Profile

From the late seventies through the nineties, Joseph Cione was New York's go-to man for cuts and color. After sharpening his scissors skills at Bergdorf Goodman, Cione eventually became the master of his domain, creating a namesake five-salon chain whose chairs were always filled with the stars of the moment—Johnny Carson, Phil Donahue, the Beatles, and even Brooke Shields all adored Cione's no-nonsense, gush-free style. After 9/11, business softened, and eventually each of the locations was downsized; the last hurrah was the departure from the Time & Life building to settle into the current no-frills shop on the lower level of USB, where, Cione's son Junior maintains, the phone is still ringing off the hook. Big names from the time-is-money set stroll in, sometimes with an appointment, sometimes not: Fox 5 News anchors, Merrill Lynch execs, brunette bombshells, and silver-haired foxes crowd into the tight spot, not only for the washes, cuts, blowouts, and shaves they can easily get at the break of dawn, but for the respectable prices charged by a man who never let fame go to his head. — Chanize Thorpe