Displaced by Swampscott fire, hair stylist finds new home in Marblehead

MARBLEHEAD – After 39 years as a hair stylist, Allen Howe was thinking more about ending than restarting his career.Plus, he was happy at Raina’s Hair Color Cafe near the beach in Swampscott.Then the salon burned in the March 1 fire on Humphrey Street.”Over the past year I was getting a lot of repeat business and requests, I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” Howe said. “And boom, this happened.”Howe said that he didn’t hear about the fire until the next morning when he was about to leave for work.”I was told by Raina because I was supposed to go to work that day,” Howe recalled. “She said, ?Are you sitting down?’ and I said, ?Should I be?'”In shock, he went to visit the site.”At first I thought it was minor, I just couldn’t imagine,” he said. “I went down and it was still burning. My jaw just dropped.”Howe said he felt at a loss. He doesn’t drive and he couldn’t easily commute by bus from his home in Lynn to Raina’s other salon in Revere.Plus, he said, it takes about two years to get established at a salon.”And I’m no young chicken,” Howe said. “I’m 62.”But the community once again came to the rescue. Marcie Gingle and her husband Eddie, the owners of Wind N Waves Salon in Marblehead, called Raina to offer a chair to any of their stylists.”It’s all about helping? and he lost everything? his scissors, all his equipment,” said Eddie Gingle.Howe began on Wednesday.”I’ll be glad to get back to work, but nervous too, to be starting all over again,” Howe said. “I have to rebuild clientele all over again because all client information was in the computer and it went down with the building.” Plus, Howe said, “there’s a salon on every corner” now in Marblehead and Swampscott. Nevertheless, he’s optimistic.”I need to rebuild the clientele and get them in the chair to win their confidence with how good I am,” he said.