Andre Pergolese proudly hails from the City of Brotherly Love. After grade school, his mother would drop he and his cousin off at his grandfather’s barbershop in West Philly to hang out, do homework and help sweep up the hair on the floor. “Growing up, I didn’t think I was going to cut hair—it started more as a hobby at 13 when my cousin started cutting. We were at a family party and he asked if he could give me a haircut. I was fascinated by it and loved how it turned out so much, he gave me the same clippers to go home with and practice on my own.” After butchering his friend Johnny’s hair the next day—“I absolutely destroyed his hair,” Pergolese laughs—he was even more determined to learn how to figure out how to give as suave a cut as his cousin did. After watching countless pre-iPhone-quality YouTube videos of Donnie Hawleywoods Barbershop, founder of Layrite Pomade and a pioneer of modern barbering in California, Pergolese built up the confidence to get Johnny back in the guinea pig chair for a second go. This time, Pergolese killed it, and Johnny was stoked.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY WYATT KOSTYGAN
Grandpop noticed his aspiring grandson was taking a liking and started throwing him tips like how to properly hold the clippers—even gifting him his own pair, along with a cape, neck strip and other barbering tools to get started. Eventually, he gave him an old chair from his own shop, which Pergolese put down in his parent’s basement. “I set up a mirror, put down a mat and made my own little barbershop to have my friends and brother come down to get their hair cut,” he says. In Pergolese’s senior year of vocational school, he realized how much he hated auto body shop and convinced his guidance counselor to let him leave school to apprentice under a man named Larry at his barbershop Sweeney Todd’s instead. That mentorship would be the turning point for Pergolese, where doing men’s hair would evolve into a committed passion and not just a basement hobby anymore. A real-life Mr. Miyagi and Daniel-san, Larry would teach Pergolese master techniques, how to do fades—which were becoming more stylish and popular—as well as traditional hot lather shaves. “He taught me the old-school way with a blown-up balloon, shaving cream and a straight razor. Gave it to me and said, ‘Here, if you pop it, you’re not ready to do it on someone’s face yet,’” he says. “He took me under his wing, saw how well I worked my hands, saw there was passion there, so he shared his knowledge. It was an even trade-off because I would go pick him up whenever his crap motorcycle broke down somewhere in the city.”
PHOTOGRAPHY BY WYATT KOSTYGAN
At 19, Pergolese got his professional barber’s license to cut hair at Sweeney Todd’s. And at 21, life would bring the big-city boy down to Sarasota, where he got a chair at Fresko Fadez. “I was the new guy again. I didn’t know anyone or where to start. It was basically like starting all over. Just to get a couple haircuts in a day, I would be the first guy in and the last guy to leave, hoping for a few walk-ins to be thrown my way.” After four years, he began to make a name for himself again, networking at social events like Men, Whiskey & Watches. “I hustled to mingle and meet people, get my name out there. I was totally dedicated to making this a lifelong career.” And in 2018, Pergolese would catch the break he needed to catapult himself into notoriety. Slick Gorilla hair company took notice of Pergolese’s Instagram and reached out to sponsor him. He would then spend the next couple years traveling to every major city to represent the brand at trade shows and hair conventions, speaking onstage about the education side of styling/barbering and teaching the audience how to use Slick Gorilla products.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY WYATT KOSTYGAN
“Just as I was beginning to feel like I could take on running my own shop, I was returning back from a show in Knoxville, TN, when I got a call from a buddy, my tattoo artist, about a space that just opened up for rent that would be perfect for me,” he shares. Fast-forward through some back-and-forth business banter and APX Barber Co. slid into the 1929 historic pink building downtown on 1st Street in 2019. “Back in the day, it had actually been Alfred’s Barbershop,” he says. “I found that out when I opened the closet door one day and found the original black-and-white checkered tile still in there. It felt like I had made the right move.” Pergolese wanted to uphold that same old city, classic barbershop vibe, steering away from the super-modern, more clinical barbershops you see today. “I wanted mine to remind me of home: brick tiling, a fireplace, Frank Sinatra playing, somewhere that draws in walk-in traffic off the street, somewhere a dad wants to bring his son in with him.” APX Barber Co. came to life with black leather studded Deco Van Buren chairs—complete with cast-iron footrests and mahogany wood armrests. Vintage GQ, Thrasher and Sports Illustrated magazines sit in bins to encourage pre-digital-era entertainment, while artwork from his 1st Street neighbor Frank Cuerturo hangs on the walls, along with a special gift from a close friend of a bull’s head skull, hung over the fireplace—the same bull’s head that became APX’s logo with a pair of shears sticking out the top of the head. “I wanted to have the aesthetic of a man cave, or go back to that homey basement feel again,” he says nostalgically.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY WYATT KOSTYGAN
Pergolese started out a one man show as the master and sole barber in the shop. Fast-forward to just over a year in business and he has had to put in three additional chairs and bring on three guys to the cutting room floor to keep up with the demand. With the same brotherly love and close-knit community mentality that was instilled in him in Philly, Pergolese has made it a point to connect and collab with fellow local businesses. Growlers filled with craft beer are always on hand from 99 Bottles for clients to enjoy a brew while getting a brushback. From pop-up Barber-Que stands with Hobson’s Choice BBQ during lunchtime to designing branded swag—including hats, quarter sleeve tees and duffel bags, drawn in traditional tattoo style by Pergolese and made by local screen printer Clothesline Creative, APX harbors the comradeship of true barbershop tradition.
“Cutting hair is an expression of myself that allows me to create friendships, make people feel good and look good. At the end of the day, yes, it’s a service. But I get to watch the person’s emotion literally change in their face,” he says. “I watch them get their confidence back, the feeling like they can now go conquer the day. We joke about it in the shop, guys sometimes come in mopey, dragging their feet. And by the end, they’re dancing out the door. Seeing that pep in their step makes it that community cornerstone I always dreamed of having back in Philly, a landmark to come get a trim or shave, hangout, feel like family and feel at home.” SRQ
APX Barber Co., 1269 1st St., Sarasota, 941-552-9663, apxbarberco.com, @apxbarberco.
