10543 CITATION DR BRIGHTON, MI 48116 Get Directions
10543 CITATION DR BRIGHTON, MI 48116 Get Directions
Mr. Arbour has been in the beauty business since 1962. Born in Toronto, he went into the service during the Korean War, and was stationed in Germany. After the war, Mr. Arbour started as a milkman for a big dairy in the Detroit area. He owned his own route, but with Michigan's climate, delivering milk in the winter left him cold. He was looking for something new. With his family to support, it had to be something he could get into quickly. One day he stopped at a soda fountain on his milk route, and asked the woman behind the counter, "What line of business could I get into that wouldn't take five years to learn?" She said, "Why not beauty school?" So in 1959 he went to school.
He spoke with the owner of a beauty school on his milk route, and found he could do the program for $275, including his kit. His first customer had so much Aquanet on her hair that it had hardened, and he had to break it up before he could shampoo her hair. But he had already paid his tuition, and he decided to stay with it.
In November 1962, he opened his first salon in Detroit. Three years later, he bought a beauty college in Detroit, and then opened another salon. By 1973, his business had expanded to include three schools and a salon, located in Plymouth, Canton, and Taylor.
Owner
Mr. Arbour came to Brighton when the New Midwest Beauty College, which a friend had owned, went up for sale. Later, he bought the Brighton Institute of Cosmetology. Under Mr. Arbour's ownership, the Brighton Institute of Cosmetology merged with the New Midwest Beauty College in January 1998.
Mr. Arbour is still cutting and styling hair. He has just one customer - a Sterling Heights resident - but he's been doing her hair every six weeks for the last 35 years.
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