Profits & passions: Shin Tsudome

Westchester County Business Journal, Jun 28, 2004 by Procopiou, Christina Kosta

For 20 years, Shin Tsudome has been serving customers with precision hair cutting based on a customer's individual style and personal lifestyle needs at Salon Shin in Manhattan.

Seven years ago, he opened a second location in Scarsdale to serve clientele closer to home in Westchester. While each customer's hair needs are different, one unique feature distinguishes the Salon Shin approach. Each customer receives a shiatsu shampoo and shoulder massage before their haircut to help them relax. Shiatsu, based on pressure points and emphasizing the flow of energy, is from Tsudome's native Japan.

"All of our clients deserve to be relaxed during their hair-cutting experience at Salon Shin," says Tsudome. "We start with the massage as a way to help them enjoy their time with us."

For Tsudome, who personally cuts and styles the hair of 15 customers daily in 30-minute increments, finding time to relax outside of work is critical. Dividing his time between Manhattan and Scarsdale and balancing it with family time with his wife and two young daughters keeps Shin on-the-go. About the time he started the Scarsdale salon, Tsudome moved to Hastings-on-Hudson from Manhattan and found something that like hair styling will be with him his whole life.

"When we moved to Westchester, I joined a gym. I got bored very quickly," Tsudome says. "Not long after, my friend introduced me to tennis and I really loved it. Now, I am hooked."

From May to July, Shin now plays for a USTA (United States Tennis Association) league of the Hudson Valley Tennis Club in Hastings that allows him to focus on the sport every Thursday evening in a tennis match or game. Matches take place at different locations each week.

Tsudome, who generally sets aside two evenings per week to practice, says tennis helps him to relax. He had a partner in the salon business but now that he no longer does must juggle both the business and creative sides of the salon. Tennis, he admits, keeps him balanced.

"It is my outlet. Every Thursday for two hours I do nothing but concentrate on tennis, on just hitting the ball and improving my game. I work in Manhattan on Thursdays but I make my schedule so that I can leave in time to make it to tennis," Shin says.

Shin modestly says he is not that great yet, but after 5 1/2 years he plays at a 4.5 ability level designated by the USTA under its NTRP rating system. The system begins at 1.5 for players that have limited experience and are working primarily at getting the ball in play and concludes with the 7.0 ability level of world-class players.

"It is important to be as in shape mentally as you are physically to perform well at this game," says Tsudome. "Your opponent can beat you not because he is physically better but because he is mentally strong."

Before he adopted tennis as his primary athletic activity, Tsudome says he ran and went to the gym. Today, at 48, he says he is more active than ever, going to the gym twice a week and to the tennis courts three times weekly.

Shin says he plays tennis year-round and twice a year goes to a tennis camp in Saugerties. The camp requires 6 hours of practice a day.

He says his teacher advises him to focus on nothing other than the tennis ball while at play. Shin tries to do that and just might keep his eye on the ball forever. "I think I have found something that will be with me forever. I can handle two salons because I have tennis. I am able to manage the artistic side. and the business side and the stress that can bring because of the balance tennis brings me."