Fifty years ago, Gerald Ford was president, gas was 57 cents a gallon and the nation was getting ready for its Bicentennial Celebration.
Tony Tardi joined his father, Andrew, in 1975 at Andy’s Hair Design and 50 years later he’s still behind the chair.
“I was 21 when I started,” he said. “And I’ll be 71 on the 20th.”
Tardi and his wife, Dina, were at the salon at 1901 E. 31st St., reminiscing recently about the family business.
Andrew Tardi started the business in 1960 in a smaller place nearby. After it moved to its present location, his son Tony joined him.
Tony Tardi was born in Berwyn, grew up there and graduated from Morton West High School in 1972.
More Top Picks Best Winter Boots For Women
“When I graduated high school I did not go to college, I started working for my uncle who owned a chain of grocery stores with another partner,” he said. “They were called Frank’s Finer Foods and they were in the western suburbs.”
He attended Weeden’s Barber College on North Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago, an institution that was well-respected in its day, but closed long ago.
“I was doing men’s hair and then I went and took classes at Pivot Point, which is a beauty school, and that’s when I started doing more women’s hair,” he said. “Primarily now, I do a lot more women’s hair than men’s. I do a lot of hair coloring and highlights and lowlights.”
But Tardi still does his share of men’s heads.
“With my men, I do a lot of styling, but regular barbering too,” he said. “I don’t do shaves. We’re not even set up for it because you need a headrest and I haven’t done that for a while.”
As would be expected of someone in the business for a half century, Tardi has seen his share of stylistic changes.
“With women, we used to do a lot of permanent waves, but that’s not happening anymore,” he said. “More women are just getting colors. After COVID a lot of women — because they weren’t working anymore and they couldn’t get to the hair salon — they let their hair go gray. So that’s a big change.”
Men too, Tardi said, are not above hiding their gray with a little color.
“I still have a few men that I color their hair, but a lot of them don’t,” he said. “The biggest change is that back in the day, guys had longer hair and they had mullets. That’s not happening anymore.”
The Tardis have lived in La Grange Park for decades, their children went to school there, and they have a definite love for the area.
“It’s been a great community,” Tony said. “It’s been a very solid, family neighborhood with great parochial schools and great public schools.
Making the living situation even better, when they got married, Dina, a dental hygienist, was able to find work at a dentist’s office in town.
“When we got married, I said this is perfect,” Tony said. “We had been looking all over for homes in La Grange, Brookfield, Western Springs. We found this home in La Grange Park, it’s a nice raised ranch. We raised our kids here, they went to St. Louise (now Holy Guardian Angels in Brookfield).”
Their children are doing just fine; their daughter is a copywriter for Leo Burnett and their son is a chemical engineer.
Dina Tardi talked about their 41-year marriage, that included not only devoting so much time to their professions, but raising two children.
“Back in the day, when Tony first started, he would work from 8 in the morning until 9 at night,” she said. “Now he’s calming down a little bit, at 6 or 7 he comes home. They were late nights, long days, with the kids. But it was nice because we had the school, the church, the shop … everything was within three or four blocks. It’s a special little nook, the La Grange Park area. It’s a special area and it’s always been nice.”
Among the many locals that have patronized Andy’s is La Grange Park’s six-term village president, James Discipio.
“They’ve been in our community since I was a kid,” he said. “I remember getting my haircut from Tony’s dad, so he’s got a lot of longevity in La Grange Park, he serviced our community for 50 years and it’s such a privilege to have him carry on what his dad started.”
And Tardi will be carrying on his dad’s legacy for the near future.
“My clients ask me all the time, ‘you’re not going to retire, are you?’” he said. “But I’m telling you from my heart, I like what I do and I say this all the time. There’s 24 hours in the day. I’m here eight to 10 hours and I think it would be very difficult to fill those hours being retired.”
Retirement would not only end a family tradition, his shop where he works alongside his cousin Anthony Darrus and close family friend Michelle Delestowicz has become a longtime neighborhood gathering place.
Plus, if he stopped it would also put an end to traditions in other families as well.
“I’ve been doing people’s hair for all this time and I’ve done their children,” he said. “We’ve got men that we do their hair, their sons and then their grandsons.
More Top Picks Rowing Machines
“I just don’t know about retirement. I think I’d like to work a little bit more.”
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.