In an old-school barbershop, time slows down and stories unwind

The door jingles as another customer steps inside, and old-fashioned hair dryers hum along the back wall. The sweet scent of aftershave hangs in the warm air. Retro toys, vintage signs and worn but loved knick-knacks crowd every shelf and counter. This place is equal parts barbershop and time capsule.

Above the waiting chairs, rows of Navy hats hang neatly on the wall, each a memento from a service member who visited Joe Matteson, owner of The Village Barber, and traded a military cap for a free haircut. In Weston, he’s known for his friendly, old-school approach to barbering, the kind that draws a toddler and old-timer into side-by-side seats – one getting a first cut, the other getting his usual.

The Village Barber is one of the last shops of its kind in the region, a holdout from an era when a neighborhood barbershop served as the town square, a place where customers gathered as much for conversation as for a cut.

“I’m responsible for what goes on in the chair. So, you know, if I mess up, it’s my fault. But I like working with people, talking with people. You find out different things. Kind of like a therapist.” Matteson said.

On a sunny weekday in March, the unmistakable “Village Barber” sign glows above the sidewalk. The tinted windows betray nothing of the activity inside.

“That’s because I have the shades so that we can see everybody go by, but they can’t see in. It works out very well,” Matteson said. He grins. The one-way view suits the man who has built a career on watching people.

Matteson is famous for giving hundreds of children their first haircut and a certificate to mark the occasion. His sense of humor and a bottomless candy jar put even the squirmiest toddlers at ease. Adults raid it too.

“I decided not to grow up,” Matteson said, pointing to the rows of toys on his shelves.

Matteson’s clippers and blow dryers date to the 60s, and still buzz and whir in the background. He has offered to swap them for newer models, but his regulars recoiled. “It’s almost like they come in to escape what’s going on around the world,” he said.

One longtime customer has sat in the same chair for the same cut for 40 years – long enough that he figures he has earned a discount. “ I don’t know what he does,” the man quipped, “because I have no hair.”

Without missing a beat, Joe fired back: “It’s called a finder’s fee.”

The Village Barber opened in 1965 under Jim Clark, who passed the shop on to Matteson in 2004. Over two decades, he has found ways to adapt, once coaching an immunocompromised elderly couple through a trim over Zoom during COVID-19.

Matteson said the heart of barbering has always been the relationships he builds with his clients. When the pandemic disrupted those connections, it forced him to rethink how he ran his business.

“Called it my mini hazmat suit, you know, had a mask, had a face shield, had gloves, jacket, and we had these plastic capes,” he said. “They were disgusting. They were hot. It was so bad.”

Even from behind a screen, Matteson stayed busy by walking clients through home haircuts over video calls.

“There was more repair work. Some people thought they did great. But some of them didn’t,” he said. “Women wouldn’t let the men cut their hair. They cut their kids’ hair. But they wouldn’t let their husbands, boyfriends, whatever, cut their hair.”

Before he picked up clippers, Matteson served in the Navy. He calls his draft notice a “Christmas card from Uncle Sam.” Then he gestured toward several of the caps on his wall.

“This guy was in the nuclear sub. This guy was in the nuclear sub. One of the first ones,” he said. “The two of them talked. He brought in a hat, and I offered them a free haircut. Some took it, some didn’t, and it snowballed.”

This story was written by a journalism student in BU’s Newsroom program, a partnership between the university, The Weston Observer and other news organizations in the Boston area.