A well-known family salon at Hurstville that changed the history of trading hours for hairdressers, has closed its doors after 40 years.
Pellegrino Hairdressing on 334 Forest Road had its last day of trading on February 13. It was the suburb's and surrounding area's longest running hairdresser, opening in 1984.
Run by husband and wife Sam and Mary Pellegrino, the salon made national news in 1986, after Sam defied work orders by continuing to operate past 1pm on one Saturday afternoon. It resulted in a case that set the precedent to enable hairdressers and bakers to continue operating past this time.
At the time, Sam was on the front page of this masthead and other national newspapers, and was interviewed by Mike Willisee on A Current Affair. Since then, the support for the family salon has been overwhelming, Mary said, with clients continuing to travel from as far as the Blue Mountains, Bowral and Bundanoon, to get their hair cut or coloured.
"When the trading laws changed, we had to employ more people because we had so much support. It was simply because my husband felt the law was wrong and unfair," she said. "But we never knew it would get so big. We didn't do it for the publicity. We turned up for work one morning and all the TV stations were lined up in front of the salon waiting to speak with us. People stuck with us since then."
A salon that catered for everyone from babies to 100-year-olds, Pellegrino has seen three generations of families walk through their doors. "Our clients are like family," Mary said. "There's a lot of joking and fun. I know people will understand when I say 'thank you for putting up with my husband'. One lady was walking out of the salon saying goodbye when she turned around and said to Sam, 'please just call me a bitch one last time.' That's the kind of salon we had - a lot of banter."
The Italian couple raised their two children, "basically in the salon", Mary said. "They were practically born here," she said. " I was in labour and my doctor was a client of mine and she had to ring Sam to say the baby was coming and he said 'I've just got to finish this hair', before he bolted down to Hurstville Community Hospital. We had a bassinet and playpen in the salon."
Mary has been having chemotherapy for cancer in the past year, and says it's time to focus on her health. "My husband has been running the salon by himself and it's taken a toll on the whole family," she said. "It's time to close the doors and start a new chapter in our lives. But it will be really sad to walk away from a really good business. We haven't killed each other in 40 years and we've worked together every day."
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