When Lucy Nichols lived in Arvada in the 1970s, she chose Beauty Inc. as the place to get her hair done — first in Denver, then in Wheat Ridge after the business moved.
She continued going to the family-run hair salon even when she lived in Watkins, nearly 30 miles away. Same story after Nichols, 71, moved to Westminster and then to Longmont, where she lives today.
“This was always my go-to,” she said while sitting for a last hair appointment this week at the venerable beauty shop on West 44th Avenue, half a century after her first cut. “It’s like family here.”
But the matriarch of the family business, Dolores “Dee” Lombardi, died two-and-a-half years ago. And on Saturday, Beauty Inc. will close its doors — 60 years and one day after Dee bought the salon.
Joe DeMott owns Pietra’s Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant in Wheat Ridge, which is proudly marking its own 60th year in business this year. His pizzeria is less than two miles down West 44th Avenue from Beauty Inc.
“It’s amazing to see anything go to 60 years,” said DeMott, who is a distant cousin of the Lombardi family. “It’s definitely a dying thing” — and, in Beauty Inc.’s case, the closure saddens him.
It’s the latest demise of a longtime local business in metro Denver. Federal Heating closed last year after 84 years, while New Saigon shut its doors last month after serving up Vietnamese cuisine in Denver for more than four decades.
While it was in business, Beauty Inc. was a hub of activity for the community, especially for Italian-Americans in north Denver and those who moved west to the suburbs over the years — just like the hair salon did.
Its first two locations were in Denver, at 44th and Decatur Street and then at 44th and Lowell Street. It landed at 44th and Jay Street in Wheat Ridge in 1982.
“Everybody in north Denver knew about Beauty Inc.,” said Kathy Peppel, Dee’s younger sister, who at 72 has worked at the salon for 37 years. “People felt so welcome.”
The secret was soon out.
“We have people come from the mountains, from Bailey, from Windsor and from Parker,” said Peppel, who has never worked anywhere but at her sister’s salon.
Customers met at Beauty Inc. to show off newborn babies, a new puppy or the latest car they’d purchased.
Harry Boxler shares his memories with his wife Donna, seated on chair, and Kathy Peppel, sister of longtime Beauty Inc. owner Dee Lombardi, at the salon in Wheat Ridge on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. Peppel has worked for 37 years at the salon and Boxler has been a customer for 50 years. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
“It was a very social gathering place where everyone wanted to be,” said Dee’s daughter, Pauletta Tonilas, who worked as a receptionist at Beauty Inc. as a kid. “It was the hip place to get your hair done.”
The business was also decidedly old school, accepting only cash or checks for payment, right up until closing this week.
Many of its hair stylists have stuck around — Janna was still cutting hair there this week after 43 years and Grace Ann retired from the chair and mirror at age 82, while John, who’s in his 80s, still works at Beauty Inc.
“I love doing hair and Dee was a wonderful boss,” Janna Falbo, 71, said as she worked on one of her final customers this week. “This was my second home.”
Dee’s niece, Lori Rushton, has worked the front desk at Beauty Inc. several days a week since 1980. The customers were so loyal, she said, that they were greeted by name.
And many had “standing” appointments — same day, same time, same station.
“When all the seats were full, you didn’t need a clock to tell you what time it was — you could tell the time by who was walking through the door,” Rushton said. “We’re losing a place where people gathered. It’s going to be very hard.”
Dee Lombardi took over Beauty Inc. from the original owner on March 29, 1964. It was a rare move by a woman back then, Tonilas said. After her mother got divorced, she kept cutting hair while trying to raise two children.
A picture of the day that Beauty Inc. opened under Dee Lombardi’s leadership, taken in 1964, sits on the front desk at the salon in Wheat Ridge. Lombardi, second from right, took over the salon at a time when very few women owned businesses. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
“She was remarkable in how she provided a great life for me and my brother,” Tonilas said.
Dee got married again, this time to Skip Jutze, a professional baseball player who started as a catcher for the Denver Bears minor league team before playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Houston Astros and the Seattle Mariners during that team’s maiden season in 1977.
They, too, eventually divorced, Tonilas said — and then it was just her mother and her beloved hair salon.
“She never had to advertise. It was all word of mouth,” said Tonilas, who previously worked for several years as communications director for the Regional Transportation District.
In her later years, Lombardi was diagnosed with leukemia. She worked right up until she died in September 2021, at 80. In her obituary published in The Denver Post, she was lauded for her tenacity in “powering through the effects of leukemia to continue to bring happiness, smiles and laughter to her customers and coworkers as she did throughout her whole career.”
“She worked (while) not feeling good a lot,” Tonilas said of those final months.
Tonilas and her brother thought long and hard about what to do with Beauty Inc. after their mother’s death.
In the end, they sensed headwinds that would make it difficult to keep a small business afloat in the face of a changing retail landscape and other forces they couldn’t control. Like a global pandemic — which it had already survived, but not without some bumps and bruises.
Family and client photos hang on the wall of Beauty Inc while Kathy Peppel, 72, sister of longtime Beauty Inc owner Dee Lombardi, gives her nephew Lance Rushton a haircut during the salon’s last week in business on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Wheat Ridge, Colo. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
On March 19, 2020, Gov. Jared Polis ordered a six-week closure of all hair salons in the state.
“COVID was a severe impact on hair salons,” Tonilas said. “That was the start of the nail in the coffin for Beauty Inc.”
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Some customers never came back, she said, having learned to style or color their hair at home while in lockdown. And of the customers whose loyalty brought them back to Beauty Inc. as soon the business was allowed to reopen, Father Time was not on their side.
“The clientele has decreased over the last few years,” Tonilas said. “A lot of the customers are older or have passed away.”
Add to that an ongoing labor shortage and a historic run-up in property taxes in Colorado, and Tonilas said it became evident that it was time to shut the doors.
The closure of Beauty Inc. at the same time it marks its 60th anniversary is a bittersweet confluence of events, Tonilas said. But the business’ longevity under her mother’s leadership is something she is immensely proud of.
“I think it’s significant for a business to celebrate 60 years,” she said. “There are not many businesses these days that last for 60 years.”
Kathy Peppel, right, sister of longtime Beauty Inc. owner Dee Lombardi, comforts longtime customer Donna Boxler, at the salon in Wheat Ridge on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. Peppel has worked for 37 years at the salon and Boxler has been a customer for 50 years. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
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