Economy Takes Toll on Longtime Local Barber Shops

When we set out to have readers help determine , we were surprised to learn how small the field had become due to recent closures.

Most notably were and the , which shuttered earlier this month after serving the area for roughly four decades.

"It just became too much," said Annette Lucas, the owner of both side-by-side locations near the southwest corner of Telegraph and Long Lake. Lucas, a men's stylist for more than 30 years, took over ownership from her father, Tony Abbott, nearly 20 years ago and merged the barbershop and salon. Abbott died in 2003.

Lucas said she had loyal clients and staff, but that the bottom line suffered from the number of vacant businesses around hers, and the emergence of national chain barbershops along the Telegraph corridor. The traffic flow to her shop and business overall just never seemed to recover following the Telegraph Road repaving project in 2010.

"Everybody was hurting when they did Telegraph, but it just never got better around here with nothing else attracting people to this block," Lucas said.

She and her sister, Denise are now stylists at nearby . Lucas is trying to liquidate the 1,500-square-foot space and sell as much of the remaining equipment inside via Craigslist and other avenues. She said she heard the property owner is planning to tear down the building this summer.

"It's a real loss," Patch reader R. Gibson . He said he followed two of the other stylists to salon in West Bloomfield.

Lucas said she is available at Tarro on Monday through Thursday, and still takes walk-in clients, while Denise is there Friday and Saturday. Anyone interested in viewing materials and equipment from the closed Mr. Tony's can reach her at 248-642-3599.

The  off of Franklin Road on the township's north side also recently closed. Messages left with the California-based national chain were not returned Monday.