Garbo’s stylists offer trust, expert cuts at Marshall St. family-feel salon
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UPDATE: This story was updated at 10:56 a.m. on Sept. 3, 2026.
In the heart of Marshall Street, a few flights of stairs above Faegan’s Cafe & Pub, there’s a storefront many Syracuse University students miss — a place where any problem can be solved with a hair stylist’s expert skill.
Stepping into Garbo’s Barber & Beauty is like stepping into your childhood best friend’s home. There’s always a friendly face, an open ear, music playing and people singing along. At Garbo’s, “everything is fixable,” colorist and co-manager Micah Jareo said.
Garbo’s has been the one-stop shop for SU students’ beauty needs since 1995. Alongside traditional salon services like haircuts and coloring, Garbo’s also offers spa services like spray tanning, lashes and nails.
But the upbeat playlist and environment bring in the most compliments, stylist Santana Wright said.
“(Clients) just love the vibe, and they always say they feel comfortable and at home and just like the atmosphere,” she said.
When you walk in, you’re met with pop music playing from a TV behind the front desk. To the left, you’ll find Garbo’s owner and barber Stavros Vigliotti’s station. SU fraternity members looking for a clean cut funnel in and out all day long.
Jareo works in the next room, applying a halo of foils to an SU senior, who’s settling in for a four-hour hair transformation from black to red. This type of drastic change is fairly common for Jareo’s clients. Those transformations reflect equally big changes in college students’ lives, Jareo said, like moving across the country or making new friends.
“It’s like a lot of changing identities,” Jareo said. “I feel like it’s just trying to see who you want to be and present yourself to the world before you go out there.”
Across the lobby and down the hallway is a color-mixing room, where Wright is perched on a stool waiting for a client. It’s also where the stylists come to collect themselves if something unexpected happens, Jareo said.
Hair color tubes hang from a clothesline strung above two washing machines, resembling paint tubes in an art studio.
Stylist Chloe Regan’s suite is in the opposite direction down the hall, a gothy haven that she chose for its great lighting — a necessity for making TikToks that promote her work and attract new clientele. She focuses on vivid dyes, like the transformation she’s working on — a red split dye with a raccoon tail.
Vigliotti worked at Garbo’s as a barber for around three years before he bought the shop in 2024 for “pennies,” he said. Before Vigliotti started at Garbo’s, he had no interest in working at a hair salon. Now, he couldn’t imagine himself not working with the college kids who rotate through his chair.
He was convinced to start working at Garbo’s during his working interview, he said. While hanging out at the salon for a day to get a feel for the business, Vigliotti said he saw “22 dudes” file in and out. That’s when he knew the salon was the right place for his skills.
Now, if you glance at Vigliotti’s calendar, it’s all blue — he’s completely booked on a Friday afternoon. He can sometimes finish a haircut in only 15 minutes, so he gets a break between each cut.
Vigliotti has garnered a loyal clientele, especially among SU fraternity members. Some of the brothers even joke with Vigliotti about adding him to their composites, he said.
But Vigliotti isn’t the only barber in town. SU senior Greg Carlton said his fraternity, Delta Upsilon, has a “schism.” Half of the members are Vigliotti’s clients, while the others get their hair cut at Forum Barber in downtown Syracuse.
When a new client sits in Vigliotti’s chair, the first question he asks is how they found him. Often, it’s a recommendation from a fraternity brother.
Micah Jareo combs and wets a customer’s hair. Jareo said sharing skills and helping fellow employees is part of the culture at Garbo’s Barber & Beauty. Kaitlyn Galeazzi | Contributing Photographer
One of Carlton’s fraternity brothers grew up with Vigliotti, so he suggested Garbo’s when Carlton was a freshman. Since then, Vigliotti hasn’t “messed him up.”
SU freshman Alex Watkins chose Vigliotti because of the convenient location, he said. Watkins takes a lot of pride in his hair, so he was nervous to put it in Vigliotti’s hands for the first time. But he didn’t stay worried for long.
“I haven’t known him long, but I trust him,” Watkins said — about two minutes after he sat down in Vigliotti’s chair.
It takes time to build trust with clients, but the easiest way to do it is by being a good listener, Jareo said.
One of the most important parts of the process is knowing a client’s hair history and conducting an in-depth consultation, Jareo explained as she applied color remover and foils, never missing a beat.
Jareo initially studied to be a nurse, then she realized life-or-death situations were too high stakes for her. But for some clients, a haircut can feel like a life-or-death situation, too.
“People don’t understand how important somebody’s hair is,” Wright said. “If you mess up a girl’s hair, you could ruin her life for a month or two.”
Wright builds trust with clients by offering them a “dusting” — just trimming off a bit at a time until they’re ready for a bigger cut. It proves to clients that she’s not “scissor happy.” In her seven years at Garbo’s, Wright said she’s never had a bad review — quickly turning to knock on the wooden shelves behind her.
Vigliotti’s consultations take place more on the spot. When a first-time client like SU sophomore Sean Bramli comes in, Vigliotti gets a sense for their normal style, then quickly lays out a game plan and gets to work. Expert hair advice about styling and treatment is also sprinkled in.
Once the trust is there, it’s there for good.
“If you get me right, you’ll see me once a month for the next four years,” Bramli said to Vigliotti.
Behind Vigliotti’s station, a sign reads “what happens at the barber shop stays at the barber shop.” Though it’s just a decoration, Vigliotti takes the sentiment seriously — his clients can speak openly in his chair. Many male clients are afraid to talk about their lives, Vigliotti said, so when a client comes in and “won’t shut up,” he loves it.
“I just get to help them out with life because being 18 to 21 feels like such a hard time, right? Vigliotti said. “So I feel like if I can give them a little bit of advice, we become bros by the end.”
Along with good vibes and strong recommendations, the convenient Marshall Street location is a big draw for students — they can roll out of bed and walk right in. That means Vigliotti has to tame some egregious bedhead, he joked.
Wright loves being on Marshall Street because she gets to be there for things like game days and last year’s Banana Bar Crawl, she said.
“I’ll always see fresh new faces and all the passion and all the excitement that goes on the campus,” Wright said.
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Plus, serving mostly students means being on their schedule. When SU empties out, the stylists have a lull in clients — which Wright said helps her avoid burnout. If you’re wondering if Vigliotti ever gets burnt out, the answer is simple: “no.”
But there are cons to being in the hub of SU nightlife, too. Vigliotti sometimes has to clean vomit, urine and cigarette butts off his front steps, left over from the night before.
Student culture creates some added hair risks; everyone has a self-proclaimed barber buddy who will offer a $10 haircut from their dorm, Carlton said. But it’s usually worth the extra $20 to pay a professional to do it, and you don’t have to pay again to get it fixed, he added.
Vigliotti agrees; dorm haircuts are a pet peeve.
“Everyone thinks they’re creative,” Vigliotti said. “Someone came in with an actual line in his head and asked me if I could fade it out. Like no, you’re bald.”
Though the environment of Garbo’s is enough to get someone in the door, stylists need skills to back it up. For Vigliotti, part of that is his organic cutting style. He cuts hair based on where it naturally grows, without sectioning or clipping it. That helps keep the hair looking styled even after clients leave the chair.
Between clients, Vigliotti watches Marshall Street from the window next to his chair.
“I think this is my next one,” he said. “You can always tell they’re coming to Garbo’s because they’re on a mission.”
Though Vigliotti is confident with the clippers now, he used to give out a lot of free haircuts when he wasn’t happy with the results, he said.
“Cutting hair was actually a necessity for me at one point because I was really down in the dumps with a lot of personal stuff,” Vigliotti said. “I was forced to get better. The better that I got, the more that I saw people returning, and that’s what kind of gave me confidence in myself.”
The stylists help each other build those skills. As Vigliotti works on Bramli’s cut, he calls Jareo over to watch how he fades a line. Whenever Jareo has an extra minute, she’s trying to learn the more complex fade styles Vigliotti specializes in. He’s a wizard, she said.
As Bramli’s cut starts to come together, Vigliotti can’t hide his excitement. “Look how clean that is,” he exclaims. After spending so much time around fraternity members, Vigliotti sounds a little like one: “type sh-t” is part of his vernacular.
At the end of his cut, Bramli puts his glasses back on to take a clear look. He has one word: “wow.”
When Jareo returns to her hair transformation, Wright gives her a helping hand with applying the bleach. Vigliotti loves the chemical smell that fills the salon when a client is going lighter, he said. Sharing skills and helping each other is a quintessential part of the Garbo’s culture, Jareo said.
“We strongly believe that one person’s success singly correlates to anybody else’s success in the salon,” she said.
Garbo’s Barber & Beauty features a neon sign with a “Mean Girls” quote. Owner Stavros Vigliotti tried to make the Garbo’s atmosphere more “chic.” Kaitlyn Galeazzi | Contributing Photographer
That mindset extends to brainstorming new ways to grow the business, too. The team is rolling out weekly specials like “Manicure Monday,” “Tinsel Tuesday” and “Waxing Wednesday.” “Garbo’s After Dark” was one of those team innovations: a late-night special offering a complimentary drink with your haircut Wednesday through Friday (with ID).
Garbo’s has gradually expanded since it opened, with each owner adding their own touch. When Vigliotti took over, he overhauled black furniture, yellow lettering, lots of curtains and brushed silver surfaces in an effort to make the vibes more “chic,” he said.
“If I were to rip this wallpaper up and peel some paint, you’d probably see nine different colors,” Vigliotti said.
Now, the place has a more Gen Z vibe, with clean white walls and a neon “Mean Girls” quote sign to greet customers with a compliment: “You’re like, really pretty.”
Though Garbo’s isn’t a family business, it feels like one. Multiple stylists found their jobs through family members. Vigliotti and Jareo’s parents hang up fliers at their workplaces to help promote the business.
Stylists even sometimes play matchmaker for clients like an aunt or uncle would. Wright remembers introducing a girl and guy while they were getting haircuts side-by-side — they hung out after, she joked.
Carlton knows the stylists by name, participating in their conversations and trading haircut horror stories like he’s a fellow employee.
Jareo’s clients who are around her age often turn into her friends, she said.
That ability to build close relationships with clients isn’t a given. Vigliotti said it’s the most important thing he looks for when hiring someone. The vetting process for employees is intense; he doesn’t want anyone to throw off the salon’s dynamic.
Vigliotti said he meshes well with clients because he always tries to see the positive in people and life. To him, the glass is half-full regardless of the circumstances.
“If you can find the goodness in people versus like, ‘Oh, your hair’s greasy, you rolled out of bed’ and show them some grace, they’re always gonna come back,” Vigliotti said. “Everybody goes through a bad time sometimes.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article said that Forum Barber was located in the Westcott neighborhood. It is located in downtown Syracuse. The Daily Orange regrets this error.
