Longtime Friends Lead Longlasting Salon

Main Street Salon in downtown New Port Richey has withstood the test of time.

So has the friendship of its two owners.

Cindy Buckley and Dottie Browder met each other more than four decades ago. Over 25 years ago, they opened the Main Street Salon, where locals know they can go to get hair and make up done.
 
This week marks the 41st anniversary of the pair’s friendship, Buckley said. The shop turns 26 in October.  Buckley said that in the past the friends have gone camping together and even gone on a cruise to the Bahamas together.  She didn’t say how they are celebrating this year.

Buckley and Browder were working together as hairdressers at a shop on Main Street that is now closed when they decided to open the Main Street Salon in 1988. They’ve worked together continuously since the shop opened.

Not only have they worked together to make the shop attractive, they’ve made it a family affair. Their daughters Chrissie and Kelley worked in the shop for years.

It’s a rare thing to see a small shop in downtown New Port Richey keep its doors open for 25 years. Asked the secret to its success Buckley pointed to the owners' attention to making the shop comfortable and affordable for middle-class customers.

She likes to think of it as the type of Mom-and-Pop salon featured in "Steel Magnolias," the off-Broadway play and movie starring Dolly Parton as the salon owner.
 
“We worked hard to make it a nice place to come to,” Buckley said.

Why stay in New Port Richey, Patch asked?

“If you move around a lot, you lose clients and New Port Richey is a great little town,” she said.

Some of the shop's customers have been going to Buckley and Browder for decades.

The shop has weathered not only a recession, but also a run in with a vehicle on Main Street that crashed just outside the storefront. The vehicle ripped a bench from its moorings and hit a pot that smashed into the wall. The bench was replaced by the city.

Greater New Port Richey Main Street, the nonprofit organization focused on the rejuvenation of downtown New Port Richey, recently resurrected its quarterly Award of Excellence and gave it to the shop last month.

Want to check out Main Street Salon? You can find it at 5810 Main St. The phone number is 727-848-7084.