Meet Your Neighbor: Sal Izzo

By: Community Magazine | July 7, 2020 |  Meet Your Neighbor |  Shrewsbury

AUTHOR: Tom Zapcic | PHOTO CREDIT: John Vitollo

Sal Izzo Jr. of Shrewsbury is retiring after 68 years in the hairstyling business.

Yes, you read that correctly, 68 years! Cutting hair and creating friendships have been central to Sal’s business, a long-standing community brand with deep multi-generational roots. I had the honor of receiving Sal’s last haircut and learned so much about his family’s legacy. His father, Sal Izzo Sr., gave me my first haircut in 1962. Here’s their amazing story of styling through the decades from my interview with Sal Izzo Jr.
 

CREDIT: John Vitollo

Tom Zapcic (TZ): When did your father start his first shop?
Sal Izzo (SI): Red Bank, 1927

TZ: How old were you when you started working for him?
SI: I was eight years old when I started shining shoes. When I was 15, my father asked if I thought I could cut hair. I cut my younger brother’s hair. He said I did a good job and the rest is history. I am the sixth generation of Izzo barbers with roots going back to Italy. My granddaughter, Paige, is the seventh generation!

TZ: When did you start as a full-time barber?
SI: I graduated from high school in 1952 and started the next day working for my father full time. He taught me many of the techniques I still use today. I opened my first shop on April 1, 1963 in Middletown with my brother Anthony.

TZ: What is your proudest achievement in business?
SI: Being named in the Who’s Who in Men’s Hairstyling in 1970 after winning second place in Hairstyling for the State of New Jersey in 1968. Also, cutting a client’s hair until he was 104 years old.

TZ: What was your biggest challenge?
SI: There was no hairstyling for men in Monmouth County in 1963. We were the first to introduce it. We heard someone in Patterson was doing it and we went to him and to NYC for training. It was not easy at first. Men resisted the change. We held classes at Red Bank High School and once the mothers saw their sons with new haircuts, they started sending their husbands. The phone rang off the hook! There was also no hairspray for men. One of our clients was a chemist and made the product for us that we used.
 

PHOTO: Sal Izzo’s last haircut | CREDIT: John Vitollo

TZ: What has changed with cutting hair through the years?
SI: Many stylists only use clippers. I still use scissors as a way to get a better cut and layering for my clients.

TZ: What has been your philosophy in business?
SI: My motto has always been to treat people with respect. As a result, clients are more like good friends than customers

TZ: What would you like to say to CM readers as you retire?
SI: I want to thank all my clients who followed me throughout the years, especially the ones who were eight and nine years old when I started cutting their hair and who are now 76 and 77. They never went anywhere else for a haircut and for that I’m grateful.