Seven decades later, barber still cutting away
Aug. 22—Arsenio "Sammy" Coiro has no expectations of becoming the oldest practicing barber.
But he just might be New Castle's oldest-ever first grader.
Coiro turns 85 in November and he's been cutting hair for 70 years, including the last 60 in his one-chair, storage-room sized shop near the top of the Highland Avenue hill. On the mirror in that shop is a newspaper clipping about a barber who was still cutting hair at age 108.
"Nobody's going to break that record," Coiro said. "I'm not going to beat him. That's not going to happen."
Neither is it likely, though, that anyone ever will enter school at an older age — or have a shorter stay there — than the man who just marked his 60th anniversary at his present location Aug. 13, and who received a proclamation from Mayor Chris Frye and city council to note the occasion.
Coiro began barbering at age 15 in Italy and continued the trade when he, his father, three sisters and brother came to America to join his mother. However, he didn't speak a word of English when he got here, and his family decided he needed to go to school to learn the language of his new country.
"I had a younger sister, a younger brother, they went to school, and they graduated," Coiro said. "Me, my schooling was half a day. They took me down to Lincoln Garfield — 17 years old, they put me in first grade.
"I went home for lunch and I never went back."
Eventually, of course, Coiro did pick up his new tongue — at least, for the most part.
"I learned the language," he said. "I can't write English; I write Italian because I didn't go to school here, and I'm never going to learn."
LOYAL CUSTOMERS
English wasn't the only thing Coiro picked up during his decades in New Castle. Loyal customers came his way as well.
One is his nephew, John Pauline.
"He's been cutting my hair for 63 or 64 years," the New Castle native said as Coiro trimmed him up. "I live in (Warren) Ohio, but I come back here to get my hair cut."
Is that for family or quality reasons?
"Both," Pauline said. "When I moved to Ohio, I thought I'd try some of those young girls that do hair. It was a disaster. They don't know how to groom properly."
Among Coiro's former clientele were former Pittsburgh Pirates manager Chuck Tanner — an autographed photo hangs on the wall of the shop — and one-time CIA officer John Kiriakou, who went on to gain international renown when he blew the whistle on the United States intelligence community's use of waterboarding to collect information.
Coiro's first barbering job after arriving in the U.S. came in the shop of Nick Newtzie in Mahoningtown, where he stayed three years. He spent the next year with Dom DiGennaro, and four more — from 1958 to 1962 — alongside Bill Fazzone before buying his current business.
He still has at least one customer who has stuck with him since those days.
"I have a gentleman, I started cutting his hair when I was working with Nick," Coiro said. "He still comes in here — 96 years old. I had another guy, too, he was 100, but he passed away three or four months ago."
SLOWING DOWN
Nowadays, Coiro's shop isn't as lively as it once was.
"I'm not as busy as I used to be, and that's OK," he said. "We got young barbers now, they're really good at what they're doing — they do all these designs and things — and that's where the young people go."
Still, there was a time when both the clippers and the conversation buzzed.
"Over the years, I've had people who like one thing, people who don't like another thing, and they would argue over sports, and they would argue over who likes being with the union, who doesn't like the union," Coiro said. "A lot of times I had to actually tell the people, 'OK guys, don't do that. You're not going to solve anything.'"
In addition to the hectic times, though, there also were a couple of challenging ones. One lasted two years, the other two decades.
The former, COVID-19, saw Coiro have to shut his doors temporarily.
"We closed down, I think it was about three for three or four months," he said, adding that both he and his wife had caught and weathered the virus. "Then we came back. It took a while to get the people to come in, and there are some still who are nervous about it, and I don't blame them."
An even bigger hurdle dropped anchor during the 1960s and '70s.
"Back in the late '60s, there were 54 barber shops in New Castle," he said. "Then the long hair came in, and a lot of barbers went out of business. Twenty years were bad with that long hair.
"I had a part-time job laying carpet and linoleum with a couple of friends of mine. That was like a second job, and I was able to survive. Otherwise, I wouldn't have."
NOT STOPPING
Coiro's business survived all of those lean years, and he has no intention of shutting it down now.
"They'll probably have to carry me out," he said. "Once in a while, my wife will say, 'Why don't you retire?' I say, 'What am I going to do at home?' I enjoy being around people. That's been my life so it's going to stay that way."
He has stepped back somewhat, though. For instance, he no longer offers shaves.
"I don't do the face," he said. "I just do the neck. After a while, you're not as steady, so I'm not going to do it at my age.
"They'd be crazy to want me to put the razor on their face."
And he does have other interests that occupy his free time. One of them is coloring pictures. Another is playing bocce at Cascade Park.
"I also like going into the woods, looking for mushrooms, and I still do that," he said. "My kids and my wife, sometimes they get a little nervous. I always tease my wife, 'Don't worry about it, they'll find me next year.'"
