Students, faculty, and four university presidents have sat in these chairs. Five minutes from the Foggy Bottom–GWU Metro, a block off Pennsylvania Avenue.
Foggy Bottom · Washington, D.C.
Old-school barber shop in Foggy Bottom, DC,
Old-school barber shop in Foggy Bottom, DC,
since 1960.
Sixty-six years of listening. Opened April 23, 1960 by a Sicilian immigrant — still Foggy Bottom, still walk-ins, still cash. Come down the stairs.
Around the corner
The Foggy Bottom barbershop,
GW
World Bank · IMF · State
Neighbors
The Foggy Bottom barbershop,
near GWU and Farragut West.
The lunch-hour regulars. Walk over, take the next open chair, be back at your desk in forty minutes.
Kids’ first haircuts, fathers and sons, the same chair for thirty years. Cash, no appointment, five languages.
The institution
Not a salon.
Not a salon.
A Foggy Bottom fixture.
Tony Puglisi apprenticed in Sicily, cut hair in Rome, and arrived in Washington in 1960 with his wife Virginia — speaking no English, looking for a better life.
Three addresses later, the chairs are still full of GW students, office workers, news anchors, and neighbors who don’t need to say what they want anymore. They just sit down.
01 / The mark
The oval on the brick is the brand: Puglisi HairCuts · Established 1960.
From Tony
The secret is
The secret is
simple.
“Just listening to people. If they ask for a certain style… do it the way they want.”
Meet the chairs →“We’re family. You know, they are like my own boys.”Tony Puglisi · DCist, June 2019
Deep reads
The work behind
The work behind
the walk-in.
Sicily → Rome → Foggy Bottom.
Three addresses since 1960. One immigrant’s American Dream — and a shop that refused to vanish with the neighborhood’s long-hair years.
Read the founding story →
Tony. Abel. José. David.
Decades in the chairs — and a room that speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian.
Meet the barbers →
02 / The name in the glass
The letters on the mirror are the only branding the room has ever needed.
Come by
Walk in.
Walk in.
Bring cash.
2040 I St NW — English basement under the old Lindy’s Red Lion space, Foggy Bottom.
Open, and formerly at 2100 Pennsylvania Ave NW: the shop moved here in 2019. About five minutes on foot from Foggy Bottom–GWU Metro and six from Farragut West, near GW, the World Bank, the IMF, and the State Department. Saturdays 8am–5pm. The barbers speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian.
Cash only
Bring cash. There is an ATM nearby.
| Monday | 8am – 6pm |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 8am – 6pm |
| Wednesday | 8am – 6pm |
| Thursday | 8am – 6pm |
| Friday | 8am – 6pm |
| Saturday | 8am – 5pm |
| Sunday | Closed |
Foggy Bottom since 1960
Your chair is