{"id":8985,"date":"2018-07-24T06:49:26","date_gmt":"2018-07-24T10:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=8985"},"modified":"2018-07-23T15:54:11","modified_gmt":"2018-07-23T19:54:11","slug":"franco-insana-pittsburghs-blindfolded-barber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2018\/07\/24\/franco-insana-pittsburghs-blindfolded-barber\/","title":{"rendered":"Franco Insana, Pittsburgh’s blindfolded barber"},"content":{"rendered":"

A photograph from 1974 shows Franco Insana at his best: dressed in a suit and tie, with a comb in his hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flanked by dozens of young women in impeccable white uniforms, the renowned Pittsburgh hairdresser demonstrates his techniques on a ringlet-haired model. She grins, and the students intently observe every move.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Students watch Franco Insana demonstrate hairstyling techniques at one of his beauty academies in 1974.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr. Insana was the namesake owner of Franco Beauty Academy, which operated schools Downtown and in Charleroi, Ambridge and New Kensington. With an Italian accent, thick, expressive eyebrows and a virtuosic ability to cut hair blindfolded, Mr. Insana branded himself as a creative force with \u201cexotic\u201d European flair.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was almost like a machine, the way his hands moved,\u201d recalled his son, who is also named Franco Insana. \u201cHe was competitive in a way, constantly striving to do it better, quicker, smoother.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Franco <\/a>
Franco Insana at a hair competition in New York City in 1962. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Franco <\/a>
Franco Insana shows off the Masters’ trophy he won at the National Hair Guild Society Competition in 1954. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Franco <\/a>
Franco Insana gives a haircut with his eyes covered. (Courtesy of the Detre Library & Archives at the Heinz History Center) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The neatly-mustachioed face of the elder Mr. Insana was a fixture in local newspapers. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette archives hold dozens of pictures of him cutting hair, visiting children in hospitals and wielding trophies from hairstyling competitions in New York and Milan. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Less frequently pictured was Antonina \u201cNina\u201d Insana, the hairstylist\u2019s wife and the organizational backbone of the family business, which included the beauty schools and several associated hair salons. While her charismatic husband wowed the spectators, Mrs. Insana kept the books. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Famed Pittsburgh hairdresser Franco Insana gives his daughter Lina her first haircut in 1971.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lina Insana, the couple\u2019s daughter who now teaches Italian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, said the three or four competing beauty schools were similarly led by charismatic men. \u201cIn the \u201850s and \u201860s, the \u2018worker bees\u2019 were women, but at the top, the creative geniuses were all men,\u201d she recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe person behind the schools really mattered. Their image really mattered; they were a kind of celebrity,\u201d Ms. Insana said. She recalled the persona her father cultivated to set himself apart from the competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe would exaggerate his Italian accent to seem more exotic and interesting and accentuate the fact that he was Italian, from Europe, that he made regular trips to Europe,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was part of his celebrity appeal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That \u201ccelebrity appeal\u201d drew dozens of students clad in white uniforms, many of them young Italian-American women. Beauty school was an appealing vocational path, a cheaper option than four-year college.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t grow up saying, ‘I wanna be a hairdresser,’\u201d said Joyce Mollick, who recently retired from the salon business. Before she attended Franco Beauty Academy, she \u201chad never even used a curling iron.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The few archival images from inside the beauty school document a robust female community, which came to include young gay men during the \u201880s, according to Ms. Insana.<\/span><\/p>\n

One article in The Pittsburgh Press documented final exams at Franco Beauty Academy in 1985. The photographs show an exam proctor \u2014 who sports a voluminous rendition of Princess Diana\u2019s haircut \u2014 solemnly advising an aspiring graduate. The young woman, also rocking a delightfully \u201c\u201880s\u201d haircut, carefully styles the hair of the model: her own mother.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
A student at Franco Beauty Academy styles her mother’s hair for a final exam. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A student at Franco Beauty Academy styles her mother’s hair for a final exam. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"An <\/a>
An aspiring graduate consults her exam proctor, 1985. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

\u201cIt was an environment that I loved,\u201d Ms. Insana said of the beauty school. \u201cGoing to proms was easy because I had a whole school willing to do my hair and makeup.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The hairstyling patriarch died in 1974. His wife took over the business after his passing, but she faced steep challenges as a business-owning widow in a male-dominated industry. What was Franco Beauty Academy, after all, without Franco?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An open house event at the Charleroi beauty school in 1971.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two Insana children said owners of competing beauty schools saw opportunity in their father’s death.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my mother took over, it was really hard for her because her competitors were men, and they were pretty ruthless. One particular competitor \u2018let it be known\u2019 in the community that my mother had passed away and that the business was going under,\u201d Ms. Insana said. \u201cThe brand was gone, the celebrity was gone. My mom didn\u2019t have that panache, the creativity or appeal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The beauty school operation downsized when Mr. Insana first became sick; two of the four academies shuttered close to the time of his death. The last school was sold in 1989.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI keep getting back to my mom,\u201d said the younger Mr. Insana, reflecting on her quiet demeanor and decision to leave Italy with a blindfolded barber. \u201cMy mom took a chance too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A photograph from 1974 shows Franco Insana at his best: dressed in a suit and…<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesFranco Insana, Pittsburgh’s blindfolded barber<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":8983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1066,946],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/8.14.74.jpg?fit=2228%2C1657&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":427,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/07\/25\/franco-harris-autograph-remains-intact\/","url_meta":{"origin":8985,"position":0},"title":"Franco Harris\u2019 autograph remains intact","date":"July 25, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"The picture was taken 40 years ago. 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