- August 29, 2021
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Groom barber Brock Sanford etches a skull on the back of a client’s hair.
Groom barbers Amy Pozzo and Brock Sanford participated in the 10th annual CT Barber Expo at Mohegan Sun Aug. 16-17. Each competed in a different category, Pozzo, pictured, was the only woman in the “15 minute fade” contest.
Groom barbers Amy Pozzo and Brock Sanford participated in the 10th annual CT Barber Expo at Mohegan Sun Aug. 16-17. Each competed in a different category.
Groom barbers Amy Pozzo, pictured, and Brock Sanford participated in the 10th annual CT Barber Expo at Mohegan Sun Aug. 16-17.
Groom barbers Amy Pozzo and Brock Sanford participated in the 10th annual CT Barber Expo at Mohegan Sun Aug. 16-17. Groom owner Mike Dileo, left, watches the contests from ringside.
Groom barbers Amy Pozzo and Brock Sanford participated in the 10th annual CT Barber Expo at Mohegan Sun Aug. 16-17. Pictured is the main stage, where contestants and their clients competed.
Groom barbers Amy Pozzo and Brock Sanford participated in the 10th annual CT Barber Expo at Mohegan Sun Aug. 16-17. Each competed in a different category; Pozzo was the only woman in the “15 minute fade” contest. Sanford, known for his precise cutting, barbered a skull on the back of his client’s head.
Groom barbers Amy Pozzo and Brock Sanford, pictured, participated in the 10th annual CT Barber Expo at Mohegan Sun Aug. 16-17. Each competed in a different category. Sanford, known for his precise cutting, barbered a skull on the back of his client’s head.
Groom barbers Amy Pozzo and Brock Sanford participated in the 10th annual CT Barber Expo at Mohegan Sun Aug. 16-17. Groom owner Mike DiLeo, pictured, watches the competition.
Groom barbers Amy Pozzo and Brock Sanford participated in the 10th annual CT Barber Expo at Mohegan Sun Aug. 16-17. Sanford shows the picture he used when he barbered a skull on the back of his client’s head.
TORRINGTON — Groom, owned by Mike DiLeo on Water Street, is busy most days of the week. DiLeo and his team cut hair for anyone and everyone — small boys seeking their back-to-school fade, men looking for a precise cut for their head and beard, and women looking for a lighter style for the unending hot weather.
Two of DiLeo’s barbers, Amy Pozzo and Brock Sanford, recently competed in the 10th annual CT Barber Expo at Mohegan Sun.
Pozzo put her skills to the test for the 15-minute “fastest fade” contest, and was the only woman competitor. Fades, another word for a close cut with the lowest number on the electric razor — zero or one — are her specialty. She invited a regular client to the contest to sit in the chair.
Neither Pozzo nor Sanford won a prize at the expo, held Aug. 16-17, but it was exciting to be part of the action, Pozzo said.
“I think I did pretty well,” she said. “It was cool to see all the different people who were there. It was packed. There were a lot of people.”
Pozzo knew she had 15 minutes, but she simply concentrated on the cut, and wasn’t even sure she took 15 minutes. “I just did my thing,” she said.
“She was the only girl,” DiLeo said. “Amy could have entered a lady barber contest, but she chose to go up against the guys instead. She did great.”
Sanford, whose family previously owned the now-closed Torrington Beauty Academy, where he honed his skills, competed against other hair artists in a design contest, shaving his customer’s head with a skull and crossbones design. The resulting artwork was accented with colored pencils, something other competitors often use to ramp up the appearance of the design.
Groom customers often ask for a team name or logo to be etched into the hair with the razor on the side of their head or a tribal or geometric design on the back, shaving the hair up to the crown and leaving the top long, to further accent the design.
“I didn’t know about using the pencils until a guy came up and suggested I use them,” said Sanford, who wears his hair in a 1950s style and shaves his facial hair with a design. “I would have started doing that a little earlier, but I didn’t know … but it was OK. Now I know about that part of it.”
Sanford said he’s always been an artist, and pursued barbering to find a job. He’s been at Groom for more than 6 years.
“I’ve always wanted to do artistic things, including hair,” he said. “I’d also like to learn tattooing and have a barber/tattoo place of my own. That’s a goal for me.”
Both barbers have a following at Groom, and say they love working for DiLeo. “This place has that small-town charm,” Sanford said. “Everyone knows everyone here, and we have a good time. It’s just a good place to work. I like what I do.”
“We’re like a family here,” Pozzo said.
The competition was a good experience for the young stylists, DiLeo said.
“They stepped up and really worked hard,” he said. “I’m very proud of them. It was a good experience for them, too.”
“They had the biggest turnout for the 10th annual contest, and so it was a good year for Amy and Brock to go,” Sanford said. “The guy who started it, Jay Majors, realized Connecticut didn’t have an expo for barbers, so he made it happen.”
The barbers already are thinking about next year’s competition. “We both showed up and gave it our all,” Sanford said.
Groom can be reached on Facebook or 860-201-5665.
Emily M. Olson is the community editor for the Torrington Register Citizen, the New Haven Register and the Middletown Press.
She is a 1997 graduate of Western Connecticut State University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism.
She started her career at the Patent Trader newspaper in Westchester County, NY in 1998. After a brief period as a reporter with the Register Citizen in Torrington in 1999, she joined the former Housatonic Publications group as a reporter. She was managing editor of the former Litchfield Enquirer and helped run the weekly newspapers at Housatonic and the Litchfield County Times. She returned to the Register Citizen in 2009.