3 New Black Owned Businesses Added To ALBB's Business Directory During Black History Month

Because it’s Black History Month every day, A Little Beacon Blog has added 3 new Black Owned Businesses to our Business Directory! Max’s Beacon Fade and Shave across from Key Food; the hyper to detail auto detailing service Speechless New York; and the paint event destination Zhane’s Palette currently mobile and in the Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory.

For a good dose of entrepreneurial history, read out the building featured in our Black Owned Businesses logo Perry Cross for Hyacinth Marketing Group . Enjoy!

Beacon Fade & Shave Barbershop

Owned by Max, this barbershop across from Keyfood is friendly for walk-ins for a fade or haircut for kids and adults. You may see Max’s young family in there with him as locals line the chairs, waiting their turn. Notice the art on the walls, as is part of Max’s collection. If you play the guitar, you may feel inclined to strum one in the corner.

Zhane’s Palette

“Join us as we continue to Celebrate everything with PAINT virtually and on location. We happily host Birthday Parties for (All Ages), Date Night, Girls Night, Company Events, Social Organizations, Sorority Events, Fundraisers or a private session just for YOU. At Zhane's Palette, its always your ART, your PARTY & your FUN!”

Speechless New York

“Speechless New York is a locally owned and operated business located in Dutchess County, NY. Like most entrepreneurs, they offer many things! Mainly, they are know the most for their impecable car detailing. With over 20 years in the business, working directly with the largest names in the auto industry. Our work is well known to many of the locals. We offer Auto Detailing & Restoration packages to fit ALL budgets.”

Alvin Bell Sr. Turns 85 - Awarded "Unofficial Mayor Of The City Of Beacon" For Service To Beaconites

Alvin and Shirley Bell opened their salon after Mr. Bell’s job as a pressman disappeared when the Nabisco factory closed. That factory is now the Dia: Beacon.

If you need a dose of inspiration to continue, and to follow your own path, here is the story of Alvin and Shirley Bell to inspire you. We have written about Alvin before, but here’s a recap to remind you: Mr. Bell moved to Beacon from Virginia in search of a job, and found one at Beacon Piece Dye, and then moved on to be a pressman at the Nabisco factory (now the Dia: Beacon art museum). According to his interview in the Highlands Current: “I don’t want to brag, but I worked my way up to become the top pressman. I made $15 an hour and later with overtime as much as $40,000 a year. When Nabisco closed, I opened my barber shop.”

When that Nabisco job was downsized, Mr. Bell was 54. His wife Shirley was doing hair, and he himself actually wanted to open a salon. As a youngster in Virginia, Alvin cut the hair of his friends and family, as he revealed in the Highlands Current article, when he wasn’t tending the tobacco fields with his family. “It was like a miracle; cutting hair just came back to me.” Mr. Bell opened Main Street Beauty Salon on Main Street, and has been operating his unisex barbershop for 30 years, with different barbers and stylists operating from it with him.

Love Your Work; Work Your Love

Loving your work makes a difference. As he stated in the article: “Tobacco was backbreaking but there’s nothing hard about being a barber. People are good. It’s one of the best trades in the whole world… I have as many white customers as I do black customers. Men and women. People know my work; I’m good. I even do traditional hot towel, straight razor shaves. My hands are still smooth.

“I’m also a very spiritual person; I’m a deacon at Springfield Baptist Church. A lot of brothers and sisters come here and we get right into Scriptures and the Bible. And we talk politics and baseball. I’m a Mets fan.”

Mr. Bell Honored By Beacon’s Mayor Randy Casale

Upon turning 85, Mr. Bell was honored by Beacon’s Mayor, Randy Casale, with a Certificate of Recognition as the Unofficial Mayor of The City of Beacon. Said the Mayor in a letter:

“I would like to wish you a very happy 85th birthday! For 85 years you have been the unofficial Mayor of the City of Beacon. Your barber shop has served Beacon residents in an exemplary fashion for nearly three decades. This community is grateful to have such a friendly and helpful role model. As a good friend of Pete Seeger, I know you have a good heart. Your children and those around you are blessed to learn from you every day. Thank you for all that you have done and continue to do for the City of Beacon.”

One of Mr. Bell’s clients opened his own shop in Beacon as well. To read more about Mr. Bell, see our article here.

Abscission Barber Shop Moves Across The Creek - Near Dogwood

The new storefront of Abscission Barber Shop, at 25 East Main Street.
Photo Credit: Chris Fontakis

Scoops come from everywhere. One evening in March 2019, while at an Open House for an elementary school, a parent approached me with a hot tip: “Hey - I got some scoop for you! Abscission has moved!” This indeed was a hot tip because Abscission, located on Beacon’s east end near the mountain, has been a trusted barbershop in Beacon for a long time.

Justin sits in Alvin Bell’s chair on Main Street in Beacon. Justin has since opened his own shop, Abscission, which just relocated to the mountain side of town.
Photo: Beacon Free Press, Don Worthy

A young man named Justin opened up shop on the east end of town. He used to get his own hair cut by Mr. Bell, whose barber shop is an anchor point on the other end of town near BJ’s Soul Food. In fact, Mr. Bell and Justin were featured in the Beacon Free Press in 2001 for a story on Mr. Bell’s endurance when he created a new career as a barber. Now Justin has his own shop, and endurance of both barbers in Beacon is strong.

Abscission was on a corner lot on Main Street, and is now across the street from Mr. Mozz, that storefront near Dogwood that you might always wonder about (we’re going to do an article on it!). Abscission is now located in the strip of shops that is down the block from Dogwood and next to the laundromat and Artifact Beacon.

What’s in the name, Abscission? Says owner Justin: “I opened up the dictionary looking for shop names and it was the first thing I came across and thought it was meant to be.”

Justin hard at work, clipping hair in his new digs.
Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth Martin