CLAREMONT — Rather than learning to be a barber by sitting in a classroom, Marco Leite is doing it the old-fashioned way: Through an apprenticeship.

“It’s a rare opportunity,” Leite said.

David Cannistraci, owner of Sugar River Barbers in Claremont, said it’s no longer a common way to learn barbering and not many shops still offer apprenticeships.

He said most people, like himself, go to barbering school to learn the finer points of wielding scissors and clippers.

Historically, apprenticeships were the only way to learn the craft, but that’s no longer the case.

“This is an old-school, traditional way of becoming a barber,” said Cannistraci, who thinks it’s neat that the state still honors barbering apprenticeships.

It gives people an idea of what they’re in for, Leite said.

Becoming a barber was an idea Leite considered for a while.

“It’s just something I’ve always had in the back of my head that I wanted to do,” he said.

A former auto collision technician, Leite said he left that job to raise his son while his wife worked.

It was during that time that the idea of a barbering apprenticeship grew on him.

Going to barbering school wasn’t much of an option for Leite, who said New Hampshire only has two accredited barbering schools and, between the cost of the classes and the cost of transportation, enrolling in one of the schools wasn’t feasible.

So Leite started talking to Cannistraci and, eventually, an apprenticeship was born.

Leite began his work as an understudy at Sugar River Barbers at the end of August and he said it’s been going well.

“It was a natural transition for me,” Leite said. “I didn’t think it would be.”

As part of the program, Leite is required to complete 1,600 hours of work in the shop and take a written exam once a month. Once that’s complete, there’s a written and practical exam he must pass before he receives a barbering license.

At the shop, Leite practices haircuts on mannequins and studies from an 800-page book that covers everything from study skills and the history of barbering to prepping a shop, anatomy and microbiology.

“There is a ton,” Leite said.

Giving actual haircuts is the easier part of the apprenticeship, according to Leite, who calls himself a hands-on learner. It’s almost mechanical, in a way.

The book learning, on the other hand, comes harder for the apprentice, all the moreso since much of it is material Leite hasn’t been exposed to since high school.

“I forgot all that stuff,” he said.

Not that cutting hair is necessarily easy.

There are basic principles behind each type of haircut, said Leite, but five different people could ask for a haircut and it might be done differently for each person.

For women, there are four different cuts and styles that are variations of those basic four, he said, noting that there are a wider variety of haircuts for men than for women.

Flattops, burrs, Caesars, fades and crew cuts are just a few, Leite said. Luckily, the methods for many of those cuts are the same. For instance, the fade technique for a flattop might be the same as a fade for a high-and-tight.

“It makes it easier to learn,” Leite said.

Once he’s completed 150 hours, he’ll be allowed to do partial haircuts, either starting or finishing a cut. For now, he said, his son lets him practice on him.

But barbering is about more than just cutting hair.

Cannistraci said the job is 50 percent cutting hair and 50 percent building relationships.

When someone sits down in the barber’s chair the man – or woman – with the clippers needs to go through a consultation and figure out what kind of cut the customer is looking for. Beyond that, he said, it’s about chatting with people in the shop and getting to know the customers.

Learning to deal with customers a skill people don’t necessarily get taught in barbering school, Leite said.

Working with Cannistraci is great, Leite said, because he’s learning from a fourth-generation barber.

“I don’t think I would have gotten half the education in a school,” he said.