Roots run deep at Dean’s Beauty Salon and Barber Shop. It’s the kind of place where “new” clients have been going there for a dozen years. Where “family” isn’t just blood relatives, but several generations of friends and neighbors—and their friends and neighbors.

Dean’s is Portland’s longest-running, continuously Black-owned business. Kim Brown is the third generation of her family to own and operate Dean’s Salon and Barber Shop. Brown’s grandparents, Benjamin and Mary Rose Dean, opened the shop in 1956 on Northeast Hancock Street. “It’s a very personal job,” Brown said. “There are some families that have been coming in the shop as long as I’ve been alive.” 

As steadfast as Dean’s is, unfortunately some things do have to change. The salon recently raised its prices slightly to help absorb rising costs from inflation. Brown was looking for ways to save and found one through Energy Trust.  

The salon swapped its outdated fluorescent tube lights for energy-efficient LEDs, a change that will shave an estimated $200 a year off its energy bills. Brown qualified for the free upgrade through Energy Trust’s no-cost lighting offer for small businesses.