2018

Martin Bufano Jr.

Virginia

Martin Bufano, Jr. was born June 30, 1925 in Scranton, PA. He passed away on December 3, 2018. At age 13 his local barber asked him to become his apprentice. Although barbering was not something he thought he wanted to do with his life, his father urged him to learn a trade. So after school and during the summer he cleaned the shop and learned how to cut hair.Martin Bufano, Jr. was born June 30, 1925 in Scranton, PA. He passed away on December 3, 2018. At age 13 his local barber asked him to become his apprentice. Although barbering was not something he thought he wanted to do with his life, his father urged him to learn a trade. So after school and during the summer he cleaned the shop and learned how to cut hair.

In 1942 Martin enlisted in the Marines and in addition to being a crew member on the 50 caliber machine guns, he was also the part-time barber. After discharge from the Marines, Martin opened a dry cleaning store, still not sure barbering was for him. Things didn't pan out with the dry cleaning business and he found himself the owner of a three chair barbershop and a barber's license. 

In 1958 Martin and a fellow barber attended a barber show in NYC. The following year Martin entered the competition and won the trophy for one of the best mens' haircuts. In 1960 at this same show he met Mr. Edmond Roffler who was a guest artist demonstrating men's hair sculpturing. He asked Mr. Roffler to come to Scranton to teach him. He agreed to do this for $1000 to cover his expenses and Martin agreed to pay him. One year later, Mr. Roffler and another barber, Anthony Sangermano and Martin formed a company named Roffler Industries, Inc. From then to 1985 when they sold their company, Martin had trained roughly 20,000 barbers on how to become a Roffler stylist. 

In 1961 Mr. Buffano was selected as the Barber of the Year and in 1966 he was chosen to be a member of the first American team to compete in the world's hair cutting championship in Brussels, Belgium and returned with the trophy. 

Although retired, Mr. Bufano still cut hair into his 90s in Richmond,VA. He was proud to say that all of his children, Paul, Marty, Dan and Leanne are all in the hair styling profession.