Owner Anthony Nappa wants his Saving Face barbershop on West Genesee Street to have everything customers expect but with some modern elements. Saving Face has online reservations, free WiFi and flat screen TVs but last week the barbershop started accepting the digital currency Bitcoin as payment. Nappa says he signed up with Bitcoin after a conversation with a regular customer about the alternative currency's potential.

"A lot of people know about it, but some people are asking about it," said Nappa. "It's a nice conversation piece in a barbershop. There's always something to talk about and that's one of the current events."

Bitcoin is an entirely internet based currency and has its own value compared to the dollar. The barbershop has a program that can convert fluctuating dollar values to Bitcoin values. While many people have heard of Bitcoin, they aren't ready to actually use it. Owen Cross from Camillus said he would pay in cash but appreciated that Saving Face wanted to try new options.

"It's new school, not so old school like many places around town," said Cross.

"Bitcoin still faces an uncertain future but it if does take off, Saving Face barbershop would rather be ahead of the curve than behind it.

"I figured why not accept it here. It's a new element, we call ourselves the revolutionized barbershop so we want to stay on the cutting edge of everything and this new payment currency could be huge," said Nappa.

Heather Silvia of Camillus brought her son in for a trim. Whether Bitcoin goes mainstream or not, Silvia believes the barbershop's tech friendly customers would be some of the most likely to embrace it.

"That generation is what they are targeting and it's perfect," said Silvia.

There has been interest in Bitcoin payments but Nappa says no customers used it in the first week it was available.