East Village Barber Shop Cutting Hair Since 1947: Astor Place Hairstylists

Astor Place Hairstylists sits underground at 2 Astor Place, New York, NY 10003, and it opens at 7 am every single day of the week. Since 1947 this basement barber shop has cut hair for punks, rappers, NYU freshmen and mayors in one long room below the Astor Place sidewalk, and its own website still tells newcomers to call for an appointment or just come on down. What follows is a field guide to the shop as it runs now: its story, its barbers, its rhythm and the blocks around it.

The shop began after the Second World War as a small business run by the Vezza family, Italian immigrants who started with a handful of chairs. Co-owner Jonathan Trichter told Voice of America in 2024 that the original room had six chairs, maybe four, and admitted some discrepancy over 1945 versus 1947. The official website settles on 1947, and so does this guide.

Manufacturing left the area and the 1960s were lean, but punk in the 1970s brought a new crowd down the stairs. The house website says the walls are cluttered with celebrity clients from the 80s onward, and a press clipping on its website names Andy Warhol among past customers. Benny, still listed among the barbers, carved a Batman logo into a client's head in the 80s and turned it into a national news story.

By November 2020 third-generation owners John and Paul Vezza were ready to close for good. Trichter, a customer since he was 13, assembled a group of investors, and in February 2022 Commercial Observer reported a new 10-year, 8,104-square-foot lease for the below-grade space at 2 Astor Place. The website now promises the shop will be here for another 75 years.

The booking policy is printed right on the homepage: call for an appointment, or just come on down, followed by the cheeky question of what you need an appointment for. Three separate phone lines are listed for booking. Trichter has claimed the room handles more walk-ins than any barbershop in the world, so turning up unannounced is the normal way in.

The exception is Pepe. The staff page calls him the best barber in the city and says he is the only stylist here who does not take walk-ins. Skip the Saturday drop-in if Pepe is the reason you came, because you will spend the visit watching his chair from the bench. Phone ahead and name him when you call.

Deon is the other name worth knowing for early risers. The staff page says he is the first one in and the last one out, runs his own booking app and sells his own line of shaving products. Its advice for getting him is blunt: just come early. With the doors opening at 7 am, a weekday visit before work is the cleanest shot at a short wait.

Manager and co-owner Mike Saviello calls the room the United Nations of Haircutters, and the website credits him with the loyalty of 40 barbers. He told Voice of America that 30 or 40 people cut hair there. That scale is the whole point of Astor Place: whatever you want done, someone on the roster has spent years specializing in it.

The staff page reads like a casting sheet. Luigi is described as the old school master with shears and a razor, and Scott as another veteran who has not slowed a step. Alberto is credited with cutting Bill de Blasio's hair since the former mayor was an NYU freshman, while Joel, who has a full tattoo bodysuit, counts celebrities among his regulars. Edward is billed as so efficient you might be done before a text arrives.

This is not a men-only room. Bella handles blowouts, trims and color, Dee is described as among the most talented stylists with women's hair in the city but works only a couple of days a week, and Josefina and Jessica also specialize in women's hair. If you want Dee, the website's advice is to make an appointment rather than gamble on a walk-in.

A New York Times piece reposted on the shop's press page described DJs turning the basement into a dance club once a month after the pandemic rescue. By day it is long rows of chairs, photographs layered across the walls and, Trichter says, more languages than at the UN. The website lists politicians, pro athletes, artists, NYU students and working-class New Yorkers as customers who all get treated the same.

Voice of America added Method Man, Q-Tip and Spike Lee to the roll of regulars, and Saviello recalled Sinead O'Connor asking for her shaved head here before her Letterman debut. None of that buys anyone a faster turn. The website frames the shop's prices as low and accessible to all, which is exactly why students from the NYU blocks next door keep filling the benches.

The honest caveat comes from a 2026 Yonkers Times ranking that placed Astor Place third in the East Village: value is unbeatable, but consistency depends on finding your barber and staying loyal to that person rather than to the institution. In practice, ask for a name on your first visit, and if the cut lands, request the same barber every time after that.

The hours give you more room than most Manhattan shops. Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday run from 7 am to 7 pm, while Wednesday, Thursday and Friday stretch from 7 am to 9 pm. That late window three nights a week is the plan B when a weekend crowd fills every bench by early afternoon.

If the line looks long at lunchtime on a Saturday, do not fight it. Come back Wednesday after 7 pm, when the late shift runs another two hours and office workers have mostly gone home. Alternatively, call one of the three booking lines and lock in a named barber for the next morning at 7 am, before the student traffic from Astor Place picks up.

Climbing out of the basement puts you on Astor Place beside the Alamo, the black cube sculpture standing in the middle of the plaza. Walk east past the Cooper Union Foundation Building on Cooper Square, and the fresh cut gets its first daylight inspection in the windows along the way.

Keep going a few minutes to McSorley's Old Ale House on East 7th Street, the old ale house where a fresh cut usually gets its first toast. It is a fitting second stop, another East Village room that has outlasted every rent cycle on these blocks and still runs on its own rules, the same way Astor Place Hairstylists does underground.

Address: 2 Astor Place, New York, NY 10003, in the basement, with the entrance stairs on the Astor Place side of the building. The nearest subway is Astor Place on the 6 line, practically at the door, and the Eighth Street–NYU station on the R and W is a short walk west along Broadway.

Hours as listed on the official website: Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday, 7 am to 7 pm; Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 7 am to 9 pm. Walk-ins are the default, phone appointments are accepted, and Pepe takes appointments only. If you want Dee for women's hair, book because she works just a couple of days a week, and if you want Deon, simply arrive early.