A Wheat Ridge hair salon celebrates 60 years in business as it closes down: “It’s like family here”

When Lucy Nichols lived in Arvada within the Nineteen Seventies, she selected Magnificence Inc. because the place to get her hair finished — first in Denver, then in Wheat Ridge after the enterprise moved.

She continued going to the family-run hair salon even when she lived in Watkins, almost 30 miles away. Similar story after Nichols, 71, moved to Westminster after which to Longmont, the place she lives in the present day.

“This was at all times my go-to,” she stated whereas sitting for a final hair appointment this week on the venerable magnificence store on West forty fourth Avenue, half a century after her first lower. “It’s like household right here.”

However the matriarch of the household enterprise, Dolores “Dee” Lombardi, died two-and-a-half years in the past. And on Saturday, Magnificence Inc. will shut its doorways — 60 years and someday after Dee purchased the salon.

Joe DeMott owns Pietra’s Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant in Wheat Ridge, which is proudly marking its personal sixtieth 12 months in enterprise this 12 months. His pizzeria is lower than two miles down West forty fourth Avenue from Magnificence Inc.

“It’s superb to see something go to 60 years,” stated DeMott, who’s a distant cousin of the Lombardi household. “It’s positively a dying factor” — and, in Magnificence Inc.’s case, the closure saddens him.

It’s the most recent demise of a longtime native enterprise in metro Denver. Federal Heating closed final 12 months after 84 years, whereas New Saigon shut its doorways final month after serving up Vietnamese delicacies in Denver for greater than 4 many years.

Whereas it was in enterprise, Magnificence Inc. was a hub of exercise for the group, particularly for Italian-People in north Denver and people who moved west to the suburbs over time — identical to the hair salon did.

Its first two areas had been in Denver, at forty fourth and Decatur Road after which at forty fourth and Lowell Road. It landed at forty fourth and Jay Road in Wheat Ridge in 1982.

“Everyone in north Denver knew about Magnificence Inc.,” stated Kathy Peppel, Dee’s youthful sister, who at 72 has labored on the salon for 37 years. “Individuals felt so welcome.”

The key was quickly out.

“We now have individuals come from the mountains, from Bailey, from Windsor and from Parker,” stated Peppel, who has by no means labored anyplace however at her sister’s salon.

Prospects met at Magnificence Inc. to indicate off new child infants, a brand new pet or the most recent automotive they’d bought.

“It was a really social gathering place the place everybody wished to be,” stated Dee’s daughter, Pauletta Tonilas, who labored as a receptionist at Magnificence Inc. as a child. “It was the hip place to get your hair finished.”

The enterprise was additionally decidedly old style, accepting solely money or checks for cost, proper up till closing this week.

Lots of its hair stylists have caught round — Janna was nonetheless slicing hair there this week after 43 years and Grace Ann retired from the chair and mirror at age 82, whereas John, who’s in his 80s, nonetheless works at Magnificence Inc.

“I like doing hair and Dee was a beautiful boss,” Janna Falbo, 71, stated as she labored on considered one of her closing clients this week. “This was my second house.”

Dee’s niece, Lori Rushton, has labored the entrance desk at Magnificence Inc. a number of days every week since 1980. The shoppers had been so loyal, she stated, that they had been greeted by title.

And plenty of had “standing” appointments — similar day, similar time, similar station.

“When all of the seats had been full, you didn’t want a clock to let you know what time it was — you might inform the time by who was strolling by the door,” Rushton stated. “We’re dropping a spot the place individuals gathered. It’s going to be very arduous.”

Dee Lombardi took over Magnificence Inc. from the unique proprietor on March 29, 1964. It was a uncommon transfer by a girl again then, Tonilas stated. After her mom obtained divorced, she saved slicing hair whereas attempting to boost two youngsters.

“She was exceptional in how she supplied an incredible life for me and my brother,” Tonilas stated.

Dee obtained married once more, this time to Skip Jutze, an expert baseball participant who began as a catcher for the Denver Bears minor league staff earlier than taking part in for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Houston Astros and the Seattle Mariners throughout that staff’s maiden season in 1977.

They, too, ultimately divorced, Tonilas stated — after which it was simply her mom and her beloved hair salon.

“She by no means needed to promote. It was all phrase of mouth,” stated Tonilas, who beforehand labored for a number of years as communications director for the Regional Transportation District.

In her later years, Lombardi was identified with leukemia. She labored proper up till she died in September 2021, at 80. In her obituary printed in The Denver Submit, she was lauded for her tenacity in “powering by the consequences of leukemia to proceed to deliver happiness, smiles and laughter to her clients and coworkers as she did all through her entire profession.”

“She labored (whereas) not feeling good lots,” Tonilas stated of these closing months.

Tonilas and her brother thought lengthy and arduous about what to do with Magnificence Inc. after their mom’s loss of life.

Ultimately, they sensed headwinds that may make it troublesome to maintain a small enterprise afloat within the face of a altering retail panorama and different forces they couldn’t management. Like a world pandemic — which it had already survived, however not with out some bumps and bruises.

On March 19, 2020, Gov. Jared Polis ordered a six-week closure of all hair salons within the state.

“COVID was a extreme impression on hair salons,” Tonilas stated. “That was the beginning of the nail within the coffin for Magnificence Inc.”