“What would I do if I didn’t work?” asks Ménick.
“I never take vacations. I don’t like it. You don’t want to disturb me in my routine,” continues Montreal’s most famous barber.
Five days a week, from Tuesday to Saturday, Ménick gets up at 4 a.m. and leaves Laval to head for rue Masson, in the Rosemont district.
Around 7:15 a.m., the man, who doesn’t look his 83 years, turns on the lights in his famous living room, whose floor reproduces a hockey rink and whose walls are covered with photos… Of big names in sports, of course, but also of politicians and celebrities, from Céline Dion to Stéphane Richer and former mayor Jean Doré who is getting his moustache cut!
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
At Ménick’s, you could spend hours looking at the photos that adorn the walls.
Ménick is the guardian of a collective memory, intimately linked to the Montreal Canadiens. He has cut the hair of dozens of Glorieux, and players like Pierre Bouchard and Réjean Houle have become great friends.
A busy career
The son of Sicilian parents, Domenico Perazzino was only 14 when his barber suggested he enroll at the École des métiers commerciales de Montréal. “You had to be 16, so I falsified my baptismal certificate,” he says, showing his graduation photo.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Young Ménick (center)
Ménick first worked “for pay,” then at 18, his father found him his famous premises on Masson Street. Involved in parks and in junior hockey with the Rosemont Youth Committee, he quickly developed “a network.” “I would walk around the arenas and people started calling me the sports barber.”
Ménick started cutting the hair of Michel Bergeron, Rodger Brulotte and André “Toto” Gingras. They brought him clients – athletes and journalists alike – and so on. “It snowballed. I still can’t believe it.”
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Ménick always looks great and has beautiful hair.
Ménick cannot cite all the highlights of his career in one meeting. “I played in The Boys “, he recalls, while no one knew that he officially held court at the 1976 Olympic Games. A President’s Cup ring that he wears on one finger recalls that he was a public relations officer for the Verdun Junior Canadiens, at the time of Pat Lafontaine, Claude Lemieux and Denis Savard.
Ménick had a television show on TQS (the ancestor of Noovo) that lasted three seasons. He says that Jean Béliveau asked him to be invited to one of the 104 episodes of Ménick receives. When he asked Big Bill for his phone number, he told him it was in the phone book.
Then when asked in what circumstances he posed with Hulk Hogan, the Ferré Giant and Chuck Norris, Ménick recalls his great friendship with the former wrestler and promoter Johnny Rougeau.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Jean-Michel Dufaux is preparing a documentary on Ménick.
A documentary project
“We perhaps take Ménick too much for granted,” says Jean-Michel Dufaux, who is preparing a documentary on the man he was going to have dinner with after our visit.
For 65 years, Ménick has come to work here every day. Time passes and he is still here.
Jean-Michel Dufaux, host and columnist
Ménick gave him boxes containing some 3,000 photos and he began to write down certain passages of his life. “It’s incredible, the richness of his heritage,” says Jean-Michel Dufaux. “He knew legends of Quebec who are no longer with us.”
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
“At Ménick’s, there is a photo for every anecdote,” says Jean-Michel Dufaux.
A succession of mourning
Ménick cannot hold back his tears when talking about all the loved ones he has lost. For the past few months, he has been learning to live without his loving wife Brigitte, with whom he shared 57 years of marriage.
How did he meet his girlfriend who gave him his daughter Chantal, who had his granddaughter Sarah? “One of my clients was sick. I went to cut his hair at his house and she lived across the street…”
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Ménick and his late wife Brigitte with another who is no more, Michel Louvain
“I lost Gilles Lupien, Guy Lafleur and Mike Bossy. They almost left at the same time,” Ménick continues. To ease his grief, a customer gave him capes designed in honor of his three legendary professional hockey friends.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The cape in honor of Guy Lafleur
“My boyfriend”
Fortunately, Ménick is well surrounded and in great shape. He can count on four loyal employees, including Francine Trudeau, hired 47 years ago to respond to a fashion trend: perms… for men!
But she had to make her mark, she recalls. “It was a gang of guys. It was like a tavern.”
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Francine Trudeau
She and Ménick sometimes miss the good old days: when people would wait in the waiting area chatting instead of checking their smartphones. The pandemic has also left its mark. “It’s not like it used to be,” Ménick laments. “There are almost no walk-ins anymore.”
At the end of our interview, a man comes by to get his hair cut unexpectedly, just as the phone rings. Ménick answers. Danny Maciocia, general manager of the Montreal Alouettes, will be there the next day at 10 a.m. “OK, buddy. Bye, see you tomorrow.”
“He’s been coming here since he won,” he jokes to Jean-Michel Dufaux.
No, Ménick has not yet hung up his scissors.