💇‍♀️ The Port Jeff Salon Giving Clients Their Hair Back

🦈 Shark Bite Sends Swimmer to the Hospital at Jones Beach

✉️ $4.8M Mail Theft Ring Busted Across Suffolk

🎨 Hamptons Fine Art Fair Returns to Southampton

You walk in and it's not what you expect from a hair salon. Sure, there are stylists at their stations doing color and cuts, the usual buzz of a busy Port Jeff Village shop. But tucked into this space is something you won't find at most salons on Long Island: a woman who has spent years mastering the art of giving people their hair back.

That's Kristine, and her story starts back in 2014, when she opened the salon solo. No partners, no backup, just her and a chair. Then in 2020 she signed a lease to expand into the current Port Jeff Village location. The timing could not have been worse. She signed right as COVID hit. But she pushed through it, and what was once a one-woman operation is now a full team, most of them stylists she trained herself from the ground up, straight out of school.

Kristine does it all: cuts, color, the full-service menu you'd expect. But her specialty is the thing that sets her apart from every other salon in the area. Hair replacement and extensions. It started because too many of her longtime clients were coming back from chemotherapy with their hair just starting to grow in, asking her what they could do. She didn't have a good answer at first, so she went and found one. Now she works with clients dealing with alopecia, postpartum hair loss, hormonal changes, anyone who has lost their hair and wants to feel like themselves again. She uses hairpieces, extensions, serums, caps, and treatments, building a plan around each person's budget, lifestyle, and maintenance needs. She's even looking into trichology training to go deeper.

The client base reflects it. Men and women, ages 20 to 50, all walking through the same door for very different reasons. That mix, plus a specialty most salons don't even offer, is exactly what makes this place worth a visit whether you need a fresh cut or something a lot more personal.

The salon has built its name the old fashioned way, strong Google reviews and word of mouth, plus a real presence in the community. Kristine's team has been part of Hamptons Fashion Week for six years running, worked backstage at runway shows on hair and makeup, and shown up for local schools around prom season. On July 13th, they're hosting a cut-a-thon, a donation-based cut and go event to help raise money for a friend's children who need hearing aids. It follows a blood drive they ran just a few weeks earlier. This is a shop that shows up.

If you want to see what they're about, check out their website https://www.fedoraloungehair.com/ for the full picture of services, or follow along on https://www.instagram.com/fedorasalon_portjeff/ and https://www.facebook.com/fedoralounge for updates on events like the upcoming cut-a-thon.

Here's to a local business that turned a personal mission into a specialty most people don't even know exists in their own backyard.

It happened fast, and right around lunchtime. A swimmer was bitten at Field 6 at Jones Beach State Park on Thursday, July 3, suffering an injury to the right foot in what officials believe was a shark encounter. The bite happened around noon, sending a jolt through a beach packed with holiday-weekend crowds.

Lifeguards cleared the water for about an hour while officials scanned for the shark. Nothing turned up, and swimming resumed once the all-clear was given. The injured swimmer was taken to Nassau University Medical Center; officials say the wound is not considered life-threatening.

This is exactly the kind of moment Nassau’s new shark patrol program — the drones and helicopters we told you about last month — was built for. One bite doesn’t mean the ocean’s off-limits, but it’s a good nudge to swim near a lifeguard stand and keep an eye out during the height of summer.

👉 Read more: News 12 Long Island

If a check you mailed recently never arrived, this might explain it. Suffolk County prosecutors say three men — two from the Bronx, one from Queens — spent weeks fishing checks and money orders out of USPS blue collection boxes across more than a dozen Suffolk communities, from Melville and Huntington Station down to Patchogue and Oakdale.

Their tool of choice was almost comically low-tech: a sticky glue trap taped to the end of a belt, fished down into the mail slot to pull letters back out. Investigators say the trio made off with more than 6,750 checks worth $4.8 million, and were caught trying to resell them on social media. Searches of their homes also turned up a loaded handgun and stacks of cash.

District Attorney Ray Tierney’s advice is simple: skip the blue collection boxes for anything with a check in it, and drop mail inside the post office instead, through the letter slot. The three defendants are due back in court later this month.

👉 Read more: Patch

The East End’s biggest art event of the summer is back. The Hamptons Fine Art Fair runs Thursday, July 9 through Sunday, July 12, at the Southampton Fairgrounds, with more than 140 galleries from over 20 countries showing work from 600-plus artists. Organizers expect north of 10,000 visitors over the four days.

This year’s theme leans into America’s 250th, with galleries showing pieces that riff on the flag, the Statue of Liberty, and American history broadly. There’s also a standout special exhibit, “The Trailblazers of Hamptons Abstraction,” spotlighting the artists who helped put the East End on the map for abstract art back in the 1950s.

The fairgrounds sit right on County Road 39, a few minutes from Southampton Village, so it’s an easy pairing with dinner or a stroll through the shops afterward. Tickets are available online if you haven’t already grabbed one.

👉 Read more: Dan’s Papers

Long Island Local Pulse is inviting local businesses and organizations to be featured in its growing community newsletter.

The platform highlights local news, events and community stories, providing businesses with an opportunity to reach a highly engaged local audience and showcase what they offer.

From restaurants and shops to services and community groups, all are encouraged to participate and share their story with readers across Long Island. Don’t own a business? That’s ok… Know of one that should be featured?

Those interested in being featured can reach out to learn more about available opportunities and upcoming editions. Click the button below to feature your business or send an email to [email protected] with your business details and we’ll reach out!