Friday Feature..Barbiere

It is only right that I start a Friday Feature with the local Barbiere!! He has been cutting and shampooing heads and shaving faces way back in the 1950's. He started apprenticing in a local shop when he was 12 years old. Of course he was only allowed to put the shaving cream on faces for the first couple years. Before emigrating to the USA in 1963 he was owner of his own shop and had 4 young fellas working for him. Fast forward 29 years and the barber/barbiere is back in his old shop, in the town where he first started. Some things have changed. The barber is equipped with electric clippers and that was new for lots of the men even in 1992. They wanted scissors and only scissors. What were these clippers anyway??? They are used to them now and clippers are not unusual any longer in most shops.
Business is different in Italy than in the USA. One difference is the men are shorter so the barber's arms don't ache so much. Men tend to get more shaves here than in the USA. The Barber Shop also becomes a hang out in the winter time. Men tend to stand in the streets waiting for noon time to roll around and when the weather is bad the chop is warm and dry.

This shop has a wall for photos of young boys who are good in the barber chair. This really works. One boy told his younger brother that they would take his picture down if he did not sit still. Kids and adults have a choice of "calcio" team colored drapes. Most like yellow and red which are the colors of Messina's team. Others like the blue and black of Inter or the red and black of Milan. You have to be very alert with these choices as the barber will try to slip the black and white drape which are the colors of Juventus!