catalon called the campaign and offered to help connect Clinton with black beauty salon owners. Bell was one of the first enlistees. From her stylist's station, surrounded by black glue for hair weaves, activator for Jheri-like curls, plastic rollers and hot irons to serve her steady clientele, Bell talks up her candidate.

"We touch a lot of people during the run of the day," said Bell, 63. "We are influential."

Last week, the Clinton campaign mailed hundreds of countertop pop-ups to Bell and other beauty shop owners; they display photos of her changing hairdos under this Clinton quip: "Pay attention to your hair, because everyone else will."

Most of Bell's customers have said they are looking hard at Clinton and Obama. Former senator John Edwards of North Carolina is a distant third, polling in the low single digits among black women here. Bell initially found the candidates so similar on the issues that they were hard to distinguish, so she made her decision based on her sense of their electability.

"I'm not even thinking about color, but I guess in a way I am. I think basically white people won't vote for him," Bell said of Obama. "Isn't that what voting is all about? You are voting for a person that you feel could be a winner."