Just a few minutes’ walk from the Teatro alla Scala, in Via Gerolamo Morone, a side street off the elegant Via Alessandro Manzoni, is the Antica Barbieria Colla.
The history of a Milanese institution
Barbieria Colla has been at its current location since 1943. It was founded in 1904 by Dino Colla in Via Manzoni 19.
He never served customers himself, but devoted himself exclusively to training his employees and developing new care products and techniques. For example, he is said to have introduced the use of hot towels to finish shaving, as well as the first shampoos with soap flakes from Marseille.
After just a few years, the hairdressing salon had turned into a kind of gentlemen’s club. 15 years after opening, it became too small and Dino Colla moved into new premises in Via Verdi 2, opposite the Teatro alla Scala.
The clientele included local celebrities, members of old families and the good middle class, as well as Italian celebrities.
Wartime and a new beginning
Customers remained loyal to their barber store even during the war. A bombing raid that destroyed Piazza della Scala and the entire neighborhood in August 1943 put an end to this era. Nine months later, on April 1, 1944, the store reopened.
Of the old employees, only Guido Mantovanini had remained loyal to his employer and waited for the reopening. Dino Colla bequeathed the business to him in 1949.
The Franco Bompieri era
Franco Bompieri joined Barbieria Colla in January 1960. He had previously worked in the salon of the Hotel Continental. He brought many customers with him from there, which gave the business a further boost.
Guido Mantovanini and Franco Bompieri worked together for thirteen years, from 1965 as equal partners. Mantovanini died in 1975 and Franco Bompieri continued to run Barbieria alone.
Discussions with customers were always about literature. This was not only due to the fact that many customers are journalists and writers. Franco Bompieri was a writer himself and published numerous books with renowned publishers such as Longanesi and Feltrinelli. He saw himself above all as a “craftsman of elegance” and wrote his books at night.
Tradition and innovation under Francesca Bompieri
Today, his daughter Francesca Bompieri runs the business. She gradually took over the management when her father began to retire for reasons of age. He died in 2023 at the age of 89.
The communications design graduate made the care products, which until then had only been produced for use in stores, available to the general public around 15 years ago. They have also been sold online since 2013. She designed the packaging and all advertising materials.
It started with six shampoos for different hair root types, the lotion for skin massage, the travel soap and the brush with white bristles and handmade aluminum handle. Since then, numerous products have been added, including the eau de cologne, which was no longer available for many years.
The sale of its products has made Barbieria Colla famous beyond Italy. Foreign customers who only know the store from the Internet visit Via Gerolamo Morone time and again. Many of them then book a treatment.
The art of traditional shaving
One of the two hairdressers who look after hair and beards at Colla is Alberto Diforti. He has been working at Barbieria Colla since 2010. He started his apprenticeship at the age of 14 and still loves his job today. Like his colleagues, he always serves customers in a tie and white coat.
Alberto Diforti explains to us that Colla only trims and shapes beards with scissors and a comb. Wet shaving is more common. It takes about 20 minutes. Hot towels are always included. We were allowed to watch one customer being shaved.
The wet shave begins with a massage using almond oil and aloe vera cream. The shaving soap is whipped into a lather with a brush fitted with white bristles. This is followed by apricot-scented aftershave and a hot towel. The treatment ends with a facial massage. Meanwhile, the customer can have a manicure. Pedicures are also offered in an adjoining room.
Antica Barbieria Colla
Via Gerolamo Morone 3
20121 Milano
Italy
Tel.: +39 02 874312
