Nicolas Fernandes | The Jersey Journal

Salon St. John in Jersey City is celebrating its 50-year anniversary this year, and its longtime owner has been working there since just about the beginning.

Michael Ricciardone, 75, first showed an interest in cosmetology when he braided his mothers hair as a child in Italy. He moved to Jersey City in the late 1950's and enrolled at Wilfred Academy in Newark in 1964 when he was 24. One year later, he began working at the salon, just a week after it opened.

"This business has been good to me. I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have this," Ricciardone said recently from inside the Kennedy Boulevard salon.

Ricciardone bought the Journal Square business in 1973 after working there for nine years and currently lives in a house next door to the salon.

Some customers have been going to Ricciardone for their beauty needs for the entire 50 years, and most of the people working there are longtime employees.

"So we're like a family," Ricciardone said.

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