Local Barbers Raise Haircut Cost to $1.50, As Predicted Earlier

For those who contemplated a visit to their barber before the predicted price rise but never made it, it is now too late. Yesterday the barbers of Cambridge and Boston opened with a new price of $1.50 a haircut.

No further hike is expected within the foreseeable future. The barbers' union has talked of charging $1.75 for crew cuts, but Anthony Ferranti, owner of the Harvard Barber Shop, said yesterday that "there is little or no chance of such a raise in Harvard Square.

The union had nothing to do with the increase, said Ferranti, "although it has been contacting us lightly this past week." Ferranti was sure that the union would have been in Cambridge within another week if the price had not been lifted. At present, none of the shops in Cambridge are unionized.

Fred Lombardi of La Flamme Barber Shop felt that the rise would not really affect the net pay of his barbers, who work on a strict commission basis. "Now," he said, "instead of fifteen customers a day each barber may get only ten. The difference will be that we work less."

Ever since the Boston chapter of the Association of Master Barbers and Beauticians of America confirmed the disputed price raise a week ago, Cambridge barbers expected momentarily to hear from their representatives. Yesterday morning the representatives appeared and by 8 a.m. all Cambridge barbers had been notified that they were to keep in step with the Boston prices.