Going to Ricki’s

So much more than a haircut

Courtesy of WikiMedia Commons — The building where Ricki’s salon was for many years

Ricki was a tiny Japanese Buddhist woman who believed that cutting hair was a loving service she could provide and only charged $15 for any cut and never accepted tips.

You weren’t going to find her online or in the phone book (remember those? God, we’re old).

Someone who knew about Ricki’s had to tell you about Ricki’s and then you went down the hill from 116th and Broadway to the last building on the right just before Riverside Drive (pictured above) and then you had to find the buzzer by the three steps down to the lower level and then you had to select the one for Encore Salon.

You never knew who would be in the old 50’s style salon chairs when you walked in for your cut. Ricki had a devoted following that ranged from Upper West Side ladies who lunched, ancient dowagers intent on keeping the perfect tint, jocks from the university, whiz kids from the business school, and other assorted weirdos such as myself. My friend, Ann, who teaches at Columbia University told me about Ricki when I complimented her cut.

After that I never went anywhere else.

The Cuts

In addition to always getting a great cut and superb conversation at Ricki’s I never had to go through any crap trying to persuade her to cut it the way I…