Some barber shops are apparently destined to be a cut or two above the average tonsorial parlor. It is difficult to compare two places of trade when the primary function of both is to trim one's hair. Maybe it is the clientele one place caters to, its general appearance, or its atmosphere, which enables it to build up a distinctive reputation. But a most unimposing barber shop which keeps in business, and very much so, for 50 years, must have some unique attraction.

La Flamme's, on Dunster Street, is an inconspicuous barber shop. Its relative obscurity may be partly due to a popular haberdashery and an emporium of an entirely different nature than La Flamme's which are the street's main attractions.

But inconspicuousness, both inside and out, has been the principal feature of the shop ever since one Arthur E. La Flamme first opened its doors and started cutting hair as the fashions of November, 1898, dictated. The enterprising founder, mindful of the French maxim "Cherchez la femme," saw how conveniently his name lent itself to the obvious pun. Hence "Cherchez La Flamme," which, as the years passed, was shortened to a simple "La Flamme's."

In 1898, when men remembered the Maine, talked about Mr. Hearst's War, and got their hair cut for 35 cents, La Flamme's had a gas chandelier and wooden chairs. By the early '20's La Flamme's had to reckon with the crow cut, and installed electricity, new chairs, and linoleum floors.

The original proprietor ran his shop until his death in 1930; his wife continued on as general manager and cashier until 1941, when Nicholas Lombardi, who had been working there for 20 years already, and John Capolupo bought the shop. This pair still heads the staff of barbers.

There have been between seven and eight barbers since 1945. Two who left to go to war in 1941 returned four years later and resumed their posts. When a man comes to work for La Flamme's, he usually stays around a while. Of the present employees, Lombardi and Capolupo have been there 30 and 29 years respectively; the others have worked ten, ten, nine, nine, and three years. La Flamme's, in a way, grows on them.

And the same holds true for the customers. "Once they come, they keep coming back," Lombardi points out. He likes to think of his patrons as more "dignified" than the usual customer. Some of them have been going to his shop for as long as 40 years and in at least two cases four generations of a family have taken their business to La Flamme's. It is this informal, one-big-happy-family atmosphere which brings people back and which prompts old grads to revisit La Flamme's whenever they happen to be around Boston.

The LaFlamme haircut is, according to the entrepreneurs, both natural and professional. It is low in back and done almost entirely with scissors because the management believes most barbers use the electric clipper to excess.

Inside, La Flamme's is neat without being gaudy. There are no pennants and very few tonic bottles; the woodwork is distinctive, everything is quite plain and simple. La Flamme's retains a great deal from the past, because its two present owners don't believe in major changes and because that's the way its people seem to like things.