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Greenwich Village Barber Shop Helped Shape Decades of Hairstyles

By DNAinfo Staff on January 19, 2011 8:01am  | Updated on January 19, 2011 5:05pm

By Jordan Heller

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

GREENWICH VILLAGE — John Vezza's grandfather started Astor Place Hairstylist back in the 1940s as "just a cut and shave guy, two bits."

But the family-run barber shop located downstairs at 2 Astor Place has survived to see a time when other Greenwich Village salons charge an average of $100 for haircuts — and most of the time, that only covers the cut, not the shave.

"We're only 15 bucks," Vezza said, "In the '80s we were eight bucks. So in 25 years we've only doubled our price."

Vezza, 50, runs the shop with his brother Paul, 54, and their father, Enrico Vezza, Jr. They've expanded from four or five barbers in the 1940s to more than 60 stylists now, and in the mid-1980s, they expanded into the downstairs space to get more room.

Other than that, the Vezza brothers say the general attitude and the decor hasn't changed much, but they say their shop is no relic. When it comes to hairstyling, they insist they're innovators.

"In the 1970s we started doing the spiky gel cut," Paul said. "We were the first ones."

They evolved through the eras of punk, disco, and early-80s rap, when "we started doing the lines in the head, spirals, question marks," Paul said.

Now, said John, their openness to different hairstyles continues, earning them the loyalty of locals.

"We're known as a place where you can get anything you want, even team logos," John said, "I'm sure we'll be doing some Jets logos now."

The Vezza brothers credit their continued success with their ability to pair up the right stylist with each customer.

"It's not rocket science, but there is something to it," Paul said.

Some people are fussy and require a good listener with patience. Others just want to be in and out and want someone quick, he said.

Paul said that on any given day, he gets an array of customer requests for specific stylists including "a woman, a guy, a gay guy, a Dominican girl."

"Dominican girls do great blow dries," he explained, "because they have thick hair themselves, they know how to work with thick hair."

When asked to explain why customers might ask for a gay hairdresser, Paul said, "Look, it makes no sense to me at all. We just give them what they want."

And though they offer a wide variety of services — including blow-outs, color, perms, relaxers, braiding, hair designs and even a hot towel shave — sometime the customer couldn't care less about the skill.

"We have a stunning young Russian girl — a model type," said Paul. "She basically just does women, but guys'll come in and don't care if they walk out with holes in their head — they want to sit in her chair."

Stylist Worrell St. Ang, 56, who hails from St. Lucia and goes by the name "Speedy," calls himself Astor Place Hairstylists' go-to guy for African-American hairstyles.

"I do specialize in black hair," Speedy said. "But since working here, I extended my game. I've mastered white hair now, too."

Speedy said he's learned a lot more at the shop than how to cut different kinds of hair, adding he's also learned how to speak Russian, and then recited a few lines in his thick Caribbean accent.

On Monday evening, after getting a cut ahead of a job interview he had scheduled for the following day, Louis Governara, 37, of New Jersey, felt compelled to tell the Vezza brothers about his uncle, who moved from the Lower East Side to Florida 25 years years ago.

"He was visiting not too long ago and said, 'I need a haircut. I used to go to the Astor barber when I lived here,'" said Governara. "And what do you know, you guys are still here."

"Sally Boy," who's worked at Astor Place as a hairstylist for 20 years, said it's one of the only places where cost and quality don't necessarily go hand in hand.

"You go someplace else, you pay 50 bucks, you get butchered," he said. "They come back here, they pay less, they get a good haircut."