Friends and neighbors: The kindest cutter of all

Emil Messina has been cutting hair for 72 years. At 84, he has no plans on retiring. “I will leave that to the man upstairs,” Messina said. “As long as he gives me the legs to stand up, I’ll be cutting hair.” (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Emil says he was born with a pair of scissors in his hand. Cutting hair since 13, he grandfather, father and two brothers all barbered. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Mike Clark goes to Messina for shaves because he said he doesn’t miss a whisker. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Customers are usually waiting for Messina when he opens his shop. Sometimes, he lets customers pay him later. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Emil’s Barber Shop has been in the Oak Park Arms since 1986. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

When Messina was a barber at Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, entertainer Jack Benny was a regular customer and a pretty good tipper. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Messina’s barber license for Illinois issued in 1953. (David Pierini/staff photographer)

Emil Messina’s grandfather was a barber. So was his father and two brothers.

“I was born in a barbershop, barbers all around me,” he said. “I don’t know anything else.”

Messina, 84, has been a barber since the age of 13, when he was cutting the hair of soldiers during World War II in his native Italy.

He moved to Chicago on Christmas Eve 1951 and began plying his trade in downtown Chicago hotels like the Palmer House and Conrad Hilton, which had busy barbershops.

There he cut the hair of Liberace, Jimmy Durante and Jack Benny, to name a few celebrities. In 1986, he opened a two-chair shop in the Oak Park Arms, where he cuts the hair of a steady stream of customers, four days a week.

“I’m here to please the customer,” he said. “I’m not trying to sell you anything. If you want a hot dog, I’m not going to try and sell you a steak.”

Messina lives in Westchester and has no plans to retire.

“I will leave that to the man upstairs,” Messina said. “As long as he gives me the legs to stand up, I’ll be cutting hair.”