Barber Frank Mazza is eying retirement in the not-too-distant future, and is no longer seeking new clients. This is bad news for men who want “scissors cuts” – an elusive service in the Lehigh Valley and nationwide.Mazza took over the barbershop founded by his father in 1920 and has run it successfully – first in downtown Easton, now in Palmer Township – for decades. In addition to cutting men’s and women’s hair, he fits clients with custom hairpieces and maintains them.

Christie Smith owns and operates her own salon on South Whitfield Street in Nazareth, where she cuts and styles men’s and women’s hair. Smith is a licensed cosmetologist whose services include scissors cuts. After her vocational training at what is now the Career Institute of Technology, she worked for 14 years at the Main Event (a predecessor to Holiday Hair Fashions) at the Palmer Mall, and has been her own boss for the past 21 years.

Smith’s and Mazza’s skills at providing scissors cuts – haircuts with shears, rather than electric clippers – make them sought-after stylists. Both also have the old-school dedication to the craft of hair-cutting that can be a challenge to find these days. Mazza remarks, for example, that many stylists will wash a client’s hair first, without looking at it to see the way it naturally lies and where pitfalls might occur. “They don’t even talk to the customer first,” he laments.

Smith found that after initially accepting walk-ins at her own salon, she quickly became so busy that she was able to run her business as appointment-only. Even when she worked at the mall salon, the waiting list of customers who requested her by name was so long that she often didn’t have time to eat lunch. “People who requested me could be waiting for hours, so I would have felt terrible if I had stopped to eat,” she recalls.

Very few barbers in Pennsylvania

Mazza credits his years of experience with his ability to provide clients with what they want.

“If you know your trade,” he asserts, “you can handle anything.” The problem is that a fairly low number of individuals in Pennsylvania know the trade.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the 2023 median annual pay for barbers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists as $35,080. Just fewer than 650,000 people worked in the industry in 2023.

However, the vast majority of these individuals will be hairdressers, hairstylists or cosmetologists; only 78,400 of that number were barbers in 2023. Just 880 of these barbers plied their trade in Pennsylvania.

Going beyond the cosmetology curriculum at BAVTS

All states require barbers and cosmetologists to be licensed, a process that generally includes graduation from a state-approved program and passing a state exam. Lehigh Valley high school students whose districts participate in the Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School or in the Career Institute of Technology can pursue a cosmetology license; neither school currently teaches a barbering course.

Bethlehem Area SD, Northampton Area SD and Saucon Valley SD participate in BAVTS; Bangor Area SD, Easton Area SD, Nazareth Area SD, Pen Argyl Area SD and Wilson Area SD participate in CIT.

BAVTS instructor AimeeJo Muth currently teaches a near-full morning class of 24 students and a full afternoon class of 25 students. BAVTS also offers an adult education class in cosmetology, although it is not being taught this semester.

Muth brings decades of industry experience to her role, as well as continuing to learn from fellow professionals at the semiannual Occupational Advisory Committee meetings that she hosts. OAC members tell Muth “what they’re noticing in industry, what new hairstylists are lacking, and what they need work on,” and she incorporates this feedback into her teaching.

BAVTS cosmetology students benefit from Muth’s professional experience. For example, although barbering is not in the state-required cosmetology curriculum, she explains, “That was a big moneymaker for me, which I am very quick to tell my students.”

She notes, “Male clients are very loyal, and they will come back every two to three weeks. That will be a solid paycheck.” Muth is skilled in both scissors cuts and clipper cuts for men’s hair.

After 300 hours of instruction, cosmetology students are permitted to provide services to the public, under an instructor’s supervision. BAVTS accepts appointments for cosmetology services on Thursdays and Fridays, beginning at 11:45 a.m. Both Muth and a licensed instructor assistant are out on the floor with students on these days; the prices include materials only, and are therefore quite low — haircuts are only $7, for example.

“Those are my favorite days,” Muth says, “because it feels like I’m back out on the floor again.” She still maintains a small client book as a cosmetologist, and is also an enthusiastic instructor: “I really love getting to teach these kids, and watching the light switch go on!”

Lehigh Valley Barber & Beauty Academy growing

Barbering currently has a higher bar for licensure than cosmetology. Pennsylvania licensing regulations only require a computer-based exam for cosmetology, but require both a computer-based and a practical exam for barbering. Both licenses require 1,250 hours of instruction before an individual is eligible to take the licensing exam.

Lehigh Valley Barber & Beauty Academy has locations in Bethlehem and Philadelphia, as well as a new branch in Allentown. Tyrone Golson, an instructor and manager, gave us the details on barbering instruction at LVBBA.

The academy is an accredited institution, so students who qualify can receive financial aid. Golson’s oldest barbering student was 70 when she earned her license; his youngest was just 18.

Golson has been cutting hair for 38 years, so he knows how to do a wide range of haircuts, from 1990s styles through “younger guy cuts.” He notes that his students – including 40 in Bethlehem and more than 25 in Philadelphia – are excited to learn “urban cuts with sharp lines” as well as styles like fades. He instructs them in all the skills they need to take both the computer-based and the practical exams, and ensures that all his students receive the instructional hours to meet state requirements.

LVBBA also prepares its barbers for a diverse customer base, with instruction in sensory-safe haircutting. Students get hands-on experience providing haircuts for people on the autism spectrum, individuals with Down syndrome, and people recovering from brain injuries. Additionally, they visit assisted living facilities to cut residents’ hair, and provide free haircuts once a month at a local homeless shelter.

“I keep them active,” Golson says, “and show them there’s a lot of things you can do. We all want to make money, but it’s good to have integrity and give back.”

Note: More information is available online for BAVTS (BethlehemAVTS.org), CIT (CITVT.com), and LVBBA (LehighValleyBarberAndBeauty.com). The Mazza Hair Center and Christie Smith Hair Salon are listed on YellowPages.com. We attempted to contact Jimmy’s West End Barber Shop in Allentown and Gentlemen’s Barbershop (locations in Bethlehem, downtown Easton and the Silk Mill) for this article, but were unsuccessful.