I tried to learn my lesson when I realized I'd wasted so many years not going to the Crochet Museum in Joshua Tree—so upon my return to the area last weekend, I made sure I checked another place at the Art Queen complex off my list.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_122614lo.jpg)
The Beauty Bubble Salon and Museum, which opened in this location along the 29 Palms Highway in 2016.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_123920cropLO.jpg)
Now that I've stepped inside, it's no wonder to me that it was the subject of a recent documentary film, Inside the Beauty Bubble...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_123946lo.jpg)
...which chronicles the life and business of High Desert hair stylist and owner Jeff Hafler...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_124006lo.jpg)
...as his business was shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, just as he was preparing to lend some artifacts and unique wig sculptures to the SFO Museum gallery in the Harvey Milk Terminal for an exhibit called "Hair Style."
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_122710cropLO.jpg)
Today, it's open for regular business—including for bona fide hair services, available by appointment Sundays through Thursdays. (Unfortunately my visit landed on a Saturday.)
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_122805lo.jpg)
But surrounding the stylist stations and client chairs, there's an impressive (and still growing) collection of artifacts that tell the "hairstory" of coiffures and other novelty "hair-aphernalia."
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_122739lo.jpg)
From vintage blow dryers in a rainbow of pastel colors, used to decorate the walls...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_122745lo.jpg)
...to curlers that look like torture devices...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_123102lo.jpg)
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_122939lo.jpg)
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_123139lo.jpg)
...and cans of hair spray that certainly were tortuous back in their heyday...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_122903lo.jpg)
...the Beauty Bubble features multiple rooms of hair and beauty memorabilia...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_123005lo.jpg)
...from large appliances (like a personal sauna) and other equipment...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_123102lo.jpg)
...to lotions and potions befitting an olde time apothecary...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_122947lo.jpg)
...and old advertisements, toys, and collectibles from pop culture.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_122926lo.jpg)
In addition to the pink afro sculpture up at the front of the shop, there are more "Hairsterical Gals" all th way in the back—showing sculptural versions of hairstyles like a mohawk and a pompadour, rendered in multicolor curlers.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_122934lo.jpg)
There's even a silver beehive...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/20240127_122939lo.jpg)
..."the perm," and "the bubble," now back at home after the closure of the SFO exhibit in August 2021, fittingly placed with a Charlies Angels lunchbox and Grease Sandy doll.
All in all, there are 3000 pieces in the collection, which Hafler began accumulating in 1991. And it makes this beauty parlor museum a roadside attraction that's definitely worth the detour when passing by on Highway 62.
Hafler has come a long way since growing up in Ohio and running a hair salon in West Hollywood in the early 2000s—and now, this feels like the place he's supposed to be.
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Thanks for the great article! 💕 Hair’s To Ya!
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