It’s no secret that many local businesses are struggling, and have been particularly since COVID.
Citroën, Esme, and B.E. Yarn are just some of the small businesses along Manhattan Avenue that have shuttered of late, largely due to rent increases. But many are still kicking — or in Joseph Khafizov’s case, still clipping.
Khafizov has been cutting hair in Greenpoint since 1991, long before it saw a swell in younger populations and all the real estate hikes that came with it. He is now at Hawaiian Sunrise Tanning at 842 Manhattan Avenue — a barber shop, hair salon, and tanning booth — which his daughter, Yelena, largely runs. Born in Tajikistan, Khafizov began training to cut hair 64 years ago. He remembers the day he first went to work — April 12, 1961 — which was significant in more ways than one: it’s the day Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to journey into outer space.
“He go to space, I go to work,” Khafizov said.
Khafizov has a warm smile and ready sense of humor, which has endeared him to customers, some of whom have been coming to him for decades. Last year, however, Khafizov sustained an injury: he was climbing up the shop’s basement steps when he slipped and hit his head, concussing him. After months in the hospital, he is recovering and uses a walker, but that doesn’t stop him from still cutting favorite clients’ hair.
He’s also cut hair along stars: in a brush with fame, Khafizov appeared in the 1997 mafia classic Donnie Brasco. The production team was looking for a local barbershop and knocked on Khafizov’s door.
Khafizov said his late wife coordinated with the team, with Khafizov remembering she said, “If you want to use my husband, no problem.”
The team did: Khafizov snips hair with Al Pacino in the scene, and Johnny Depp also starred in the film. “After like 16 minutes, the movie shows me,” Khafizov said. “Very good movie.”
The production gave Khafizov $6,000 for use of the space and to be in the film, which was “back then, a lot,” his daughter Yelena said, remembering the shoot was done in “one day, all day. They came the day before to set up, the next day they shoot.”
Khafizov remembers Pacino as very kind and enjoying the neighborhood’s local food, as does the barber. Karczma (136 Greenpoint Ave.) is a favorite of his — he says it’s “very good, I like Polish food.”
Over his three-plus decades in New York, Khafizov has watched the city change: he remembers driving to work on the Long Island Expressway the morning of September 11, 2001, seeing the plumes of smoke ascend into the sky. He knows the Polish population is also aging.
“This is very good people,” he said. “Now, a little bit change.”
He’s also cut hair all along Manhattan Avenue: he’s been at Hawaiian Sunrise Tanning since 2016, but in 1991 he started off a couple blocks away before moving to a second shop near Associated Supermarket in 1995.
No matter where he’s been, though, Manhattan Avenue has been home.
“You go to Manhattan,” across the river, “and everyone is jealous,” Khafizov joked. Here, he said, everyone is “like family.”
Joseph has been cutting my hair for decades. Now we laugh when he tells me .. I remember when you had a lot more hair! My friend.
Great story. I didn’t know that place cut hair. I just saw the big tanning sign and stayed clear of it since I was not interested and overlooked the barber pole.
Another interesting story re that bldg., I believe if I am not wrong, it was the first home of the senior center in Greenpoint before it moved to St. Anthony’s property. I saw a photo of it circa 1970s.