salão Melita

lUisa

in the old city center of Porto, i found this hairdresser to make me a 'pedicure'. the 'salão' is inside her house on the second floor of an old building, and to publisize it there is a sign with something like 50 years old attached to the front wall. she retired years ago but still does some hairdressing on a dozen of old customers that remained loyal. her husband died 4 years ago an since then she is on 'tablets'. her assistant, a few years younger lives in the same house and for 40 years already. she was kind of adopted by the owner, and came when she was on her twenties from her village in the north of Portugal, near the border. she was the one serving me, and during her devoted work she never stopped calling me 'amorzinho' and 'meu coraçaozinho' and kept asking 'é assim que gosta, querida?'. they were both very surprised to see a new customer, and although it was dinner time, they still let me in. the room looks very 'retro' as well, i guess it has never been modernized. a rarity.