Hair Box Barber Shop

VANISHED

On Spring Street in SoHo, the Hair Box barber shop has closed.



Signs in the window say: "This has been a barber shop for over 100 years and we are sad to see it go," followed by a frowny face emoticon.

Gone are the crazy Styrofoam heads from the window.



Gothamist called Hair Box "The Best Place for a Shave" in 2006, and The New York Times profiled the place in 2010:

"Many businesses in SoHo have come and gone, but 203 Spring Street has housed a barbershop, through several identities and owners, for over 100 years. It has been the Hair Box since 2001, but two of the shop’s three barbers began working there long before that, including Rocco Milano, 79, who had cut hair there for nearly 40 years before having a stroke in September. (He plans to return once he feels up to it.)

Lingering like the combs submerged in dark blue Barbicide is a cast of neighborhood old-timers who sit inside, watching the weather forecast, or outside in lawn chairs chained to a post, surveying the passing shoppers as if guarding the last section of the old neighborhood."



For now, barbers Irina and Aida will be at Anonymous Hair Salon, over on Sullivan Street. "No worries," they say on their sign, "same price! ;)"

No word about why it closed, but one reader was told "high rent." The owner of the Tasti-D-Lite next door said he will be expanding into the Hair Box space. Goodbye 100-year-old barber shop, hello frozen yogurt.