‘Barber of Concordville’ lays down his tools after 60 years at his trade

Clever, witty, good-natured, and dexterous. 

This describes Figaro, a character immortalized in comic operas by Gioachino Rossini and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 

But another Italian barber, one whom countless clients in this area (and beyond) know well, fits that description. He’s even been called “The Barber of Concordville.” 

Raffaele Nicoletta wielded a razor and shears in Acton for 30 years. Add the rest of his career elsewhere, and he’s been barbering for six decades. But this spring, Nicoletta hung up his coat and clippers and embraced retirement.

Nicoletta’s many clients, who also consider themselves his friends, express their fondness for the beloved barber they call “Raffa.” State Rep. Simon Cataldo, a regular at the shop, had the Massachusetts House of Representatives issue an official declaration congratulating Nicoletta on his “dedicated service,” and citing  his “grace, humor, perspective on world events, steady hands, and good taste in music.”

‘More than a barber’

Rich Higgins, a Concordian who regularly visited Nicoletta’s Walden Street shop and the bestower of the “Barber of Concordville” moniker, says Nicoletta “instinctively knows what is best for your head. And more than that, he is a great person. You always came away from his shop with more than a haircut.” 

Such testimonials abound for Nicoletta, a spry, smiling 78-year-old who lives in Chelmsford with his wife of 34 years, Roberta. They have twin 27-year-old sons, Valentino, an engineer, and Raffaele Jr., who studied anthropology.

Nicoletta is upbeat and funny, say his fans, and loves to joke. Among his favorite targets is Silvio Berlusconi, the infamous Italian media tycoon and politician who served as prime minister of Italy. 

Bill Page of Acton entrusted his hair to Nicoletta for more than 20 years. “He’s been more than a barber.  He’s a confidant,” Page says. The two would talk about music, gardening, and cycling, “everything that matters in life.” 

Nicoletta used to ride his bike to work, and at 78 he is still an avid cyclist. 

Saturdays with the Met

Nicoletta has trimmed Henry Yates’ hair since the teenager was 7. His dad, Rob, is also a beneficiary of the barber’s skills and good company. He recalls conversing with Nicoletta about everything from politics to World Cup matches. “And he really knows his classical music,” adds Yates.

On Saturdays, Nicoletta would tune the radio to a live matinee broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera, filling the shop with the soaring arias and emotional recitatives of Mozart or Monteverdi.  

Nicoletta’s grandfather was a barber who died in 1919 from the Spanish flu, when Nicoletta’s father was only 3. His grandmother encouraged Raffa to take up the trade, saying, “You’ll never get dirty.” 

So Nicoletta, who grew up in Aquara, in the southern Italian province of Salerno, apprenticed to a barber when he was 15. Cutting hair wasn’t his first choice, but there was no high school close by and nowhere for him to pursue his interest in electronics. 

“There were tough times back then,” Nicoletta says. He is one of five siblings, and his parents were farmers.  

After World War II, “everything was a mess from the bombings. There was broken infrastructure and little opportunity for gainful employment,” Roberta says of her husband’s early years. This forced Nicoletta’s father, Generoso, to seek work in Germany, which was rebuilding. For 15 years, Generoso could come home for only five weeks each summer. 

Raffa later joined him, as was expected of the eldest son. 

A meet cute 

Nicoletta fulfilled his mandatory military duty at 20 and went back to barbering. Years later, he visited the U.S. with friends for 10 days. He met Roberta, a lively redhead of Irish heritage, who was teaching instrumental music in Manchester. Nicoletta was smitten, and the two kept in touch. 

Not long after, Nicoletta invited Roberta to Italy. “It was a leap of faith,” she says, one which she landed safely — and happily. The two eventually married, living in Milan for five years before returning to the States to be near Roberta’s widowed mother. Nicoletta took courses in English at Harvard Extension School, and his wife studied Italian there. 

His clientele has included artists, musicians, and writers from Acton and surrounding towns — and even states. Known to bring his tools while on vacation, Nicoletta sometimes cut the hair of Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians spending the summer at Tanglewood, including that of the maestro Christoph von Dohnányi. 

After cutting hair in Natick and then in Framingham, Nicoletta ended up in Acton, where he cut hair at Strop and Blade for eight years. A chance meeting with David Palmucci, who owned a nearby barber shop and wanted to sell, led to Nicoletta purchasing the business in 2003 and lending it his name, which remains under the shop’s new ownership. 

Nicoletta is easing into his life’s next chapter, tending to his vegetable garden, cooking — a Mediterranean diet accounts for the couple’s good health, he says — cycling, walking, taking in plays and movies, and spending more time with his wife, who plays the flute in the Acton Band. “We love the same things,” he says. 

The years have been good to Nicoletta “overall,” and his success has taught him to “take nothing for granted.” The Barber of Concordville, he says, intends “to just enjoy life now.”