Niche barbershop growing

Their styles committed to memory, Nico Ibarra snipped, buzzed and stepped back for a moment.

“Four off the top. Bald on the side. Chin strap and a little long in the back.”

A deft flourish of his silver scissors and the balance between subtle art and confidence evened. Ibarra reached for a nearby mirror and held it steady for Jason Sandy, 27, of Verona.

Sandy rubbed his chin, cocked his head and started a nod. Reflected in the top corner of the barbershop mirror, a smile stretched across Ibarra’s face.

Then the finishing touch: a cloud-spray of product and quick dusting before thousands of hair particles floated to the floor as Ibarra removed the cape from around Sandy’s neck.

Sandy locked his eyes in the mirror, then turned to a wall of evening sunlight and strode out the door of Cortes de Nico on North Poplar Avenue in Waynesboro. From behind him, inside the shop, technician Marla von Seldeneck let loose a high-pitched coo.

“Hey Jason! For real, text me!”

Barely more than a moment passed before the next customer slid into the vacant seat.

Inside the area’s only Hispanic barbershop, styling requests frequently come in Spanish.

A first-generation American from Mexico, most of Ibarra’s customers share his first language. But Ibarra, 30, of Waynesboro, is adept with English, too, and over the three years he’s managed his barbershop and salon, he’s attracted many English patrons.

Ibarra’s dark Bluetooth phone — always clipped to his ear – and the square diamond

earring in his lobe, caught the light and cut two streaks through the air as he swiveled on a recent afternoon.

To his right, his supplies rested on the row of a mirrored shelf. Others were tucked into the drawers of a gray stand-up toolbox.

“You know, every man needs his toolbox,” Ibarra said.

In the flip top of the box, magnets held photos of young customers and his children. His girlfriend beamed from her photo, tucked into the frame of a giant wall mirror.

Haircuts ended with the slide of the barber’s cape into Ibarra’s careful hands. The cape is custom-made: black with yellow stitching that outlines a golden crown, scissors and a clipper.

The clipper is king at Cortes. It appears on the cape and is tattooed onto Ibarra’s right forearm. He wants another for his left arm, maybe in a month. Or so.

Ibarra started cutting hair young, frequently trading haircuts for candy bars. He later apprenticed under a cosmetologist in Staunton and opened his shop in Waynesboro on June 15, 2008.

“I couldn’t have picked a better spot,” he said.

The shop is close to Hispanic stores and Waynesboro High School.

His customers are loyal, frequent visitors. Like Jose Luis, who rarely goes more than two weeks without a cut.

“Quince días,” he said.

“Fifteen days. Every 15 days,” Ibarra echoed. “He likes looking sharp.”

Luis also comes because Ibarra is amiable. Careful while cutting, but carefree in conversation.

“Everybody gets along,” said Ibarra’s apprentice, Eunice Bell, of Waynesboro.

“All kinds of races come here,” said Erick Loya, 19, who used to drive to Charlottesville for haircuts.

Loya’s niece Guadalupe, 6, and nephew Aaron, 4, practiced their alphabet in English while another nephew sat for his cut and asked for a special design.

Ibarra carved in a curve and curl and painted it white, giving Brian, 8, a haircut to stand out in his second-grade class at William Perry Elementary School.

But as Brian watched his little brother climb into the chair, modesty took over. Aaron always gets a better haircut, he said.

“Always,” Brian said, as Aaron, beneath the cape, shielded his eyes beneath a spray of Ibarra’s water bottle.