Market Mall Barber Shop owner Gino Polito is celebrating 55 years as a barber this week.
Polito originally began his career apprenticing in a barber shop in the small town of Aiello Calabro in southern Italy at the age of 14.
He initially worked his way up to the barber chair by sweeping barber shop floors and cleaning equipment in Italy before tackling the art of using a straight razor on clients.
“Over there, you started learning to shave at first,” he said.
Polito moved to Sault Ste. Marie in November 1969 after honing his skills in Italy over the course of a five-year period.
“In Italy, no school. I was just a barber, that’s it. In Canada, you’re supposed to go to Sault College,” he said.
Polito attended Sault College, acquiring his certificate of qualification from the Ontario Department of Labour – which he still proudly displays in the Market Mall Barbershop – in the spring of 1972.
He tells SooToday that he worked the barber chair in a couple of now-defunct businesses – the Grandview Hotel and the Empire Hotel – before landing at the Market Mall, where he worked with barbershop owner Ronnie Santana for two decades before acquiring the business from Santana upon his retirement from the business in 2005.
Polito is such a fixture at the barber shop, co-worker and barbering protege Franco Cuglietta tells SooToday that he’s widely known as the 'mayor' of Market Mall.
“He’s what they call the mall mayor,” Cuglietta said. “He’s the mayor of the mall, that’s what everybody calls him.”
“You know what? Working with him, you can see how he cares for his clients. And that’s first and foremost above any hair cut or anything - the way he treats his clients is unprecedented.”
That could possibly explain why Polito has a number of loyal clients who have been routinely getting their hair cut by him for three, four - and in one instance, five - decades.
Cuglietta, who’s worked in the Sault as a hairstylist for nearly 20 years now, has been working under the tutelage of Polito for the past year-and-a-half, with the intention of learning the “old school art of barbering” from the man he says possesses "magic hands" when it comes to mens cuts and grooming.
“It’s a classic trade, right? You want to learn all the classic trades of shaving, tapering, fading - everything,” he said. “He’s the guy to go to. He’s 55 years in the business, and hasn’t missed a beat.”
There’s a couple of ties that bind Polito and his protege - not only does Cuglietta work with him at the Market Mall, he currently owns OC Hair, Bath and Body Co. and Mountain Men Beard Co. with Polito’s offspring, Trina Onofrio, and son-in-law Tyler Onofrio.
In fact, Cuglietta and Trina have plans to eventually take ownership of the barber shop, with Polito still working the barber chair as per usual.
But this week, it’s all about celebrating Polito’s milestone as a barber.
The Market Mall Barber Shop is hosting a public celebration this Thursday from 5-9 p.m., complete with cake and specials of up to 40 per cent off on OC Hair, Bath and Body Co. and Mountain Men Beard Co. products.
“We’re going to be having a huge celebration for him – everybody’s welcome,” said Cuglietta. “Past, present – and future clients we haven’t met yet.”