Pizazz is possessed.
Patrons of the Jackson Drive hair and nail salon in San Carlos are personally greeted by an interactive witch activated by smart phone and other means.
“An older woman would come in, and she would always have a conversation about things. And the witch would say she wanted specific kinds of candy,” said salon owner Nancy Losek. “And every year she’d bring her candy.”
With booths leased to the 13 hairdressers, three manicurists and three who do facials and massages, Pizazz has become a Little Shop of Halloween Horrors the past seven years.
Even the bathroom talks — with the toilet seat decorated with a three-D-style hand reaching up.
It began with the gift of a mummy.
“Every year, I added something else and it became a monster,” said Losek, a manicurist who runs a [mandatory] booth decoration contest with a $100 gift card prize — the winner decided by clients.
“We don’t even use the mummy anymore — because there’s no space.”
One year, after an October break-in, a police K9 unit came to the store and found a hand starting to crawl on the floor.
“The dog killed it,” Losek says.
Losek, who’s been at her Jackson Drive location about 15 years, says she tries to keep the displays “PG.”
“If I had it my way, I’d have things crawling on the walls,” she said. But the noise rattles one of the hairdressers. “I do keep it to a low roar.”
Setting up the major displays takes her and four others about eight hours, Losek said. This year’s Halloween-a-palooza ends Saturday night.
So how does Losek decorate her San Carlos home?
She used to put up tombstones for neighborhood kids, but said: “I don’t do it at home anymore. It’s too much work to do both places.”
