Cornell Barbershop

Last week I went to the local favorite Cornell Barbershop for the first time. In the past I had gone to Big Time Barbershop to get my hair cut, but since they were closed the day I was in town I decided to check out a different place. I was skeptical at first, having never seen the inside of the shop since customers have to enter by going down a flight of stairs. The barbershop was like a museum, holding relics from Cornell, Ithaca and Cortland among the rows of chairs, mirrors and bureaus filled with barber equipment. Football helmets from past Cortaca Jug games adorned the walls and a transistor radio played music from the local Ithaca radio station WVBR. Old maps of Ithaca showed the progression of the town to its current layout.

Matt, the owner of the shop, did not seem impressed by all of the mementos the shop had collected over the years, although some artifacts had been dated back three generations ago from when his grandfather started the business. It is one of the town’s few original barbershops in that they still use a straight razor and shaving cream to shave the back of the neck.

The barbershop still keeps its community charm, being a forum of discussion among Ithaca gentlemen. Topics of choice are usually sports, family life and, in my case, life as a college student. Being a customer there, you’re like a member of the larger Ithaca fraternal community.