Sixty-one years ago, Henry Cipriano Jr. and Ralph Petronio met on the train to Boston – they were both on their way to Vaughn Barber School. Today, the two men have barber shops that are only a five-minute walk from one another in eastern Cranston.

Both born and raised in Johnston, Ralph decided to go into barbering after graduating from Mount Pleasant High School in 1961 while Henry, who didn’t like school, left at age 16 to learn how to become a barber – he was the youngest student in his class at Vaughn. The trip to and from Boston for their six month barber school program was a long one.

“You’d take the bus from the neighborhood to Downtown Providence. Get on the 6:45 a.m. train which would arrive at 7:45 a.m. Then it was a fifteen minute walk to the school which started at 8 a.m. You got out at 4:30 p.m., took the 5 p.m. train to Rhode Island and the bus to Johnston,” said Ralph.

Ralph’s father was a barber, and his grandfather was a barber and tailor in Italy.

After the six month course, they received their journeyman’s license and worked as apprentices for two years. Ralph said barbering was a popular trade in the 60s and changed in the 70s once the Beatles gained popularity. Men started growing out their hair and Ralph – like many other barbers – had to learn how to cut longer hair instead of the traditional haircuts that were short and sculpted around the ears. Ralph said they learned how to cut the shag and razor cutting.

“We had to do it in order to survive in the business,” said Ralph.

Ralph started barbering at Archie’s Barbershop on Fox Point and, after a year, found his way to Quonset where he worked for six years. He opened his first site in East Providence in 1967 and opened City Hall Barber Salon on Park Avenue in 1980.

Ralph’s brother, Pat, went to barber school a year after him, in 1962, and now has a business only five minutes away from his brother.

After barber school, Pat started working on Cranston Street and eventually started Shear Dimensions on Reservoir Avenue in 1985, which he co-owns with his brother-in-law. The salon focuses on unisex hairstyles and does everything from hair cutting to shaving beards and providing facials and the business rents chairs to independent contractors.

On average, the shop brings in 10 to 15 customers a day. Over the years, Pat has not only developed friendships with customers, but his customers have created their own camaraderie.

Shear Dimensions is open four days a week from Wednesday to Saturday.

Henry, who owns the Senate Barber Shop on Rolfe Square, starts booking appointments at 7:30 a.m. and takes his last customer at 6 p.m. He provides haircuts for men and is open five days a week. Henry used to work with two other individuals, however, one retired and the other passed away nine years ago. As of now, Henry has no plans on retiring.

“If you can stand up, you can go to work,” said Henry.

Times have changed when it comes to the craft of hair.

According to Vinnie Carbone, who owns Vinnie’s Barber Shop on Pontiac Avenue, the craft of the older generation of barbers is fading. He explained that older barbers primarily use scissors and clippers to cut hair, while the younger generation of barbers primarily use razors.

Carbone has been in the barbering business for 44 years and attended Broms Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts. He drove everyday and met others from Rhode Island and they would be a group of them who would carpool to classes. Now residing in Meshanticut, Carbone and his family immigrated to America from Italy when he was 13 years old. His family came from Caserta, which is south of Naples.

Carbone remembers arriving in the states from Caserta, Italy, and when the plane landed around 9 p.m. He said that was the first time he saw snow, adding that he never got used to it. His family moved into a third floor apartment in Providence and three years later the family bought a house in Johnston.

“We arrived in Rhode Island at the apartment at 10:30 p.m. the following morning by 7: a.m. my father was in the car with my uncle to go to work,” said Carbone.

During his time as a barber, Vinnie has won several awards including the ABC Best of Southern New England and the Providence Journal’s People's Choice Award in 2017.

All four barbers said their favorite part of the business is talking with people – many of them mentioning the names of nationally and locally famous individuals whose hair they’ve cut.

Pat cut the hair of David Quinn’s (former head coach of the New York Rangers) and Cranston native. Meanwhile, Ralph said he’s cut the hair of several state officials including William Murphey and Matthew Smith.

The barbers did say the pandemic affected business after former Governor Gina Raimondo closed shops at the start of the pandemic.

Ralph’s applied for federal unemployment which helped his business survive.

“If we weren’t able to collect, it’d be a different story,” Ralph said, noting that it would have been three months without any income.

Since the barbers are at the later stage of their career – and thanks to their retirement plan – they are now able to apply for Medicare and health insurance to receive help from the government. Additionally, grant funds from the city which will be available this summer will be able to boost business. Some of the barbers are already coming up with some remodeling ideas.