Once upon a time in a land between worlds
there was a young maiden with crafty ideas.

From the county of Lee,
she loved to see
herself and her friends transformed.

She would dress them up,
do their hair and makeup
with results that would oooh and ah.

She was so good at her craft
it would make her friends laugh
and come knocking and talking in awe.

Nowadays people come from near and far
to be transformed into beings they are not;
to trick and to scare,
to sometimes lay bare
their desire to be another!

You need to come see
what has intrigued me
to stop in her shop and peruse,
the costumes and pieces,
the interesting creases
on faces and cloth alike,
are something you’ll find
when you’re of the mind
to create an illusion or two!

Ah, you wonder, what IS the Red-Headed Witches? That place at 1910 Del Prado Blvd South, isn’t that where the old funeral home used to be, with it’s “eerie character persona”? It is!

Crissy Barchers, a red-head and a lifelong resident of Lee County, knew from an early age that she wanted to be an entrepreneur. After getting her degree in business and marketing, and with managerial experience and observations about people’s desire to dress up, she started a company called Costumes by Perfect Pleasures. She shared her catalogs with her friends who were looking for sexy Halloween costumes. The demand was so great that she and her best friend Jennifer Duvall (also a red-head) opened up their first store for 3 months in 2008 with 1200 sf. Now it’s a year-round business (renamed The Red Headed Witches) with 3500 sf of retail space and an entire building that will eventually be bought and transformed into something more than just retail!

Crissy loves what she does: she offers costumes, wearables, theater quality makeup and a professional quality prosthetic line. She emphasizes that they are not a Halloween Store and don’t even offer Halloween decorations. But if you want to decorate yourself or your family, the Red Headed Witches is the place to go.

There are more opportunities to character dress then some of us would imagine. Of course there is Halloween, but there are also cosplay events where people dress up as their favorite character, local events (like their recent Harry Potter event and the Zombie 5K they hosted) and times when you just want to fool your friends at the airport.

The story continues (as all good ones do) so I suggest that you stop by, but be careful! You may come out looking like somebody else!

Check them out on Facebook and at redheadedwitches.com