Continental 109 Owner Nick DeVincenzo is an Immigrant Success Story
Pictured: Nick with James Buckley, grandson of Jim Houlihan, a long-time client.
By Liz Folberth
Oct. 2, 2024: I was recently having my hair cut by Mark DeVincenzo at Continental 109. I have been going to Mark for almost 20 years, but this was the first time I focused on the banner that’s been hanging in the front window of the salon for the past three years. It reads: “60 years as a Bronxville merchant.”
I asked Mark, “How is it possible your father started working as a hairstylist in this location more than 60 years ago? Was he a teenager?”
Mark laughed. “He was 23 and had only been living in this country for 4 years. He became a partner in the business 10 years later and in 1981 he took over as sole owner.”
The more stories Mark told me about his father Nick, the more intrigued I became. Nick's story is a true immigrant success story.
Nick (seated) with his son Mark (standing). Photo by N. Bower
Nick DeVincenzo was born in San Bartolomeo de Galdo, near Naples. In 1949, when Italy was reeling in the aftermath of World War II, Nick’s father died, leaving his mother with 8 children, the youngest only 18 months old.
There wasn’t enough food to feed them all. Eleven-year-old Nick and one of his sisters went to live in an orphanage nearly three hours away. He stayed in the orphanage for 4 years, learning to design and make shoes.
An uncle worked hard to help the family immigrate to the U.S. but Nick did not arrive in New York until 1957, when he was 19 years old.
Nick was working in a shoe factory in Brooklyn for $125 a week when a friend confided that he was making $250 a week cutting hair. Nick said, “In those days, all the young guys who came from Italy—carpenter, tailor, mechanic—we all went to beauty school because it paid better. You know, when you’re good with your hands, you can do anything.”
Soon Nick was working three jobs, shoe factory by day, hairdressing school at night, and as a waiter on the weekends. “For seven years, I never took a day off work,” said Nick. He had no time to go to school to learn English, so he just picked it up along the way.
In 1961 two of Nick’s friends decided to open a salon in Bronxville and told him they needed help. The business prospered but things didn’t always go smoothly. In 1981, when Nick bought out his partners, and they opened another salon around the corner on Park Place and took all his stylists with them. “They dumped me,” he said. “I felt really hurt.”
Nick simply started over, worked hard every day, and a year later he needed more space for all his customers.
In the old days, according to Nick, Bronxville was quite a conservative place. “In the beginning, I had a hard time,” he said. “They were still doing finger waves here when I was used to rollers and teasing--the new things I’d learned in the city. But I was very good at updos for the dinner dances at Siwanoy and I adjusted after 6 months. Then I was booked every day.”
He confided that they had a special booth where women would sit so their friends couldn’t see them having color done. He recalls that Jack Paar’s wife sometimes brought their two pet lion cubs along for her appointments.
Mark did not plan to be a hairdresser until his parents (his mother Antoinette was also a hairdresser) pushed him to get his license and sent him to study with Vidal Sassoon in London. When Mark returned to New York his career took off; he spent 30 years working with Frederic Fekkai. (Mark continues to work several days a week in the city at the Julien Farel salon.)
In 2003 his dad turned 65 and, not knowing how much longer Nick would continue to work, Mark decided to begin spending part of each week at Continental 109.
“It was never to bring New York to Bronxville,” said Mark. “I didn’t come up here to reinvent the wheel, to make this incredible salon, it was really just to be with him. I came here to spend time with him and help him achieve his goal of keeping the salon relevant through the years.”
Little by little, they began to tweak things and transition slowly. “I have to give him credit,” said Mark, “my dad has always been able to adapt and change, reinventing himself, even to this day--at 87.”
In 2020 Continental 109 partnered with L’Oreal and every year since then has been rated among their top 100 salons in the country and number one in Westchester.
I asked colorist Maria Agosto, who has been working at Continental 109 for 34 years, why the salon has survived and thrived for such a long time. “Nick and Mark both have the same work ethic,” said Maria. “Mark’s slogan has always been, ‘I can teach anybody how to cut hair, but I can’t teach you to have respect for people, to want to bring out the beauty in someone else.”
Maria described the atmosphere in the salon as being part of a family. When the salon was required to close for several months due to Covid, she said, “We had bi-weekly zoom calls, just to check in with everyone. Nick took money out of his own pocket to pay us, to make sure we were taken care of. That just shows you the kind of people they are. Nick built a legacy, created it literally with his bare hands, and Mark is carrying out his legacy.”
Looking back on his 63 years in the beauty business, Nick says, “Sometimes I say, how did it happen? To me, it’s the American Dream. The opportunity you have. We thank God and we thank America. For us, it’s the greatest country in the world.”
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