Coronavirus forces storied Rome barber to hang up his scissors

Barber Luigi Pinzo, 80, sweeps the floor two days before closing his hairdresser salon after 60 years because of fewer clients and fear of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Rome, Italy, October 29, 2020. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

ROME (Reuters) - In nearly seven decades in the barber business, Luigi Pinzo has seen Italy go through some bad times, from myriad recessions to political assassinations, but it took the coronavirus to force him to hang up his scissors.

Pinzo is 80. He first starting working in a hairdressers when he was 12, sweeping the floors and brushing down clients' jackets, before going on to open his own barber shop in a well-to-do Rome neighbourhood in 1977.