A business with its ups and downs

One-man operation fixing chairs for barber shops had its roots in Norwood

By Judith Forman, Globe Staff Correspondent, 12/2/2001

tephen Danovitch decided last year it was time to sell his Norwood business. He had fixed barber and beauty shop chairs for 20 years and figured someone would snap up his specialty business in an instant.

He was wrong. A newspaper ad in the fall did not produce a buyer. Danovitch, 63, said his ''ego was a little hurt.'' He didn't understand the lack of response.

''It's very simple,'' he said. ''It could be a gold mine. The stuff is not difficult. You don't have to be a brain surgeon.''

So, he picked himself up and moved on, eventually closing the doors of David Shwartz & Co. (he kept the name when he bought the business) in Norwood, and reopening in the basement of his Needham home. He shares his office space with the family's washing machine and dryer because rent in Norwood was too high.

These days, he's essentially a one-man operation, repairing dryers, hydraulic chairs, and heat lamps in salons and barber shops from Braintree to Brockton to Bridgewater. Danovitch, who bought the 65-year-old company from the founder's son in 1981, spends much of his time on the road, picking up and dropping off chairs and equipment across the region. He totes eight loaner chairs with him.

Danovitch returns to Needham in the afternoons, where he works on the chairs and dryers in his garage, sometimes staying out there until midnight. He also repairs dog kennel dryers on the side, but stays away from fixing hand-held salon dryers because ''there's no money in it.''

A typical barber chair repair runs $350, which is a good deal because a new chair can cost between $2,500 and $4,000. Salon chairs are cheaper, between $350 and $650 for a new one and about $175 for a repair.

He also does some chair reupholstery (mostly in vinyl because cowhides are too expensive) and has filed many of the ''before'' and ''after'' pictures in an album. Danovitch said he tries to dissuade a barber shop owner who wants a chair reupholstered in the same color.

''Nobody but him and I will know it's been changed,'' he said.

While customers may not notice his work, Danovitch said salon and barber shop owners rarely forget him.

He sends out postcards (''beautigrams''), so clients ''know I'm still alive.'' He recommends that dryers be overhauled - completely cleaned and taken apart - once a year.

''They call me, I don't call them,'' he said. ''They call me when they need me. That's the kind of relationships I have.''

Pasquale DeVito, owner of Quincy's DeVicci Salon, has known Danovitch for 11 years.

''He's the one who's pretty much reliable in this sense,'' DeVito said. ''It's a need. There's really no one else that does it.''

Without Danovitch, DeVito said, he would be forced to either go through the chair's distributor or approach a ''mainstream'' chair repair service.

Danovitch worked on the barber chairs featured in the long-running Boston production of ''Shear Madness'' and in shows at the city's Wang and Colonial theaters. The production company of last year's Jim Carrey movie ''Me, Myself & Irene'' bought a chair from Danovitch, who, until recently, bought and sold furniture from salons and barber shops that were closing.

Danovitch said he never planned to get into the barber and beauty shop repair business, but ''I was always good with my hands even as a little kid.''

With degrees in industrial and electrical engineering, he started out in the electronics industry. But, in the late 1970s, he joined up with David Shwartz & Co., a business owned by a family he knew while growing up in Newton.

''I saw the potential for the business years ago,'' he said.

Over the years, he has looked to hire help, but ''there's nobody around in the business.''

''When I retire, I'll be out of business,'' he said. ''That's the sad part about this whole thing.''

There is at least one other area man who tends to the same basics of beauty. Geoff Girouard of Kingston has been repairing barber shop and salon equipment for more than 10 years. Girouard's wife, Gina, used to own a salon in Duxbury, and he comes from a family of salon owners and barbers in England and Wales.

As for why there are so few in his field, Girouard said, ''It's not an industry people take credit for, they don't see it as a profession, they don't see it as being a job.''

In addition to repairing chairs, Girouard works as a contractor for Takara Belmont in Norwood, a manufacturer of salon and spa equipment. The company builds salons and beauty shops.

Danovitch said he wants to retire in two or three years, or at least scale back to a few odd jobs for some extra money. He and Brenda, his wife of almost 39 years, have two grandchildren who live in Walpole. Danovitch also spends his spare time working jigsaw puzzles and model boats.

And, while he's familiar with many of the area's salon chairs, Danovitch won't reveal where he sits to get his own hair cut. All he said is that he frequents a Needham beauty salon - and pays full price.

''Everybody thinks you get a free haircut,'' he said. ''I never operated like that. I always paid my own way.''

Judith Forman can be reached by e-mail at jforman@globe.com.

This story ran on page 11 of the Boston Globe's South Weekly section on 12/2/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.