Family hair salon strives for quality and a tightknit clientele.
Mario Belpanno was one of the first barbers in Rochester to introduce the idea of hair styling for men. That was in the 1970s, and a quick cut and shave was the norm.
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Mary Boyce highlights a customer's hair at Mario's Hair Salon. She took the business over from her father and revels in the family style environment, even bringing her youngest son, 11-week-old Jacob, to work with her. |
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"It was a new beginning - Dad helped initiate a new level of barbering," said Belpanno's daughter, Mary Boyce.
Now Boyce, 32, is carrying on her father's legacy at Mario's Hair Salon after he passed away over the summer.
"I was trained by the best," Boyce said.
Belpanno opened the hair salon at 1474 Monroe Ave., Brighton, 37 years ago. Boyce still has pictures on the wall of her father in 1970s competitions, when he won several prizes, including one for his trademark razor cut.
Belpanno's story is similar to many successful imigrants'.
He was just a teenager when he boarded a ship from Italy heading to the United States, Boyce said. For 10 years he toiled as a taylor at Hickey-Freeman in Rochester until he saved enough money to start his own business.
Boyce said she likes the close-knit atmosphere of Mario's Hair Salon.
"It's like a family here," she said.
And Boyce appreciates the special bond she has with customers and the three employees who work for her. Boyce often brings one of her six childeren to the shop.
As a child, Boyce also regularly followed her father to the salon.
She knew when she was 4 that she would follow in Belpanno's footsteps, and she performed her first haircut at age 11.
Milton Lederman has been scheduling monthly appointments at Mario's for the past 15 years and remembers Boyce as a youth.
"I've gotten to know the family - I know about their christenings and know when the kids are graduating," Lederman said.
The business has changed over that 15-year span, as well.
Boyce has managed to keep most of her father's clients, but acknowledges that competition is stiff.
The once predominantly male clientele has been replaced by families and women. And the salon now offers additional services such as waxing and pedicures.
Yet Mario's is one of a dozen in a one-mile radius, including another salon next door.
Boyce's competitive strategy: Personalizing her services instead of churning out more volume to increase profits.
"My father said, 'You can be in this business a short period of time and make a lot of money or be in the business for a long time and make a living,'" she said. "I want to be the latter. I want to be like my father - a legend on the avenue."