Fair Do's booth,

Fair Do's booth,

cutline; Fair-do's owner Lorri Weisen styles sprays and colors Katrina Meyer's hair. Weisen runs Hair's to you salon in Roseville Minn. During the non fair season. Meyer is from Pierz Minn. elizabeth nida agri news celebration minnesota state fairp cutline; Fair-do's owner Lorri Weisen styles sprays and colors Katrina Meyer's hair. Weisen runs Hair's to you salon in Roseville Minn. During the non fair season. Meyer is from Pierz Minn.

Laura Theobald

ltheobald@agrinews.com

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn.-- Chaos was as high as the temperatures at the Minnesota State Fair Aug. 21 as teeny-boppers clutch their tickets and confer, with the utmost seriousness, on what color "fair-do" they want.

"You gotta have the sparklies," said Klink Weisen, joint owner and "handyman" of the Fair Do's booth, a licensed hair salon that uses glitter, spray-in hair color and lots of hair spray to create "cotton candy" hairdos.

Last year was almost a baptism by fire for Klink and his wife, Lorri, when they first opened the booth and were suddenly swamped with business.

"We didn't have enough help, and we still don't," Lorri said. "We weren't prepared for that."

This time around, Lorri has three girls styling hair, and she said they're still looking to hire. They did about 150 'dos a day last year, and their goal this year is to style almost 300 a day. It takes seven to 10 minutes, Lorri said, to style a fair-do.

Girls usually want pink and purple puffy buns, Lorri said. Blue is also a popular color. Boys generally want their hair to look like a bug -- sprayed fire-engine red with black dots, or neon blue with green dots.

Although Klink and Lorri said they thought their market would be teenagers, they've been overrun by girls ages 6 to 12. But, they also do boys and teenagers, and Klink even has a photograph of an 80-year-old grandmother Lorri styled at last year's fair. About a fourth of their customers have been returns from last year.

"This isn't just for kids," Klink said. Fair-dos cost $15 for adults and $5 for kids 6 and under.

"As soon as they sit down their faces just glow," Lorri said. "As soon as we saw that, we said, 'oh, that'd be a hit at the fair.'"

Klink hit upon the idea for Fair Do's while he was working a construction job in Anchorage, Alaska, and saw a woman at a fair creating wild styles for teenagers. He and Lorri put in a proposal to the state fair five years ago, and when a portion of the fairgrounds was dedicated to teen entertainment last year, Fair Do's was included.

"It must have appealed to them," Klink said. He said he's heard of other proposals taking 20 years to get into the fair.