The Hanlon brothers – a barbershop quartet
“Trim is in.” That”™s the word from the four Hanlon brothers, all licensed barbers at In The Cut on Main Street in Fishkill.
Robb, second oldest, runs the show as co-owner with Ian, third oldest.
“I”™m the strict, serious one,” Robb maintains. “Our oldest brother, Joshua, is the life of the party; Ian is a hard worker; the youngest, Joel, is a free spirit,” he says, assessing the diverse foursome.
“Raised in a family of four boys, haircuts got expensive, so we started cutting each other”™s hair,” Robb says. “Then I started cutting the kids in the area.”
After graduation from Arlington High School, which all four attended, Robb enrolled in Dutchess Community College. “I tried a few different things. I then apprenticed with a master barber.”
The Main Street facility has a sports bar atmosphere with a television tuned to sporting events. “We stay away from politics and music,” Robb notes. “The sports makes for guy talk.”
Conversations with customers vary, depending on who is presiding. Joshua can recite humorous poetry while cutting. Ian quizzes a client who arrived looking like he stepped out of a cave. “When was your last cut?” he asks. As the shaving process began, the visitor explained that he has to go on a job interview and that his father had urged him to look better.
The brothers feared the poor economy would eat into their business.
“Just the opposite happened,” Robb says. “Some unemployed individuals come in to spruce up for a job interview, while others are eager to spend $20 to feel better about themselves and enjoy some convivial company.
“One of the reasons we are doing so well is that there is not an abundance of trained barbers,” Robb concedes. “Back when men went to long hair, the old guys who were barbers then became postmen.”
In 2002, Robb opened a business with partners, “but the partnership did not work out.” With his brother Ian he opened In The Cut in 2006 at an Elm Street location. “It was small and out of the way, but we couldn”™t find space on Main Street.”
The two were at that location for only a year when a flood deposited four feet of water throughout their shop.
“We didn”™t have flood coverage,” Robb says. “We were effectively out of business. We did house calls, but you can only do so many in a day. So we set up a tent and a barbecue and started making hamburgers. It was spring, so we could be comfortable outside. We got a lot of respect from the business community. Before then, they looked at us like kids.”
The increase in the business has merited the addition of a fifth barber, Corey Butler.
As far as trends go, Robb says, “Comb-overs are not too popular any more.
And when it comes to gray hair, “If you can count them, they don”™t count.” Home coloring is so easy for men that the brothers don”™t do coloring. “I”™d rather grow gray than lose it,” he says.
The brothers cater to all ages and ethnicities, noting that even blood brothers like themselves have different hair.
The brothers now reside at four different locations: Joshua in Fishkill; Robb in Wappinger; and Ian in Beekman. Joel lives in Poughkeepsie with his mother, Barbara Stewart Hanlon, director of consumer of advertising sales with Westfair Communications, the owner of this newspaper.
Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be e-mailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.