They’re masters of the fade, the flattop and tapes, commanders of the clipper and rulers of the straightedge razor, according to the kudos of their clients.
Lined up in the waiting area and occupying every station any day of the week, customers of Ike’s Barber Shop are passionate about their commitment to the cuttery. It’s a hometown gathering spot, they say, offering men’s and boys’ hair styling in a familiar atmosphere.
“No other place around here can do it as good,” said Owen Nunez, 15. “I bet half my friends go there.”
That’s because it’s within walking distance, he said. Located on the corner of Market and Main streets in the heart of Weston, Ike’s caters to teens with its array of multiethnic, multiskilled stylists. There are 17 in all, every one on a first-name or nickname basis, each with their own niche.
There’s Kiko and Santiago, who specialize in fades for Latinos; Big Walt, who offers the same for African-Americans; Vito, the classic Italian barber, sculpting with comb and clipper alone; Frankie, who sports and crafts the flattop, and Armando, whose razor wizardry inspired one teen to drop his Michael Jordan do.
“I used to shave my head. I did that for three years, but since I started to grow my hair, I only use Armando,” Jose Campos said. “I can’t see myself shaving it ever again.”
Armando Peruiero, 34, joined the staff a year ago, driving daily from his home in South Miami-Dade County. His etch work along the hairline and sideburns, called a tape, is what keeps Campos coming back.
A senior at Cypress Bay High School, Campos said he was introduced to Ike’s by classmates, most of whom are loyal to Walter Jackson, known as Big Walt.
“I do the fade. I guess you could say I’ve perfected it,” Jackson said. “I should have. I’ve been cutting them since I was 12.”
Jackson, 27, of Hollywood, said his mother passed down the art, and his brother helped him refine it.
“I use to experiment on him, over and over,” Jackson said. “He wore some of the worst haircuts ever. But now he’s a regular — by choice.”
Danny Rivera is also a regular — every Friday at 1:30 p.m. And his brother, too, every Saturday at 6 p.m., both driving from north Sunrise.
“I come here for Kiko, man. I’ve followed him to three different shops, ever since I was in 10th grade,” said Rivera, 21. “He’s the only person I let touch my hair. I don’t trust nobody else.”
Kiko, known to his family as Julio Lopez, began cutting hair on his back porch in Puerto Rico at age 14. He beams at the photo showing the shop he owned at 19.
“Little by little I had more and more kids,” Lopez, 26, said. “I’d get home from school and find five of them waiting for me outside my house.”
And what about Ike? He’s not a barber. He just collects them and their tales.
“I don’t know anything about cutting hair,” Ike Cho said. “I just knew I had to drive 10 miles away all the time to get my son’s hair cut.”
A Korean immigrant in 1976 and Weston pioneer since 1989, Cho said he recognized a market void and speculated that a traditional barbershop in the burgeoning area would be a wise business move. On June 29, 2001, the old-fashioned red, white and blue pole began spinning outside his space.
“The first time opening this place was like gambling,” Cho said. “In the beginning it was slow, but finally we did well.”
He comes into the shop a few times weekly now, mainly overseeing its cleanliness, having turned the management and co-ownership over to daughter Carol Cho, 22. Ike Cho said he will open a second location mid-November near Sawgrass Mills Outlet Mall. That operation, called Xtreme, will be co-managed by Lopez and Cho’s son, Stephen, after he returns from Iraq, where he was deployed in February.
Cho said he’s altered his original “strictly traditional” vision of the shops, customizing them for a primarily younger, upscale clientele. In Weston, that meant taking appointments, providing services such as nail treatments and hair coloring, and adding three female stylists to create a hybrid barbershop/salon.
It also meant disconnecting the revolving pole, which violated city code on signs that move. The ruling, Cho said, continues to annoy him.
“There’s a whole tradition to the pole. Anywhere you go — Hong Kong, Japan, London, New York, Los Angeles — the barber pole, when it’s spinning, means you’re open for business. When it doesn’t move, you’re closed.”
It’s such a vivid representation, Carl Iagrossi said, that his business has four of them. Carl’s Barber Shop, 13180 State Road 84 in Davie, is considered by many to be Ike’s main competitor at about six miles’ distance.
Iagrossi said he personally cuts former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino’s hair. Cho said his stylists work on Marino’s children. Iagrossi said former Dolphin Trace Armstrong patronized his shop. Cho displays an autographed portrait of retired Dolphin safety Mike Kozlowski in his. Iagrossi said every child getting a first haircut wins a certificate. Cho said he presents a lollipop. But Iagrossi said the two businesses are not in competition. His shop appeals to the manly man.
“If a guy would go into a salon, he would feel uncomfortable sitting next to a woman getting a perm or something, and so would she. In the ’50s and ’60s, it was never like that. It was a lost art until I came along. It was my goal to bring that back,” Iagrossi said. “I wanted everything done by the book like it used to be.”
Opening in 1987, Carl’s features old-time barber chairs and a black-and-white checkerboard floor. With 20 cutters each turning a customer every 20 minutes, the place is “the largest barbershop in South Florida,” Iagrossi said.
“They come here because they’re comfortable, and they can talk about anything — sports, girls,” he said. “I never believed in mixing the two shops.”
Unisex chain hair salons in the area charge $11 for boys and $13 for men’s cuts. Women’s salons, numbering more than 40 in Weston, command between $40 and $60. Both Carl’s and Ike’s charge $14 for boys and $16 for men.
Weston resident Jerry Fisher said the choice comes down to economy and a hometown feel.
“I know Ike, Carol, Stephen, the whole family, and bring my family here,” Fisher said.
Once a salon-goer, Fisher said he paid $40 to $50 a visit. He and son Nicholas, 11, have frequented Sharon Gibson’s chair at Ike’s since opening day. The senior Fisher, whose cut Gibson calls “the Jerry,” also treats himself to an occasional hot shave and pedicure.
The growing demand for varied services prompted Coral Springs resident Frankie Rosa, 41, to obtain a cosmetologist’s license as opposed to a barber’s. It was an edge that led Cho to recruit him and that keeps Rosa’s chair occupied with 20-35 clients on Saturdays. Rosa said he never thought he’d take that route when, at 12, he started shampooing customers for his beautician mother.
“I didn’t want to do it back then because I didn’t think men worked in salons,” Rosa recalled. “But the fact is, guys want to be pampered, too.”
