Area Barber Quits Creativity-Stifling Goldman Gig, Enjoys New And Previously Unthinkable Freedom To Cut

Early last year, Mr. Milian became one of the three barbers at Salvatore’s, a shop that caters to Goldman Sachs employees in the atrium of the Conrad Hotel, next to the bank’s global headquarters at 200 West Street in Battery Park City. By his account, all of his clients, junior employees at the bank, would ask for haircuts that didn’t look like haircuts so no one would realize they had left the office. They rarely requested shaves, and when they did, Mr. Milian said, it was always before the opening bell, a sure sign that they had stayed at the office through the night. And forget about after-shave...He said he started hearing buzz about a new barbershop that had opened in SoHo, where he thought he could be more creative. He left Salvatore’s in December and can now be found at Harry’s, a light-filled, two-chair shop born from an Internet shaving start-up founded by two friends...“I didn’t want to do 10-minute haircuts,” said Mr. Milian, who has a tattoo of straight-razor blades on his left forearm. “I wanted to make something.” He now wears vests instead of suspenders, a mustache instead of a stiff upper lip. He gives two or three straight-blade shaves a day, using a soft white towel with an “H” embroidered in the corner. Most important, he said, he feels like he is part of something rather than just a cog in a machine. At Harry’s, he can express himself. And now, he said, he can even grow a beard. [Dealbook]