Barber Vince Zumbo has been snipping locks at his Pitt Street salon for 50 years and reckons he still regularly sees about 200 customers that had first come to see him when he was starting out as an apprentice in January, 1964.
As you’d imagine, cheery Vince has become one popular bloke and says he values each and every customer he styles.
Vince says his Holroyd hair stop is, most of the time, a hub of conversation. “We talk about everything,” he told Western Sydney Business Access.
“We talk about football, racing cars, race horses, dog races – we talk about girls, we talk about whatever they want to talk about. We’re like a fishing net. News always comes first to the barber shop.”
The 65-year-old grandfather of three actually started his career as a barber in Sicily, Italy, as a seven-year-old.
It was around that tender age that he says fellow children had to nominate their career path.
“Of course, I chose from that time to be a barber,” Vince says, adding that he started out doing general chores for the grand sum of five cents a week.
Despite being a fully-qualified barber at the age of 15, he needed to complete his Australian apprenticeship after emigrating here in 1963. Vince took over the barber shop, Vince Hair Design, in 1985.
No matter how you slice or dice the facts, 50 years in one place, cutting hair for people who keep coming back, must mean they get a pretty top notch haircut.
“Well I suppose that’s what it’s been,” Vince says. “It could be the quality of the haircuts or the friendship I have with my clients, but probably both of them put together.”
"We have people from all over NSW – from Newcastle, Wollongong, Bathurst, Orange, Bowral and even Burleigh Heads.”
This month, Vince celebrated his career milestone by serving up food and drink to lucky customers and cutting a cake with Holroyd Mayor, Nasr Kafrouni.
Among his clientele is fellow Merrylands business owner Joe Rositano, of well-known retailer Rositano Furniture.
“I’ve been coming here for more than 40 years,” Joe says. "He’s a good friend, always gives good services and I’ll go wherever he is in Australia for a haircut.”
Vince says he’ll pass the business down to his 30-year-old son Ross, when he finally decides to retire. But don’t count on that being any time soon.
“I don’t think I’ll be here another 50 years, but maybe another four or five, at least."
