Kyriacos Demetriou ( Greek: Δημητρίου Κυριάκος, known as Mr. Kay) (April 14, 1919 – May 14, 1999) was a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

barber known for his adherence to traditional practices within his craft. Mr. Kay was born in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

, but his family moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

when he was an infant. His family struggled financially, and he took up work as a shoeshine boy outside a barbershop on

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

's West End. He became an apprentice to the proprietor, at first standing on a milk crate to cut. He won a national barber competition, and in the late 1930s he emigrated to New York. He worked at various places before taking over the Broadway Barbershop. His business was on the west side of Broadway in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

between 103rd and 104th Streets. Reputed to be the oldest in the city, it was founded in 1904. Mr. Kay took over in the early 1970s and ran it for almost 30 years until he retired in 1996. In addition to haircuts, he provided shaves with a

straight razor A straight razor is a razor with a blade that can fold into its handle. They are also called open razors and cut-throat razors. The predecessors of the modern straight razors include bronze razors, with cutting edges and fixed handles, produced b ...

. He maintained his salon in keeping with traditional barber shops, and when he retired he refused offers to sell the interior and donated it instead to the

Museum of the City of New York A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these i ...

. Throughout the years, as his business increasingly became an anachronism, it was featured in articles, books, and art. He was featured at least twice in '' New Yorker'' cartoons, as a subject in a painting by

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, and in books about fading New York businesses. Mr. Kay claimed to have given

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his first shaved head, and to have cut the hair of presidents Harry Truman and

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

, as well as that of actor

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, the composers Aaron Copland and

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

. He had an appearance on

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. He took a particular interest in the families he served. He worked six days a week, did not post his prices, refused to take appointments, and made customers wait, often standing in line outside his shop. A mainstay on the Upper West Side through the years, he was also known for his daily exchange with a passerby who would knock on his door on his way home from work:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Demetriou, Kyriacos 1919 births 1999 deaths Businesspeople from New York City American hairdressers Cypriot emigrants to the United States Upper West Side 20th-century American businesspeople