Business Opportunities Weblog

August 21, 2008 by Rich Whittle | 1 Comment

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

One day 10 years ago at his downtown Pittsburgh barber shop, Enrico Bellisario dropped his comb and had a moment of razor-sharp clarity.

Scooping up the comb with his hand that was cradling the scissors, he suddenly saw it – a scissors-comb gizmo.

His invention, he figured, would revolutionize the humble haircut.

“It was like a boom,” he said.

That boom propelled him from his barber’s chair to the U.S. Patent Office and to the University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering. And it prompted him to experiment on his fiercely loyal male clientele with some odd-looking scissors gadgets.

Then came the hard part – finding someone to manufacture a pair of scissors with comb teeth protruding out of one side of the metal-like porcupine needles. After eight years of rejections, he has unveiled his invention, named ShearFuzion.

“You see,” he says, beaming at his new invention like a proud father, “there is no switching. Before you would comb, then switch hands, and then cut. Normally there are three steps. Now there are only two steps.”

That might sound like a minor matter, but it has shaved five minutes off each haircut for the man who does 20 clients per day.

It also has helped relieve his carpal tunnel syndrome, a common problem with stylists. It also makes it easier to cut the hair of squiggling little boys who sometimes come with their dads for their first haircut. “You can do kids in strollers,” Bellisario said.

Photo by ShearFuzion.

In Family, Invention, Startup | 1 Comment