In a tiny barber shop in Villa Crespo exists the domain of one particularly unique, larger than life hairdresser, philosopher and matchmaker extraordinaire. Meet Julio Pan, hairdresser to the footballers.
The front of Julio’s eponymous emporium is plastered with signed photos of footballers whose hair he has carefully coiffed. There is literally not a bare piece of wall anywhere in the shop; anything not covered in football memorabilia is daubed with graffiti from satisfied customers, professing their love and commitment to this unlikely local legend.
On entering you are immediately confronted with Julio himself. A huge man in every sense of the word, he sports a slicked back, bleached blonde mullet haircut: perhaps not the style you want to see when just arriving to a barber’s, but impressive none the less. A quick trim can last an entire afternoon when Julio is holding court, as he gives you his musings on life, love and football, alternating between wielding his scissors and puffing on a cigarette.
Julio has owned the same barber’s for 20 years. In a previous life he was a professional footballer, playing for second tier club Defensores de Belgrano. He maintains that the football link occurred purely by accident. “I had a friend who travelled all over Europe for work; one time he brought me back a Liverpool scarf. I started displaying it here and it just grew”, he says while meticulously cropping my hair. Later, when his reputation was released and footballers started turning up, the collection started spiralling out of control as they gifted signed shirts as thanks; on the day of my haircut the most recent gift was the very day before. “I have never bought one of the shirts that hang up here” Julio proudly states.
A wash and cut will cost $35 for men, $30 for women, with colours and tints a little more. For this you will get a hairdresser who will entertain and take meticulous care of your locks. As someone with short hair I’m used to someone buzzing it over with a razor and then showing me the door, but Julio took the time to go over almost every follicle until he was happy.
As well as a haircut he will also give you advice and counsel, whether you like it or not; he was fairly insistent that me and the photographer I travelled with would make a lovely couple, despite our dual protestations. Ask about his first love, struggling Villa Crespo team Atlanta, and you are sure to receive a poetic account of how he loves and suffers for the club; Atlanta players are regular visitors to Julio Pan, and given pride of place in this temple of Argentine football.
There are more upmarket, stylish salons in which you can get your hair styled in the city of Buenos Aires, and there are also places which are cheaper. But if you want to get it cut surrounded by football shirts and photos, in a lime green painted shrine to the beautiful game, being lectured and taught by an irrepressible embodiment of the alpha porteño male, there’s only one Julio Pan.
Julio Pan is located on Julian Alvarez and Luis Maria Drago, Villa Crespo. Opening times vary according to Julio’s schedule, but the barber’s is usually open until 8:30pm Monday to Friday.