By Phil Perry
Times Staff
1/21/10
Chrissy Iannacone wasn’t always so sure she wanted to run her own salon. At 17, she took a low-paying job working at Casa Blanca in Boston to get her start in the business of making people look glamorous. She ended up scrubbing the floors with a toothbrush. “I told myself, ‘Is this really what I want to be doing?’” she said as she stood at the spotless reception desk inside Salon Matteo, the new hair salon in East Milton Square. “But I’ve always loved hair. I can remember sitting at church and staring at the backs of people’s heads, wondering what I could do for them. In that way, it’s almost like an art for me.” Iannacone’s path to owning Salon Matteo, located at 556A Adams St., has taken her from assistant jobs in Boston and Hyde Park to stylist jobs in Lower Mills and Quincy to owning Salon Matteo at its original location on Route 18 in South Weymouth. The Milton High School graduate, who spent her teenage days hanging out at the old Java Jo’s, moved her salon and has been open for business since Dec. 10 next door to the coffee shop’s old spot.
“The Square has changed so much,” Iannacone said. “Now you can get something to eat, you can do some shopping, you can get your hair done. You don’t have to go into Boston to get this anymore.”
As business picks up, Iannacone and her stylists – Rachel Lovendale and fellow Milton High grad Cordae Jones – would like the salon to be open seven days a week. It’s now open Tuesday through Saturday, with evening appointments available.
“How nice is this?” said Evelyn Mayhew, one of Iannacone’s longtime customers who have followed her from salon to salon. “They’ve really brought Newbury Street to Milton.”
From the start, landing Iannacone her own salon in Milton has been a family affair. Her husband Steve was the first to notice the “For Rent” sign in the window of the building as he drove to work from their home in Marshfield to Quincy.
She already owned a salon in South Weymouth named after her 7-year-old son, Nico Matteo Iannacone – she also has a 4-year-old son, Christiano Milan Iannacone – but she craved a spot in Milton.
Two years later, after many phone calls and plenty of persistence, she was moving into the Adams Street space. Her father, John Connors, would handle all the carpentry. Her brother put in the hardwood floors. Not long after that, her sister, an interior decorator, was sizing up the walls for the finishing touches.
Iannacone’s great grandfather, Rosario Spatola, was a barber by trade with a shop in Roxbury. Three generations, a half-dozen job stops and at least one grimy toothbrush later, Iannacone is right where she wants to be.
“Everyone’s been so welcoming,” said Iannacone, who waved to passers-by outside her window while she spoke. “This is so different than anywhere I’ve been because there is such a strong sense of community here. This is my dream to end up here, where I’m from. It’s like I’m coming full circle.”
(Salon Matteo is open by appointment Tuesday through Saturday. Call (617) 696-9799.)