Despite cancer, 90-year-old hairstylist has no plans to retire

NORTH MUSKEGON, Mich. ( WOOD ) — The goal of most hairstylists is to help people feel beautiful. That’s exactly what Marlene Jannenga has been doing for 72 years.

She doesn’t plan on letting cancer stop her.

“When I was in fourth grade, the teacher asked, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ And I wanted to be a concert pianist or a hairdresser,” Jannenga laughed.

More than seven decades later, she still doesn’t regret her choice.

“I love what I do. I say I’ve never worked a day in my life,” Jannenga reflected.

Jannenga has worked for A. Salon Hair and Skin Spa in North Muskegon, Michigan, for 66 years.

“I started with (previous owner) Peggy White and then she retired and her daughter Lexi took over, and now Lexi is in the process, she’s not retired, but she’s in the process of her daughter taking over,” Jannenga listed. “So it’s the three generations that I’ve been with, that’s why I can stay in the same place.”

Under White, Jannenga served as the executive styles director for several locations.

“I myself would go to a seminar and there would be a release of a new trend in haircuts and also color, anything to do with our industry, and I would attend those and bring them back to our salons and teach our staff,” she explained.

Over the decades, she has shared that expertise with stylists all over the country.

“When a person comes in and you can change them entirely, that’s a wonderful accomplishment. It’s a feel-good,” Jannenga said. “That’s why I can’t quit. I love it. I absolutely love every part of it.”

Now 90 years old, Jannenga has no plans to hang up the clippers: “They say, ‘When are you going to retire?’ And I say, ‘When I drop dead behind my chair.'”

Outside the salon, she’s a wife, mom, grandma, great-grandma and great-great-grandma. She also serves a maternal role inside the salon.

“When I gave birth to my first child, I didn’t call my mother, I called (Jannenga),” said Alexis Bauer, A. Salon’s current owner. “She’s like my mother and my coworker.”

The salon is a legacy, Bauer added, and Jannenga is part of it.

“She enriches us beyond belief. I mean, with her knowledge. There are times now if I’m doing something and I’ll turn around and say, ‘What do I do?’ And she knows. She’s been around so long, you know, trials and mistakes and everything else that we’ve done. She’s positive, she has just a great attitude in her clients… Everybody loves her,” Bauer said.

Jannenga’s spirit has never wavered, even with the recent physical challenges she has faced. The 90-year-old was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in November 2022.

“At that time the treatment they gave me was radiation and chemo, and I was very sick,” Jannenga said.

She’s getting ready to go through another round of chemo, after which she will have a scope to see if the cancer has spread.

“All my doctors have said, ‘You are really healthy, you just have cancer.’ And that’s the truth. I’ve been very, very healthy all my life,” she said. “That’s why I’m still working, right?”

She added that she has good weeks and bad weeks, but still has no plans to stop working.

“From the very beginning when I was diagnosed, I said if God wants me here to witness about him, I’ll be here. If not, I’ll go home, and either way is fine with me,” she said.

When asked how people in the community could support her after all she’s done for others, she simply responded, “Prayers.”

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