The spiraling red-white-and-blue-striped poles are throwbacks to another era, but inside area barber shops, it’s business, and busy, as usual.
“We bring people together, all with the use of a clipper,” said Khayyam Mahdi, who owns Global Cuts International World of Barber Styling in Amherst.
He greets each customer by name and many with a handshake or hug.
“The whole world comes together here,” Mahdi added.
Nearby, at Matt’s Barber Shop, soon-to-be college graduates snazzed up their look last week before upcoming commencement ceremonies.
D. Anthony Butterfield, a professor emeritus of management at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, had the same idea.
“I wanted to look presentable for UMass commencement so students wouldn’t be embarrassed by their shaggy-haired professor,” he said, entrusting Sandy’s Barber Shop in Amherst with the job.
But it isn’t just about the haircut.
Historically, barber shops have been hubs for conversation. Humor, small-town gossip, family news and politics are part of barber shop rapport.
“It’s not that five-minute haircut where you go in, they zip through your head and you walk out like ‘Oh my god,’ ” said Jim McDonald of Chicopee, of Nelson’s Barber Shop in Belchertown. “They listen to you here.”
Stacey Kelliher, a coworker at Sandy’s, enjoys those interactions.
“We like working with the everyday average person,” she said.