Hair the focus of business, marriage

Seventeen years ago, Dick Crew and Karen Hwangbo met in a beauty shop in Garden Groves, Calif. Today they own one in Maricopa.

Born continents apart — Crew in Minneapolis, Minn. and Hwangbo in Seoul, South Korea — the paths of the co-owners of HairFocus crossed serendipitously when Crew needed a haircut in 1994. A walk-in customer on his first visit to GiGi’s, Crew was seated in Hwangbo’s chair.

“Wow!” was Crew’s initial thought. “It was love at first sight for me,” he said, admitting it took him a while to convince her. “That was it; I was hooked.”

They eventually married in 2004 and moved to Maricopa for a change in lifestyle. “Orange County had too many people, was too fast paced,” Crew said. “I’m not crazy about the real hot weather, but we’re happy in Maricopa.”

Crew had retired from the auto parts business and Hwangbo was working at a salon in Chandler when, in 2006, they opened their own shop in the Maricopa Business Center on West Honeycutt Avenue.

HairFocus has three stylists, including Hwangbo, who has 23 years experience. The shop is open six days a week and offers beauty supply products in addition to all the styling services one would expect.