After almost six decades of cutting hair, trimming beards and chewing the fat, iconic Footscray barber Giuseppe ‘Joe’ Squatrito has hung up the clippers for good.
At noon on Saturday 30 January, Mr Squatrito closed the doors of his ‘Australian and Continental Barber Shop’ on the corner of Paisley and French streets, bringing an end to a 58-year career spent entirely in Footscray.
“I came here as an apprentice because I was under the age of 19,” Mr Squatrito recalled of how got his start in the suburb 1968, not long after migrating from his native Italy.
“I worked for many years and then I became a partner. Then the other guy retired and I bought the other half,” he said speaking to Star Weekly while tending to one of his last customers on Friday.
“That was about 30 years ago.”
Even since then, Footscray has changed markedly, yet Mr Squatrito’s barber shop remained a constant.
“That’s why I’ve still got my customers,” he said.
“I’ve got customers who have been coming here for nearly 60 years.”
It’s those customers that Mr Squatrito will miss in retirement, something he said a pending rent increase had helped bring forward.
“The rent was supposed to go up double what I pay now,” he said.
“A lot of shops (in Footscray) are empty because the rent is too high.”
Even without the rent increase, the now 77 year-old said he’d probably have only continued for another six months anyway.
“It was a decision I had to make eventually. I’m not getting any younger.”
