I saw a story in the most recent ‘Gotham’ Magazine (with John Malkovich on the cover) about a new barber shop in The Village/SoHo area in Manhattan. I cannot recall the name off-hand, but the goal was to replicate a 1940s (or earlier) barber shop – with vintage, but refinished or new chairs – and more.
As I looked at this photo of these chairs and the shop, I couldn’t help but wonder how much they might charge for a cut at this place. Whereas, Joe’s Barber Shop on 88th Street and 3rd Avenue has all of these touches. When I get my hair cut there, and I have gone there for 11 years, my favorite part is when Joe (or any of the others) pull out their straight razor. Maybe it’s a. Morbid fascination with ‘Sweeney Todd’ since I was a child, but I love feeling that razor scrape those short hairs off my neck.
The haircut itself is always fabulous. So much so, that when I was shooting a film in Allentown, PA in a barber shop there, the proprietor there could not stop raving about Joe’s ‘Italian Fade’ on the back of my neck. So, as I considered the downtown parlor, I also considered the price tag. Hard to imagine you can go wrong with spending $9!
Beat that, Downtown!