This hairdresser has really made the cut in life.
Vito “Vic” Sammartino will celebrate 50 years in his eponymous Station Place barber shop next month and shows no signs of slowing down.
Mr Sammartino learnt the tools of the trade as a child in his hometown of Vizzini, Sicily, where he would help out at the village barber shop after school.
“It’s not like here, where you have apprenticeships,” he said. “
I’d go after school, help sweep and clean up, and start to shave customers. I was about seven or eight.”
When he moved to Werribee as a 19-year-old, he started working at the local barber on Station Place, entering into a business partnership with then-owner Gerald Agosta within the year.
Since then, thousands of customers have been through his salon’s doors and many have been regulars for decades.
The 70-year-old said he loved living and working in Werribee, where he met his wife of 43 years, Lina, and brought up his two children.
Mr Sammartino is also the proud grandfather of two.
“I’ve alaways lived in this town,” he said.
“I’ve built a house, a family … I’ve only ever done this trade.
“There’s not many barber shops now, but I still like what I do – I’m happy.”
