Where the beautiful people live

By Mandy Walton

Wednesday, July 29, 2009 | 6:51 p.m.

Over the weekend, I went to a church dinner with my husband’s family. They live on the other side of the valley, in Las Vegas.

At our table were a couple of people I did not know. My husband, who spent his teenage years in Las Vegas, seemed to know them. The woman asked where we live.

“Out in Henderson,” my husband said.

“Oh....Henderson,” the woman answered. “That’s where all the beautiful people live.”

I kind of chuckled at the comment.

We’re far from being a “Hollywood” or “Manhattan” when it comes to our demographics of celebrities vs. the working class.

Either she meant that we — my husband and I — were beautiful (blush), that we weren’t, or that there’s a misconception that Henderson is full of beautiful people. I didn’t ask, yet I began to curiously wonder about it all weekend.

She doesn’t even live in Southern Nevada, come to find out. She lives in St. George, Utah.

When I decided I wanted to write about this, I started researching how many beauty salons we have in Henderson in comparison to some other cities of similar size. While St. George is not close to the size of our city, I wanted to throw it in here for conversation’s sake.

I went online to the yellow pages and to a city data Web site to look up populations and the number of hair/nail salons in Henderson.

Right now, Henderson has about 270,000 people and 180 listings for hair/nail salons. That puts us at a whopping 1,500 people per salon.

Scottsdale, Ariz., has one salon for every 530 people with a population of 228,000 and 430 salons.

Reno comes in with 220,000 people and 297 hair/salon listings. That’s one for every 740 people.

At just over 80,000 residents, St. George has one salon for every 1,330 people — 60 salons total.

And with almost 558,000 people and 1,000 salons in Las Vegas, there’s a beauty salon for every 558 people.

So, if you were going to argue this point mathematically, Las Vegas would actually be where all the beautiful people live, next to Scottsdale. Reno would come in third, followed by St. George and then Henderson, with one salon per 1,500 people.

Do I want to argue that Henderson isn’t full of beautiful people? Not really; however, I don’t want outsiders thinking that we’re a community full of people who only care about our hair, nails and complexions.

Beautiful or not, Henderson is full of hard-working, caring citizens who try to keep our community looking shipshape. When I see someone who I think is beautiful, I often notice that the person is happy or content.

Maybe Henderson is full of beautiful people because we are content with our wonderful parks, amenities and all the awards we win as a great city.