“We”™re brand new with experience,” says Robert Lomino, whose Robert”™s Total Care Salon has flourished in the same Cold Spring location for nearly 40 years. “Brand new” refers to keeping current with styles and products and also to the renovations that the proprietor terms as “face lifts.”
Serving in the Army after high school graduation, Lomino had time to reflect on his future when an auto accident hospitalized him, requiring 71 stitches on his face. They were so skillfully done, he says, that today only an occasional individual will ask, “Did a cat scratch you?” The hospital, he recalls, had a limited lending library. He resorted to a book on the history of hairdressing and made his career decision.
All Lomino”™s employees are adept at the full range of services: hair styling, cutting, coloring, permanents, nails and pedicures.
“This is good for the employees, because they can alternate between sitting and standing. If job applicants only want to do one procedure, we send them elsewhere.”
Lomino is proud of his employee retention. “The group we have now has been with us for the longest period of time.
“The art of communicating with clients to determine what they want is important,” he says. I will sometimes ask a client if she likes the hairstyle. I look at the eyes, regardless of the answer. If I don”™t like what I see, I suggest, ”˜We”™d better sit down and talk.”™”
After taking out a huge bank loan to modernize the salon soon after acquiring it, Lomino was faced with a daunting setback in 2002, when the adjacent Grand Union burned, leaving the salon with major water and smoke damage.
“Rather than letting myself get despondent, I took courage from my heroes, Col. Sanders and Ray Kroc,” he recalls. “Sanders had a small hospitality business that failed when Interstate 75 construction diverted business. His key recipe was chicken. He began again at age 65. Ray Kroc bought McDonald”™s at age 59, becoming senior chairman at 75. I was younger than either of them.”
“Forced to remodel again, I was more concerned with keeping my clientele than fighting the insurance company. I got what I needed to start again and was back in business in a week,” he said. Nevertheless, the business suffered for 15 months until Foodtown finished building on the old Grand Union site.
The salon boasts a clientele ranging from tots to seniors. It became coed during what Lomino defines as “the hippy generation,” when local barbershops declined to cut long hair. In the late l970s, the salon designated Wednesday evenings “Men”™s Night.”
Since then, men have become integrated with female customers, sitting beside them for coloring, cutting and even permanents.
The “something new” embraces changes in styles and products, involving continuing education. “Styles change in the spring and the fall,” he said.
Product evolution is another challenge. A new ammonia-free product, Inoa, has revolutionized hair coloring, Lomino said.
Just as chefs often fail as restaurant owners, Lomino recognized that when he was a student beauty schools did not teach business practices. He and his wife took special courses, refining that aspect of their lives.
Lomino attended Manhattan”™s Hollywood Beauty Academy, where he met his future wife, Mary. “Her father owned Josef”™s Beauty Salon in Peekskill and expanded to Cold Spring. He was my mentor.”
In l971 Lomino bought the Cold Spring salon. Working in the business part time, Mary observes, “We are there for the good times and bad times in people”™s lives.”
Fishkill residents, the Lominos have three children and nine grandchildren.
Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be e-mailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.
