A Haircut With Gigi

As you may have noticed, each year as I leave home for Italy at the end of February, I'm pretty shaggy. There is a good reason for my accumulated excess of hair. It’s not an accident or an oversight.

During

Some years ago Annette and I noticed a barber in Florence whose first name seemed to be the name of his shop. “Gigi” in a cursive-looking script is written above his small barber shop on Via Pietrapiana, the street that takes us each day on foot from our apartment to the center of Florence. Gigi has his own shop; there is only one chair but a steady stream of customers. 

My first visit to Gigi some years ago was partly out of curiosity but mostly out of a need to get a grip on an excessive amount of hair. I remembered that the Magliozzi brothers close their show, Car Talk, with a credit: “Mr. Gigi does our hair.” Of course, this was a different Gigi, not a Mr. Gigi and not Signore Gigi (later he was clear that his name was simply “Gigi”.) 

I learned that Gigi is a great barber. Personal services in Italy tend to be good while services offered by official bureaucracies tend to be really bad. As a result, one tends to avoid the Post Office and the bank and look forward to a hair cut. He is quick and Annette likes the results.

After

I was so happy with that first hair cut that I plan to get shaggy during January and February and get a hair cut in the first few days after we arrive in Florence. That haircut lasts for a month and then I get another one at the end of March before we leave in a rented car for the south. A few weeks later we return to fly home but just before we fly, it's time for one last touch up.

Florence is an expensive city but a haircut done by Gigi costs 9 Euro. Gettin a haircut is a pleasant way to begin our time in Florence and catch up on the progress of the local soccer team. (Sadly, that’s a painful subject this year.)

The picture on the wall behind Gigi shows him in costume at a recent celebration of Calcio Storico, a historic re-enactment of traditional soccer in Florence. Judging by his description the traditional game was nothing like soccer today (calcio in Italian) but more like rugby but with fewer rules.

The picture above us shows Piazzo Ciompi, the piazza between our apartment and his shop, during the great flood of Florence in November 1965. The flooded arches are the Loggia de Pesce. If you’re curious, this picture shows the same structure today: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Loggia_del_pesce%2C_firenze.JPG. Florentines, including Gigi, remember this awful event in their city’s history.