Gio Gutierrez

Barbershop

// Monday, July 6th, 2009 01:18 pm GMT -5 // Personal

So I decided to visit an old school, cuban barber shop in Little Havana. Not sure what came over me… sometimes I just want to see the heritage from which I come from. Imagining what my father would be like if he was alive today. Needless to say, it was definitely an experience worth writing about (if anything, so future Gio can read it and maybe go back if this place is still around). Welcome to Escobar Barbershop on 8 Street and 5th Avenue.

As you walk in, you can’t help  but feel like you’re in another era. 1950′s checkered floor covered in white puffs of hair. 12 inch tv playing the Marlins game at the loudest volume it can produce. I was surrounded with 7 other men, all over 50. I thought this would take a while but everyone there was just hanging out – seeing that only 1 out of 3 transforming chairs was being used. All these men sporting a panza just talked and cussed at each other with no where to go, no place to run to. They just reminisced of old Cuba, Obama being a communist, difference species of roosters (who adorned the walls next to portraits of hair models) and hablando mierda about every person that left the establishment.

One employee with dark tinted hair was sitting there having a siesta until another clientele walked in and without an instruction, just started to cut the gentleman’s hair. As if he knew (or did he?) what style he desired. My hair dresser, (if they’re called that) gave me a nice cut, shaved my face, trimmed my nose hairs, and splashed perfume de violeta on my face for a measly $14 compared to the $35 haircut you get in a “salon”. The trip back-in-time alone was worth the price of admission.

I wonder what they said about me as I left…? I’m sure I’ll never read it online at some random person’s blog.