By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

SYMMES TWP. - Customers at You Guys salon on Montgomery Road can have a nip with their clip this week. Legally.

While owners Greg and Donna Dougherty work with legislators to relax Ohio liquor laws for salons, they've acquired permits letting them serve small portions of beer and wine and sell carryout at their men-only establishment.

"I know that we are going to be scrutinized, since we are the first one to be legitimate," Greg Dougherty said. "But, that's exactly how this all happened - we wanted to be on the up and up."

Township officials at first were leery of the Doughertys' efforts, but backed off after learning the couple had joined with other salon owners, including Deborah Mitchell Schmidt of Mitchell's Salon & Day Spa, in a push to gain special liquor licensing for the industry.

Those efforts were spurred by a local crackdown in January on salons that offered wine, champagne or beer to customers as part of spa packages, or that allowed patrons to carry in their own drinks.

State Rep. Michelle Schneider, R-Madeira, is working on a proposal that would allow special licensing to certain types of spas.

"I still am waiting for the board of cosmetology to come up with a definition of a spa. We need a definition that will take care of large and small spas, but eliminate bathhouses. That's our sticking point," Schneider said Friday.

Rae Ann Estep, superintendent of liquor control in Ohio, said her agency has concerns.

"We want to make sure that, whatever the language is, that it is enforceable and it's not ambiguous."

She could not confirm that You Guys, at 12082 Montgomery Rd., was the first salon in the area to get liquor permits because of the way the division keeps its data.

Area salon owners, though, have said that a state quota system limiting the number of liquor licenses in taxing districts had prohibited them from acquiring licenses in the Hamilton County communities where they do business.

"In the Cincinnati area, there is a quota issue," Estep said.

Dougherty's three permits allow You Guys to sell carryout beer, wine and mixed beverages, as well as tastings - defined by law as up to eight ounces a day for each patron. A bar in the salon's reception area should be open by Nov. 29.

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com