When she decided to open her own hair salon in the late 1990s, Sharon Pottebaum was trying to figure out what she was going to name it.

So the longtime Montgomery County resident called her sister-in-law for help.

“She said, ‘There’s one I don’t like,’” Pottebaum said. “I said, ‘What’s that?’ She told me, ‘Hair I Am.’ I said, ‘Which ones do you like?’ She said, ‘I don’t know, read them to me again.’ I said, ‘The only one you remembered was Hair I Am?’ She said, ‘Yeah, because I don’t like that one.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s what is going to be because that’s the only one you remembered.’”

The Hair I Am salon was open for business at 113 W. Third Street in Montgomery City in 1997 before it moved to a new building at 106 W. Second Street five years later. Since it opened, Hair I Am has been a popular place for Montgomery City area residents.

“We’ve been blessed,” Pottebaum said. “We had a lot of people who had done their hair since they were little bitty kids. Now, they’ve got little bitty kids.”

But on Dec. 31, Hair I Am will be closing as Pottebaum plans to retire after 48 years in the hairstyling business.

“I’ll get everybody taken care of and look their best and do what I could do for them, then close the book,” Pottebaum said. “I’m going to be here until probably 1 p.m. on Dec. 31. Then, I’m going to go party.”

Pottebaum said she thought about retiring for two years.

“My husband, my son, daughter-in-law and grandson were all like, ‘Grandma, you really need to quit. You’re doing this all of the time. You need to do something with us,’” Pottebaum said. “When I put the building up for sale, I said, ‘When the building sells, then I’ll retire.’ Well, it’s been for sale for a year now.”

Pottebaum said she plans to work on some projects at her home. She lives outside Mineola.

“I have some organizing at home that I wanted to do,” Pottebaum said. “I want to spend time with my husband and family and maybe do a little traveling. I want to do what I want to do and play catch up. God knows I’ve got an office that needs to be filtered through and gone through. I have all kinds of things in closets that I need to get taken out.”

During her 25-year run as Hair-I-Am owner, Pottebaum worked with four people. Her current assistant, Amanda Heitgerd, will be working at Ultimate Hair in Warrenton.
“Amanda and I have gotten really close over the years,” Pottebaum said. “She’s been with me for 20 years. I never had a daughter, but she’s the closest thing to a daughter.”

Heitgerd said she enjoyed working with Pottebaum.

“She’s the best,” she said.

Pottebaum grew up in St. Peters. In 1973, she graduated from Fort Zumwalt High School in O’Fallon and cosmetology school and later got married.

“1973 was a busy year,” Pottebaum said.

Pottebaum moved to Montgomery County in 1978, three years after her parents moved there.

“My husband was from Warrenton,” Pottebaum said. “So when we got married, we lived in Warrenton. After mom and dad moved out here in Montgomery County, we liked it out here. We just filtered our way out to Montgomery County.”

After moving to Montgomery County, Pottebaum worked with Orlana Gardner, who is the owner of Lanie’s Beauty Salon. She later worked with Becky Hadden before deciding to open her own salon.

Pottebaum said the one thing she’s going to miss about working at Hair-I-Am is giving the customers the best service.

“You want to make everybody feel their best,” Pottebaum said as she was breaking down in tears. “One day, I went to the funeral home and did Diane Happe’s hair. That’s the last nice thing I can do for somebody.”