Repeat Business

        IT will take more than a financial meltdown to keep Missy Wheaton away from her regular cut-and-color at Soto Salon here. Yes, unemployment is up and 401(k)’s are tanking, but at least things are looking good for her hair and her personal life.

“I’m getting married! In seven days!” she almost shouted as her hairdresser, Laura Battista, tended a sparkly forest of foil wrappers that stuck out in every direction from Ms. Wheaton’s platinum-streaked head.

Ms. Wheaton, 33, is furiously cutting back to pay for her wedding, but not on her regular $145 salon visits. “I can’t give up Laura,” said Ms. Wheaton, who lives in Patchogue. “I would never go anywhere else.”

Loyalty may help explain why on a Saturday morning in October, the darkest month on any hairdressers’ calendar (post-summer, pre-holiday), amid a deepening economic crisis, the salon was humming, all seats taken. Dozens of women bantered and laughed and fussed over one another. It was like a good party, with great hats.

The owner, Carl Morello, circulated, flirting and joshing. He has been collecting a following here for 33 years, the last 13 at Soto Salon, a free-standing storefront on Deer Park Avenue. He and his wife, Christine, built their payroll of 28 part-time workers from an initial staff of 5 employees.

He said he had not yet seen a drop in hairdressing, although sales of hair-care products — about 9 percent of his business — were off 20 percent.

That tracks with the nationwide industry, said Brad Masterson, spokesman for the Professional Beauty Association, based in Scottsdale, Ariz. He said the salon business is “relatively recession proof, although people may be waiting a little longer to get their hair done.”

Sue Osani, 61, has been going to Mr. Morello for 29 years. She returns every two weeks for a hairline color touch-up, $24. “You grab a cup of coffee, catch up with people — it’s like socializing,” she said. “If I had to prioritize on spending, I would never give up my hair.”

Mr. Morello combed wet hair back from Myrna Kahane’s face. There for her weekly blow-out, Ms. Kahane, 70, has followed Mr. Morello for 20 years. Before giving him up, she said, she would give up eating.

Mr. Morello has a theory about all this: “When the economy is going to hell, you don’t want to walk by a mirror and notice that you are, too.”