Barber Alec Mastrangelo is celebrating 50 years of his business, Alec’s Hairdresser and Stylist, with a tiny laneway off Leigh Street named in his honour.
Most of Alec Mastrangelo’s business is repeat business, and Alec tells CityMag when they get a stranger, “then they become a regular”.
“If you look after them, they’ll come back, simple,” he says.
“We have lots of customers that come in as a child and they still come here.”
In 50 years, Alec estimates he’s given a “few million snips”.
He celebrated the milestone with a street party on Saturday for family, friends and regulars that saw about 100 people turn out to enjoy antipasti, barbeque and beers from Udaberri, and two piano accordions.
At the party, Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith presented Alec with a street sign to hang next to his shop, with the small laneway off of Leigh Street now named in his honour.
This picture: Adelaide Lord Mayor via Instagram.
When CityMag visited Alec a few days before the party, he had just gotten off the phone with a piano accordion player who was booked for the party.
Alec told us he might be in for a shock by the attendance, because “I don’t know how many people I told when they come in”.
As we watched Alec finish up a cut for a regular, Barry, and invite him to the party, we can only imagine how often this interaction had happened that week.
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On his way out the door, Barry told CityMag that Alec’s been “looking after me for 40 years”.
“It’s something about your hairdressing, Alec,” Barry says.
Along with regulars like Barry, Alec has given many notable haircuts, including Barry Humphries, former Premier Lynn Arnold and Guy Sebastian.
“I treat everybody the same anyway,” Alec says.
“I never take anybody for granted.
“Naturally when you see somebody you never seen before, not panic in a sense, but you’re trying to do your best you can.”
Alec at work
Alec arrived in Adelaide in 1967 from Anzano di Puglia. He opened the shop in October 1974 and spent the first 10 years trading by himself before taking on staff.
“When the first [Christmas] pageant [happened] after I start, two weeks after, I got a shock of my life, coming in at seven o’clock and at 11:30am there’s still no customer,” he says.
“I start to get a chest pain, all these people come past and nobody comes in!
“The worst thing is the quieter you are, the quieter it can be, the busier you are the more you attract other people.
“I still enjoy it, you appreciate it more, when you start doing nothing, you appreciate more.
“That’s the way I start, gradually building up.”
Our chat is interrupted as a neighbouring business owner pops in to pick up a parcel.
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“Sometimes, because I open early, people come in and do delivery and bring it here,” Alec says.
Alec has become a pillar of the Leigh Street community, accepting deliveries, cutting the hair of neighbouring traders, and always delivering plenty of banter.
At 76, Alec has no plans to slow down.
Alec tells us he has “no plan at all” for retirement.
“I reckon I’m just as motivated now than before,” he says.
“I’m still motivated and I’m in good health, every morning I walk about four and half Ks.”
He drinks three or four coffees a day he tells me as he hands me an espresso.
But Alec has had to make one change to accommodate ageing; now he drinks his espresso with milk.
“I can keep going, it’s good for me, good for my family, the longer I live the more money they get,” he laughs.
Alec has four daughters and is training one of his grandsons, Stefan, who has started helping out in the shop.
Stefan is 26 years old, the same age Alec was when he opened the shop.
“He’s good, starting to pick it up pretty fast, new modern cut, I can train him, get a little bit of help later on,” Alec says.
The banter between Joe, Rob and Alec is part of the charm of their craft.
Currently, Alec works with two other hairdressers, Rob, who has been there for 10 years, and Joe, who’s been working with Alec for 40.
When asked what their favourite part of working here is, Joe smiles.
“All the bullshit we talk,” he says.
“Not we, he talks,” Rob says, gesturing at Joe.
For Alec, the milestone is a special one. But at 76 years old, he’s still looking forward.
“I never look back and always improve, every week there was, we getting a little bit better and better.”