Hairdresser was Watertown poet's muse

Poet and Watertown resident Lawrence Kessenich traveled with his family to accept the award, which comes with a reward of €4,000.

"I've been writing poetry since I was in high school," said Kessenich, a freelance marketing writer and former editor at Houghton Mifflin. "But I felt like my writing career was derailed by the editing work I was doing. I only started to take it more seriously about 4 or 5 years ago. I've had chapbooks published, but I've never won a prize this great."

Kessenich considers Castaldini a friend of the family, and says he was inspired by her approach to both her work and her life.

"She has such a lovely, childlike openness to life," Kessenich said. "She puts the same kind of care into her art with hair that I put into my art with words."

Born in Grottaminarda, a village in the Campania region of Italy, Castaldini moved to the U.S. at the age of 14. Her uncle, a bricklayer, had already moved to Boston, and invited her father to bring his family to expand their business. Castaldini graduated from Boston High School in 1977 and immediately started cutting hair; by 1980, at the age of 21, she owned her own salon.

"I've always been very driven and ambitious. I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life," said Castaldini. "But at the same time, my roots are very important to me; for most of my life I've returned to Italy every year, and I feel like it's as much a part of my life as America is. I'm always telling stories about it."

Today, Castaldini's hairdressing studio, Salone di Bellezza in Nonantum, has become a popular location for residents of Newton and the surrounding towns who want a whole new look, a little off the top, or just a few stories of the old country. And few of Castaldini's clients have been more loyal than the Kessenichs.

"My wife, Janet, and I started going to Mena's (Filomena's) salon shortly after our wedding 29 years ago," Kessenich said. "We still go there. Even our kids have rarely ever gone to any other stylist. She does as good a job as any of those fancy salons in the Back Bay, if not better.

Last year, Kessenich came in for his regular haircut on a beautiful spring day; Castaldini said the birdsong reminded her of being a little girl and visiting her grandfather's farm. Kessenich said he always enjoyed hearing Castaldini's stories, but this one resonated with him specially.

"After my haircut I just started walking and putting the poem together in my head," Kessenich said. "When I went home, I had it almost written. All I had to do was type it up."

Three hours later, he was back in Salone di Bellezza, showing the poem to Castaldini.

"I cried when I read it. He got everything right. All the precious details of my childhood. It was really something," Castaldini said.

When Kessenich found out the poem had been selected as a finalist for the Strokestown prize, he and his wife showed up with flowers for Castaldini. She also attended the practice reading Kessenich held for friends before traveling to Ireland, and was one of the first people he called to share the good news after he won the prize.

"She said if there weren't clients in the salon with her, she would have started screaming into the phone," Kessenich said. "Even thinking about it now, I get teared up. She was so happy."

Kessenich has written other poems about Castaldini's stories, and says he plans to continue the tradition. One of them is due to be published in the Atlanta Review. Kessenich says he is still looking for a publisher for "Angelus," but it is available for free on the Strokestown website - or at Salone di Bellezza, where Castaldini says she is still giving out copies to clients.

"My grandfather, the other character in the poem, died three years ago," Castaldini said. "He loved art, and was a bit of a romantic, and a perfectionist too. I think I'm like him, that's why I keep telling stories about him. I've been doing it for 30 years, and I'll keep doing it as long as people keep coming to me to get their hair cut."

Sarah Thomas can be reached at sarah.m.thomas@gmail.com.