Fades & Fadeaways: Filipino/American behind the clippers of NBA stars

Jay R. Mallari, barber of the NBA's MVP, in his L.A. shop working on a customer.

HERE'S to Filipino barbers:

Growing up in a Filipino/American neighborhood in a California suburb, a neighbor who used to be a barber in the Philippines set up a barber chair in his garage.

That's where all the neighborhood men and boys would go for their haircuts. The smell of aftershave and pomade and talcum power, the leather barber's chair - it was a biweekly visit to a man's environment. wherec conversation would center about the San Francisco Giants, the high school football team or somebody's upcoming birthday party, christening, Bataan Day observances or whatever social occasion that the close-knit Filipino/American community would be preparing for.

The experience was an integral part of my childhood; a rite of passage for all the young boys, to take part and be accepted into the realm of men. The ritual was comforting in a way, providing a brief respite from the environment where we were looked at as strangers and foreigners; a world where the Filipino/American WWII veterans who lived in the neighborhood were "allowed" to buy the modest homes by the white realtors.

I continued going to the garage/barber shop well into my teens but eventually, the old man retired. His barber's chair disappeared from the garage. That chapter in my life ended when my family moved to a newer neighborhood across town - the first Filipino family to move to the "white" part of town. But that's another story.

The memories of haircuts in the cool, dark garage came flooding back to me as I viewed the video below about a Filipino/American barber who started out cutting hair in his garage in Vallejo, California. As a kid, Jay R. Mallari wanted a pair of Nike Jordan shoes and he took cutting his friends' hair to raise the money.

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He has built his fundraiser into a career. "It's about relationships," Mallari says. "I have 30 minutes to gain a customer's trust."

Nowadays, he is flown from his Los Angeles barbershop to the Bay Area to cut the National Basketball League's most exciting player, Stephan Curry. Among his tips might be tickets to a Golden State Warriors game.

Before Curry's 5-country trip to Asia last off season, he taught the league's MVP how to say "Salamat po!"

"Manila won't know what hit them," responds Curry.

As an added bonus, I included a clip of Mallari cutting Curry's hair at his home during which Curry's wife make them a fruit drink. Mallari orders mango, of course.

Curry's home in a rich Bay Area suburb is a far cry from what I remember as a young boy, but I wonder if he will remember his haircuts in the same vein as I value the hazy, dreamy memories of the past.