New Kids Kut on the block

New Kids Kut on the block

Calling all frightened three-year olds! Head to Morris Park Avenue and Williamsbridge Road for bubbles, videos, toy trucks and painless haircuts.

Rochelle Reznitsky of Kids Kut on Middletown Road and Crosby Avenue in Pelham Bay recently opened a second location in Morris Park.

“People in the Bronx like to stay close to home,” Reznitsky said. “I live in Morris Park. I thought, ‘Why not give it a shot?’”

Reznitsky grew up in Pelham Parkway and attended Christopher Columbus High. Years ago, she cut hair downtown. A gentle dentist inspired Reznitsky to open Kids Kut.

“When my older daughter was young, she went to a dentist for children,” Reznitsky said. “The dentist was great. My daughter loved to go. It was amazing.”

Reznitsky decided to mimic the dentist – substituting a barber chair for a dentist chair. She opened Kids Kut on Morris Park and Bronxdale avenues. In 2002, Reznitsky moved the shop to Pelham Bay.

“I enjoy it,” she said. “I like children and understand them.”

Reznitsky is an expert on toddlers and hair. The ones who scream and cry are predictably three-year old boys. Some cringe when Reznitsky switches on the electric hair clipper. Some squeal when she touches their hair.

“They think their hair is like a finger,” Reznitsky said. “They don’t realize it’s okay to cut off.”

Girls are generally calmer. Because their hair is longer, it falls to the floor. Boys hate the tiny hairs that stick around to prickle and itch.

“God must give us girls a haircut gene,” Reznitsky said. “I guess we’re born to do hair.”

The new Morris Park Kids Kut is located on the ground floor of an apartment building, next to a driving school. It’s open Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Reznitsky has a Jeep-inspired barber chair and a toy box. Rather than wait out a boy’s frightened fit, she’ll go right on shearing.

“It’s best to finish,” she said. “They may be afraid, but it doesn’t hurt.”

Reznitsky is nervous; it took courage to open a business during the economic recession. But in a family-oriented neighborhood like Morris Park, kids come first.

“The kids will need summer haircuts soon,” she said. “When it gets hot, the kids get sweaty. They don’t want sweaty hair.”

The next dozen customers to visit Kids Kut will get a prize.