Sharing vocation and work ethics = mutual admiration 

Six generations of sugar cane farmers may not be unique in the Teche Area, but there is another time-honored professional trade that still holds the tradition of a son following in his father’s footsteps — as a barber.

Sitting in the 1968 Vice Barber Shop on Center Street is a step back in time. The walls, the chairs and even the working phone on the wall are just as they were when Loveless Vice and Sam Culotta III walked into the shop and began cutting hair together.

Loveless Vice had moved from Lake Charles, where he worked with his brother, Dalton Vice and Dalton’s son James. Their shop was near the gates of Chennault Air Force Base. A steady stream of walk-in customers kept them busy.

When it closed and construction later blocked access to their business, it was time to look elsewhere. The Naval Air Station in New Iberia was another potential walk-in clientele base.

All in the Family

James Vice followed his uncle for a time, but decided to go it on his own. He opened a shop in the new Torrido Village strip mall between Main and St. Peter’s streets. James and his father, Dalton Vice, moved everything from the shop in Lake Charles to the new location, The Village Barber Shop. It looks the same today with the 1954 barrel barber chairs they used then.

“At the time, all the chairs stayed full, people were sitting, and even standing, waiting for their turn,” James Vice said. “Some guys would come through the door, multiple times a day, checking for a time they could get in. This location was the ‘Walmart’ of its time.”

James Vice said he learned from his father, who had a variety of jobs before settling on barbering, that he didn’t want to be a farmer. His father encouraged education explaining “pushing a pencil was easier than pushing a shovel.” James Vice agreed and attended barber school in New Orleans.

After learning the trade, James Vice served a stint in the military in which he continued the practice and saved the soldiers a dollar a haircut, which meant a lot at the time, he said.

Education Prepares the Man

Dalton Vice didn’t attend formal barber training. Instead when he was about 15 years old, with four sisters and three brothers, his mother gave him the clippers, and the responsibility to cut the boys hair. Neighborhood children were also his first customers at a nickle a hair cut. After trying other trades, he had a work accident and went back to the tried and true — barbering.

The same teacher that taught James Vice at barber trade school, also taught his son Scott and even Sarah Broussard, who works with Vice at Village Barber.

“All my five boys, also had one girl, shined shoes but only Scott went into the business,” James Vice said. “I’ve been in a barbershop for 60 years.”

Watching the Pros

Sam Chip Culotta IV, 39, has been a barber at the Vice Barber Shop for 21 years. As a youngster at work with his father, he would watch Loveless Vice’s son, Tim Vice, as he shined shoes in the corner of his dad’s shop.

During 18 months of schooling, Chip Culotta would work with his father and visit nursing homes where they would cut hair for free. Chip Culotta said, like his father, he’s made a good living and been home every night with his family.

“I like dealing with people,” Chip Culotta said. “There’s a lot of gossip — fish tales, hunting, everything — and politics.”

Sam Culotta III is now retired.

“We worked together for six years,” Chip Culotta said. “Now he’s retired enjoying life.”

Always the Plan

Tim Vice only recently became the full time barber owner of Vice Barber Shop. For 35 years he was the tax collector for the city of New Iberia. He retired two years ago when his father got sick.

Prior to his father’s illness and ultimate death, Tim Vice went to barber school at night. It took him longer than normal but always knew one day he’d take over his father’s business. He has been working for 10 years, mostly part time. Whenever Tim Vice visited his father in the nursing home, he’d ask the same thing, “You still going to take over the shop?” Tim Vice is fulfilling that promise.

“When I was 6 years old, I was in that corner shining shoes and shined them until I was 16 years old,” Tim Vice said. “Most shoes don’t need shining anymore. They are throw away.

“We didn’t have to work, we had a good life. The discipline was the reason, no idol time,” Tim Vice said. “When other kids were outside playing ball, I was in here shining shoes or sweeping, and Chip was watching me. My mom and dad taught me a lot of good work ethics. She owned a beauty shop on Banks.”

With young people not going into the business much anymore, Tim Vice said, their clientele has increased in recent times. Clyde’s Barber Shop where Tim Vice’s cousin Scott works, has been in business as long as Vice Barber Shop. Clyde sold his business before his death. Some customers stayed, others moved to Vice.

“A barber in Erath retired so we got people from there, one in Lafayette shut down and is no longer a traditional barbershop so customers are now coming to New Iberia,” Tim Vice said.

Men Can Be Men

The difference between the traditional barbershop and hair salons is not the skill level, though some do more extensive care than others. A barber caters to men even though Tim Vice said he has a dozen or so women customers with shorter or long men’s style cuts.

“In a barbershop, men come to be with men, and talk about fishing, hunting, cussing, women and everything else including politics. They’re not going to do that (in beauty salons). I have customer’s whose daughters are beauticians but they don’t go to them. They want to come to a traditional barbershop,” Tim Vice said. “This place has been here forever. We have guys who are bringing in their kids and their kids’ kids. We have a lot of that here.”

His barbershop is designed to get people in and out every 15 minutes. They don’t even shave there.

Scott Vice, on the other hand, has not only mastered the art of sculpted shaving, he has been on the state board of barber examiners for 13 years, chairman most of the last term.

He has gone beyond cutting hair “off,” and also now is putting it “on.” Scott Vice at Clyde’s Hair Design works with various hair systems to restore confidence and youth by giving men and women their lost hair.

Like his father and Tim’s father, Scott began shining shoes when he was 10 years old. Although he told his dad and grandfather he was not going to be a barber, a stint in diesel mechanic school and offshore work made his decision. After 25 years he’s still cutting hair.

“There wasn’t enough grass grown for me to stay offshore,” Scott Vice said. “My grandfather and my dad, they taught me how to be responsible.”

“We as fathers and mothers are all of the same human nature,” James Vice said. “But we live different rolls in life. So we define our roll as father and mother and live it out in society.”