LI Barbershop Marks Decade After Uncertain Times In COVID-19

WANTAGH, NY — For a decade, Mad Men Barbershop has been cutting men's hair. The salon has become a go-to spot for grooming.

Owner and founder Ed Dennehy had no barber background. His experience is tailoring, which he brings to Mad Men in Wantagh and at his Williston Park location for an exclusive gentlemen's club feel.

The shop in Wantagh started with three barbers and five chairs. Fast forward 10 years and they have 15 barbers combined in the two locations, with 10 men cutting hair in Wantagh.

Sam Pineda, an East Meadow native, was one of the first barbers Dennehy hired from a Craigslist ad. After five years, he began his second stint at Mad Men on Sunday. In describing his regular clientele, it seems like he could work for the LIRR.

"They are literally from here, Wantagh, Massapequa, Seaford, Bellmore, Merrick, literally all down Merrick Road."

Additionally, he said, many customers are in law enforcement, given many NYPD members living in the vicinity.

"We've just gotten so much love from that group of people," he said.

Since COVID-19, Dennehy took extra steps to ensure sanitary conditions for his barbers and customers.

"Realistically, not everyone could afford to upkeep every single thing the way the government wanted," Dennehy told Patch. "But we really did our best and transformed our whole shop into exactly what the department of health wanted at the time. That became something that we're really serious about."

In the early weeks of the pandemic, when masks were in short supply, Dennehy used his tailoring connection overseas to get masks. Mad Men donated 100,000 masks to local government, leading to honors from Nassau County.

COVID-19 sent Dennehy, originally from Baldwin, to relocate near Cooperstown, NY, in Dec. 2020.

He visits the stores monthly and is accessible online and via phone at other times. But his co-owner, and former wife, is available day-to-day at the shops.

The pandemic hit him hard in Williston Park, where they lost half their space due to a lack of customers. However, Wantagh has been less sensitive to the coronavirus, and recovered quicker.

"But it is still significantly down. I would say at 30 percent is about right," Dennehy said.

He wasn't worried about surviving financially in the pandemic. The concern was always--"If you open it, will they come," to paraphrase a line from the film "Field of Dreams."

Dennehy admitted, "We didn't know what was going to come out of it."

As the state moves forward, Dennehy has designs on adding a third location. Nothing is firmed up, but he is actively looking in Nassau farther east in Massapequa or Farmingdale.

Despite the COVID-19 closure in 2020, Dennehy refused to hike prices for the $25 haircut.

"We're going to stay true to who we are and really try to offer the community [a] price point at this time when everyone is struggling with the way gas is and inflation," he said.