When Arthur Nektalov took a break from doing hair at Brookdale Battery Park City, some residents of the senior living community in downtown Manhattan revolted. Nektalov, who’d been working there part-time for about five years, had decided to pivot and focus on his own salon, just two blocks away. The Brookdale staff brought in a new company to do the residents’ hair, but as Nektalov puts it, “they didn’t like it.” Instead of adjusting to the new in-house stylists, those loyal Brookdale clients—most in their 80s and 90s—started trekking up Greenwich Street to see him, even “in the wintertime, [with] rain and snow.”
Two years later, Nektalov closed his salon and returned to being Brookdale’s full-time, in-house stylist. He’s been there for a total of 18 years, offering blowouts, haircuts,…
