Mario & Son Hairstyling, an Oak Lawn barbershop that has been in business for more than 35 years, has no plans to change its name, although the third generation of the Lazzara family started cutting hair there Tuesday.
Lance Lazzara, 22, graduated Saturday from Paul Mitchell The School Tinley Park and started working for his grandfather, Mario Lazzara, three days later in the shop at 5909 W. 87th St.
Lance said he had planned on going to college, but seeing his grandfather and Uncle Rick work as barbers over the years gave him the idea of hairstyling.
After asking his grandfather and uncle if he was welcome, Lance completed the 1,500 hours of courses in the barber program at Paul Mitchell, which took a little over a year.
“I like the art of it,” Lance said. “I basically get to create art on someone’s head.”
One of the most popular styles for men is a fade, he said, in which the cut transitions from little or no hair to a lot of hair.
“The blending process took me a lot of time to learn and now it’s my favorite thing to do,” Lance said.
In school, he learned to cut both men’s and women’s hair, and Mario & Son has clients of both genders, but the majority are men.
“We don’t do color,” said Rick, who surprised himself when he chose to become a barber at age 19 alongside his father, Mario.
“I wanted nothing to do with it,” Rick said. “After high school, I wanted to do something with computers or electronics or become a Marine.”
But he took his father’s advice to try barber school and enrolled in Moler Hairstyling College in Joliet. His eyes were open when, after four years of attending the boys only St. Laurence High School, he found that 99% of the students at the hairstyling college were women.
“It was just me and another guy,” Rick said. “I thought, I think I can handle this.”
Rick found he enjoyed hair cutting and graduated number one in his class. He now says he realizes being a barber is a lot more fun than sitting in front of a computer screen all day.
“I love being around people. I love talking,” Rick said. “I’ve been doing this for 36 years and I never feel like I was working.”
When Mario Lazzara went to barber college in 1960, all the students were men, but he also still shares his love for the profession.
“I’m going to be 80 years old and I love it as much as when I started,” Mario said.
He can trace his hair cutting roots back to his uncle.
In 1958, 14-year-old Mario, his mother and siblings emigrated from Sicily to join his older brother and father who had come to Chicago a couple years earlier.
“My uncle who sponsored us was a barber,” Mario said. “My father worked in the steel mills, but when I turned 16, my uncle suggested me and my brothers go to barber school.”
So the three of them went to the now defunct Chicago Barber College and worked in different shops until each started their own business.
Mario worked for Eddie LaPorte, whose barbershop was on Archer Avenue and Mayfield. He worked there for 10 years, falling in love with LaPorte’s daughter, JoAnne, whom he married.
Mario had a barber shop at 87th Street and Austin Avenue for seven years, he said, before he built the two-story building which houses Mario & Son Hairstyling today.
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“That was 43 years ago,” Mario said.
He believes the shop has the customers to support three barbers and with three barber chairs, there will be little or no waiting. Mario & Son, which has a Facebook page, takes appointments and accepts walk-ins.
Business was steady, with regulars and newcomers Tuesday, Lance’s first day as a professional barber. Most said they first came on the recommendation of friends or family.
“I used to go to Great Clips,” said Dante Hernandez, 25, who lives near Midway Airport. “My mom and little brother came here and she suggested I come. I tried them out and I have been coming here since.”
What makes a good haircut is “consistency,” Hernandez said. “There are other places around my house I can go, but they do a great job every time and they are very sociable.”
Rich Baran, who came in for the first time Oct. 4, said he had been getting his hair cut at “some woman’s salon” in Oak Lawn. But his son encouraged him to go to Mario’s place.
“He always comes home and shows us his haircut,” Baran said.
Mario questioned him about what kind of haircut he wanted, and then cut to the chase, so to speak.
“You don’t want to comb your hair, right?”
When Baran said that was right, Mario said, “I’ll cut it and if you want it shorter, I can do it shorter.”
Baran left a short time, a satisfied customer.
Mike Protolipac of Chicago said a lifelong friend referred him.
“I’ve been coming here five or six years,” Protolipac said. “It’s a great atmosphere and they give excellent service.”
Both Rick and Mario work very efficiently, Protolipac said, so “you can get in and out quickly.”
Since owning his first barbershop, Mario said his business has gotten better because he is working with his son.
“Now with my grandson, it will be better yet,” he said.
Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.