Owner of Hunt’s Barber Shop dies at 88

Layton Hunt, 88, former proprietor of Hunt’s Barber Shop for over six decades, died on July 17. Hunt was somewhat of a legend on the North Shore, known for his skill, congeniality, and kindness. The cause of death was lung cancer.  

Originally from North Carolina, Hunt moved to Long Island in 1957 and lived in Locust Valley where he opened his barber shop in 1966. Forty years ago he moved to Westbury to live with his companion of 45 years, Mildred Anastasi. 

Hunt and his six brothers and two sisters grew up on his family’s farm. He had to drop out of school in the sixth grade to pick cotton and tobacco. Hunt’s early life in Robeson County, where 27 percent of the population live below the poverty line, gave him the moxie to overcome a lack of education to start his own successful business in Locust Valley. 

His passion for cutting hair began in 1953 when he served in the Army during the Korean War. During his three years of service, Hunt, after perfecting the buzz cut, decided he would become a barber. But first he joined the Foreign Service as a combat battalion engineer for 15 months. 

When he came home to Locust Valley in 1958, he married Helen Jacobs. They had two children, Dennis and Donna. Hunt went to barber school part time on the GI Bill for six months while working for his brother Lacy Hunt, who designed boat interiors in Oyster Bay and driving a sanitation truck in Roslyn. 

In 1961 he was hired as a barber in a Locust Valley shop where he worked for a year and a half. Then he bought the barber shop on the corner of Birch Hill and Buckram roads in Locust Valley that he named Hunt’s Barber Shop. It became his life. 

His daughter, Donna Lafreniere said her father loved Locust Valley. Although she was 4 years old when her parents divorced in 1968, she has fond memories of visiting her father in Locust Valley during the summer. 

“I always thought Locust Valley was so pretty, green with all the trees,” she said. “Locust Valley is a special community and I think that’s why my Dad loved it there. From the very rich to the guy off the street with work boots on, they were Dad’s customers who were all so eclectic. Dad felt welcome in Locust Valley, and he made people feel welcome in his barber shop.” 

Gaitley Stevenson-Mathews, of Glen Cove, is also originally from Robeson County, North Carolina where he too picked tobacco in his youth. When Mathews went to meet Hunt in 2016, he said they had an immediate connection.

“My life as a voice and speech coach living on the North Shore of Long Island is very different from my life growing up in a very rural area of North Carolina where I farmed tobacco, enjoyed many a plate of collard greens and cornbread, and spent countless nights on the front porch of my grandmother’s home hearing stories of times gone by,” he said. “My respect for Layton as a business owner, entrepreneur and veteran was greater because of his humble beginnings. He was the salt of the earth.” 

Hunt was part Cherokee and part Lumbee Indian. When Stevenson-Mathews learned of his new friend’s heritage he contacted the Lumbee chief in Robeson County and asked if he could give Hunt a citation on behalf of the tribe to recognize him for his service as a veteran and barber on Long Island. Hunt treasured the citation, which was given to him in September of 2022, Stevenson-Mathews said. 

Brian Basile, who owns Glen Cove’s Strong Island Styles barbershop, met Hunt 15 years ago. Although Basile was an established barber, Hunt became his mentor.

“We had two different types of styles in barbering, but he taught me how important it is to be nice to the people who come to your location,” Basile said. “He was a friendly person who had amazing energy. He’d never show it if he was in a bad mood.” 

Basile loved the look of Hunt’s shop, which is over a century old. It had the traditional three red and cream-colored barber chairs, old sturdy cabinets and the striped barber pole outside the shop. On a whim, he asked Hunt if he could buy it when he was ready to retire.

“I told him I wanted to be the caretaker of the institution and would always honor his name and not change anything,” Basile said. “I want to keep it exactly as it is so people can sit in 100 year old barber chairs. It has so much importance in this area. It’s a landmark.”

Hunt loved the idea and the two talked about it for years. When the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020 Hunt decided it was time to sell his shop to Basile. Hunt never regretted it because he was happy the younger barber had an interest in barbering and the movement behind it. 

But he wasn’t ready to hang up his clippers.

“Layton asked if he could continue to work one day a week but that turned into him coming every day of the week,” said Basile, smiling. “He didn’t want to retire. So I didn’t hire other people.”

Hunt continued to work at the shop until he could no longer tolerate the symptoms he was experiencing from cancer. Basile stopped by each day to give Hunt, who was bedridden, a shave or cut his hair. He would share stories about what their customers were saying which Hunt enjoyed hearing. 

Stevenson-Mathews went to see Hunt four days before he died. Although he could not speak, Stevenson-Mathews said Hunt knew he was there. 

“As I was leaving, I took his hand and said, ‘Thanks you for your service,’” Stevenson-Mathews recalled. “With his free hand he saluted me.”