Barber Sam Repici Retires After 55 Years

COURT HOUSE – Barber Sam Repici, 80, had a notable comment for his last haircut customer, March 29.
“I’ve been looking for you for 55 years,” Repici said.
“What do you mean?” the confused customer asked.
“You’re my last customer – ever,” he said.
Not that Repici doesn’t like cutting hair – he did it for 55 years. And not that he dislikes customers – they were what he liked most about the job. It’s just that he is looking forward to retirement and whatever that brings.
Repici was born in Millville and raised in Belleplain. He graduated from Middle Township High School in 1960. He entered the U.S. Navy in 1960 and served on an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea. Not surprisingly, his favorite place he visited was Italy.
Coming back to Cape May County, the company Repici started working for moved its operations to Pennsylvania. He had no desire to move to Pennsylvania, so he decided to go into the barbering business with his uncle, Matt DiMilo, and brother, Tom Repici. 
Repici said he started attending Tri-City Barber School, in Philadelphia, taking a train from Palermo into the city. He said he attended long enough to learn what he needed about cutting hair but left without completing the program.
He said, in Pennsylvania, barbers had to go through training and get a license, but at the time, a barber could apprentice in New Jersey. He apprenticed in the family barbershop for 18 months before becoming a licensed barber.
Repici said the family barbershop goes back a long time and was originally located on the other side of Mechanic Street, in Court House, until the county bought the property.
In 1965, his brother and uncle moved the business across the street, to 19 Mechanic St., which would eventually become Sam Repici’s Barbershop. He worked for his brother and uncle until his uncle retired, and, in 1974, his brother left to pursue other interests and sold the business to Repici.
Repici said business would go up and down. There was a period of time when a lot of men were wearing their hair long and were going to salons to have their hair “styled.” On the other hand, there were regulars, some of whom were literally lifelong customers.
“We had a guy who was coming to the shop before it moved across the street, and he continued to come here until he died,” Repici said.
Repici said losing a customer like that was like losing a close friend.
Some customers, he said, would get their hair cut every two weeks at the same time, like clockwork.
Meeting people was what Repici liked most about the job.
“The people you come in contact with, the regulars, you know their kids, their families, stuff like that,” Repici said.
Getting his hair cut on Repici’s final day on the job was local attorney Anthony Monzo, who wasn’t the last, but third to last.
“Tony came here for 25 years. He was one of the new guys,” Repici said.
Monzo said he moved to Court House in 1997 and was looking for a barber when he found an ad for Repici’s barbershop. He asked his wife, who was a Repici, if she knew who the barber was.
“She said, ‘That’s my mother’s cousin,’” Monzo said.
He went there and remained a regular customer since 1997.
“He knew how I liked my hair cut and he was always consistent,” Monzo said.
Monzo said going to Repici’s was always more than just a haircut. The barbershop was also a place for sharing information, or not. Repici said he heard a lot of things he never repeated, but, according to Monzo, Repici knew a lot and told a lot about what was going on in town. 
“When you told him something he didn’t know, he was almost offended. He’d say, ‘Why didn’t I know that?’” Monzo said.
Repici said he became the sole proprietor and barber when he had only two chairs. He eventually hired another barber from Wildwood, then he installed a third chair and brought in a female barber. Eventually, the man left, and the woman opened her own shop in North Wildwood. Repici ended up with four ladies cutting hair in his shop: Kathy, Sally, Sue, and Pat.
“Me and the girls worked together until the shop changed to what it is today,” Repici said.
The owners of Headlines, as the shop is known today, approached Repici at one point and asked to rent space in the back of his shop.
“I said, ‘Why don’t you rent the whole place and I’ll work for you?’” he said.
Sally had opened her own shop and when Headlines came in, Sue retired, and Pat moved to another shop before retiring to Florida.
Repici and his wife, Kathy, who retired from the school system, raised three children in Upper Township, who are all still in the area. He said none of them chose to follow him in the hair-cutting trade.
“All three went their own way,” he said. 
Repici summed up his times as a barber, saying it was a very interesting career and he made a lot of friends.
“It was a great experience. It’s just time to hang up the scissors,” he said. 
Contact the author, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com.