Lansdale Cuts Ribbon on Modern Male Barber Academy

Bruce Schwartz•

Owner Nicky Prosseda helps daughter Concetta cut the ribbon

There’s a new transit-oriented development in Lansdale, and it’s not an apartment complex.

The ribbon was cut Monday on the shiny new Modern Male Barber Academy, 209 W. Main St., by owner Nicky Prosseda’s 5-year-old daughter Concetta, accompanied by Borough Council members Jack Hansen and Mary Fuller and surrounded by friends and family.

While Modern Male has four successful barbershop locations – in Quakertown, Sellersville, Perkasie and Souderton – this is Prosseda’s first school, and he’s making it a showplace. There will be 14 chairs, with a studio walled in gleaming black-and-white subway tile and marble mosaics.

As the corner shop adjacent to Railroad Plaza and the train station, it’s one of the highest-visibility locations in town. And Lansdale’s location as a major SEPTA nexus was one of the aspects that sold Prosseda on the site as the place to train the next generation of barbers.

"The reason we chose Lansdale is the train,” said Prosseda. "It’s very easy to get here from the Jefferson stop in Center City Philadelphia and beyond, with all the connecting trains. We have access to center city and the suburban area for students to come to school.”

Folks may have noticed that there’s been a boom in barbering in downtown Lansdale. But Prosseda, who has been cutting hair since he was a young teen in Southwest Philly, sees a need for more properly trained and licensed barbers, both in his shops and others.

"We’ve produced about 80 to 90 percent of our own employees over the years, through apprentice programs,” he said. But the state sets limits on apprentice programs, and "in the last 10 years it’s been a struggle trying to find good quality barbers.”

He estimates that his shops have had 45-50 apprentices in the past decade. He hopes to enroll 20 students for the Academy's 10-1/2 month program in the first year, and eventually 50 to 70 a year. "We’ve been desiring to do a school for years,” he said. "But Modern Male Barber Academy is not just for us. It’s for barbershops in general that need to fill their chairs with barbers.”

The shop will offer $10 haircuts by barbers-in-training as well, says Prosseda, calling it a win-win for the town and trainees. "Our students are learning. The tradeoff it’s a cheaper cost. But because you’re going to have a master barber instructor guiding, there will be people leaving with a great quality haircut for $10.”