RICHARD CORIO

Richard Corio never really had a choice—he was born into the hair game, raised on the scent of peroxide and pomade in his family’s north Jersey salons. While other kids were mowing lawns, he was sweeping up after perms and learning to wield scissors under the sharp eye of his father, a three-salon maverick with a cult following.

By the time he was a teenager, Richard wasn’t just cutting hair—he was already chasing perfection, chasing something cooler, sharper, cleaner than the status quo. He zeroed in on his dad’s upscale Ridgewood outpost, where the clientele expected nothing less than editorial-level polish. They got it.

Fast forward to New York City: the proving ground. Richard sliced his way through the ranks with a razor and a vengeance, mastering color, shape, and finesse at the city’s most elite salons. He trained under the legendary Oribe at the Red Door on Fifth Avenue and in the wild heat of South Beach—an old-school apprenticeship soaked in sweat, hairspray, and glamour.

From there, it was all gas, no brakes. Richard hit the chair at Garren’s cult-favorite Henri Bendel salon, worked the floor at Sally Hershberger’s Meatpacking palace, and soaked up the edge of Bumble and Bumble’s downtown flagship. He has even styled the icons—Springsteen, Celine, Adriana Lima—all with a precision that looked effortless and a vibe that gave rockstar. He also worked backstage at the major fashion shows in New York, Milan, and Paris, his work captured through the lenses of legends like Richard Avedon and Scavullo.

But in 2010, Richard saw the writing on the wall—and it was scrawled in Sharpie above a barbershop sink. Men's grooming was leaving the pristine white cube and heading back to its gritty, glorious roots. He followed the signal to Tommy Guns (Ludlow Blunt), the priciest, punchiest barbershop in Williamsburg, where he cut his teeth on scotch and straight razors.

Eventually, the Hudson Valley called. Richard co-founded Barber and Brew in Cold Spring, NY—a genre-bending barbershop-craft beer hybrid that raised eyebrows and changed the game. But that was just the warm-up.

Enter: The Chisel. Equal parts salon, barbershop, and shrine to handmade beauty, it’s Richard’s masterstroke. He’s built it—literally—with his own hands and the help of local woodworkers, blending his obsession with hair and his passion for woodworking into a space that’s pure alchemy. The Chisel isn’t just where you get cut—it’s where you get carved into who you were meant to be.