Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Nick's Hair Stylists

There is one lesson I still have yet to learn: When I see a place that tingles my J-Reaper senses and I know it will soon vanish, I need to get in there and partake of their services fast. Instead, I add it to the ever-growing VNY Deathlist and hope for the best. Again and again, I am left bereft.



Today, it was Nick's Hair Stylists on Horatio. It's gone. Vanished. The windows are papered and the inside is being gutted. No more sparkly gold chairs. No more beehived ladies. Soon, Nick's wonderful old signage will also go, along with the tagline: "Always at the right wave length."



The Villager wrote about Nick Soccodato when he retired back in 2003 after 46 years. He started out styling the hair of doo-wop groups like The Regents and the Belmonts. He did Pacino's hair.

Irene Naumova was one of the star stylists at Nick's. A Yelp commenter and fan wrote:

"She's a little old Russian lady that reminds me of my grandmother. She remembers the details of my life, usually gives me a good haircut, and then brings out the hot-lather and straight-razor for the finishing touches. She still wants to use mousse on me. Sometimes she's tired, and the haircut isn't flawless, but it doesn't matter. It is always the best haircut I've ever had, every time. Her clients love her. Some of have been seeing her for over 20 years. They bring her flowers and candy. There is an unspoken cult of Irene. And that's because she's a bit of NYC that's fading away, as is Nick's."

You are now free to commence weeping.
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 18, 2008 at 2:24 PM

    This obituary's particularly painful. Went here often; would see Nick as I headed to the subway, and he was headed to the shop. Guess those two buildings will be bloomberged out of existence. My hair cutter had another client, a Mr. New Jersey who had platinum tresses, appeared to be on a first name basis with steroids and suntan parlors, and always wore spandex, regardless of the weather.

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  2. AnonymousJune 18, 2008 at 3:45 PM

    Jeremiah, since we've become a T-shirt culture, someone should print and sell T's: white, with big, bold, black letters saying: DIE YUPPIE SCUM - it could be the official NYC T - much more appropriate than the I Red Heart NY stuff. It would be more dramatic than anything on Broadway, currently in its Terry Schaivo phase.

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  3. UnknownJune 18, 2008 at 4:09 PM

    And have them printed out in Lacoste shirts.

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  4. AnonymousJune 18, 2008 at 6:53 PM

    Brilliant idea!

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 19, 2008 at 9:53 AM

    Wow. I literally walked by this last week thinking I should take a photo of it considering Bridgette left me with no warning and I was feeling nostalgic. My camera has been on the fritz and then I read this. Of course. Love your blog but damn, this has been a hard month.

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  6. AnonymousJune 19, 2008 at 10:28 AM

    Anon1: Is this verb "Bloomberged" a new one for the VNY lexicon?

    ReplyDelete

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