Most people go to Wall Street to get rich, but a few weeks ago, I headed downtown with the goal of looking rich. I wanted to transform my Einstein-inspired hairdo into the trimmed coif of a day trader, so I stopped by three barbershops near the New York Stock Exchange that are still giving the old-fashioned shave and haircut.

Any ballplayer with a decent arm could throw a baseball from the bull statue at Exchange Place and Broadway to any one of the shops. Their proprietors – Niall Costello and Steve Klaimov of Esquires of Wall Street, Joe Provenzano of New Street Barber Shop, and Salvatore Anzalone of Salvatore Barber Shop – are preservationists of a certain manly regimen, and the haircut that goes with it. I spent the day in all three barbershops, getting three haircuts in a row. By the end of the day, I looked every inch the man of finance – and I only spent $60 to do it.

Esquires of Wall Street (14 Wall St., 212-349-5064, Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-6 p.m.)

Mr. Costello gave me my first Wall Street haircut of the day. He spread the haircloth, the huge barber’s smock, around my neck and shoulders, and tucked a face towel in my collar. After a shampoo at the sink, Niall returned me to the barber chair and blotted my face with a wintergreen-scented hot steam towel, pressed on the sinuses and left it on for a few seconds to soothe the eyes.

An American flag was draped on the back wall, and a Bloomberg ticker-tape flashed across a television screen nearby. Mr. Costello, who apprenticed in Ireland, jacked up the 1961 Paidar barber chair (an ashtray is built into the arm rest) and demonstrated the barbershop skill of talking and cutting hair simultaneously.

“This shop’s been here since 1932,” he said. “J.P. Morgan the younger used to live here in a penthouse on the 31st floor. He probably got his hair cut here.” Mr. Costello wet-combed my hair and began to cut. “He financed the original shop, supposedly. Look at that marble: all imported. It’s an inch thick, Italian. You couldn’t do that at today’s prices.” He shook his head. “All of the last several chairmen of J.P. Morgan have gotten their hair done here by one of our barbers, Mike Lombardo. We get CEOs of most of the big firms. They like to relax, have a drink or a cold beer, get a hot foam, straight razor shave, a haircut, have their shoes shined, and get a manicure.” A woman with a push broom scooted by.

In the movie “Scent of a Woman,” there’s a scene in which Al Pacino’s character gets a hot towel shave; it was filmed at Esquires. Mr. Costello explained the technique. “First you loosen: Massage on hot soap and put a hot towel over that,” he said. “Then more hot soap, and when it’s clean we finish it off with a cold towel with witch hazel.”

He used an electric “latherizing” machine to put hot foam on my neck and sideburns, then shaved everything clean with a straight razor. He dusted me off, untucked the towel from my collar, then spun the barber chair and held up a mirror. And then he was on to the next customer.

Salvatore Barber Shop (One New York Plaza, Concourse Level, 212-742-8254, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.)

Mr. Anzalone, a Sicilian barber trained in Italy, let me settle into the hydraulic Belmont barber chair and took off another quarter-inch of hair.

After a quick shoulder massage, he picked up the scissors. “Wonderburg Super 92, German shears,” he said. “German shear are the best.” He said that early in his career he cut Alan Greenspan’s and Rudy Giuliani’s hair and even did Ross Perot’s at Nino’s Barber Shop, a Wall Street favorite that closed last year. Mr. Anzalone worked there for 20 years before opening his own shop in 1994.

“Nino’s was the best barbershop on Wall Street,” he said. “It was his way or no way. He showed me a lot. Look at the way I cut the hair: tapered in the back, never square, and short on the sides. This is the Wall Street style in his shop.”

At Sal’s, you still find the old shave and haircut, and the proprietor works and talks quickly. He dispensed some hot shaving cream for the neck and sideburns. “We use a straight-style razor with changeable blades,” he said, shaving. “I don’t mean to offend, but the young kids in salons don’t know how to do it. They don’t want to be bothered.”

Mr. Anzalone said he varies his Wall Street haircuts depending on the client’s physiognomy. “The conservative style is short, even all over, to make it stay when you comb it,” he said as he shaved. “Older guys, short on the sides, regular. The younger kids, shorter, spiky, depending on the shape of the head. They like a new style you can wear two or three ways. One style for the weekday, one for the weekend.” With that, he untucked the face towel and took off the haircloth with a shake.

New Street Barber Shop (55 New St., lobby/42 Broadway, lower level, 212-248-3939, Monday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.)

My last stop was with Mr. Provenzano, whose crew of four includes a ballroom-dancing barber, Tony Ferrante, and two women barbers. “I’m 71, can you believe it?” Mr. Ferrante said and did an Elvis move with his hips. “I dance. I cut hair. It keeps me young!”

“My father, Nicola, was a barber in Sicily,” Mr. Provenzano said, feet on the ground. “He taught me with a straight razor and scissors, the old way. It’s all we had then, no machines. ‘My way or the highway!’ We came to America together. I worked at some old shops on Wall Street that are gone.” He opened his own shop in 1974, and said his clientele almost all work on Wall Street.

“The Wall Street style is a regular haircut, conservative,” he said. “Younger guys losing their hair get it shaved a lot, clean, so you can’t see the hairline. Some get the Caesar cut, buzzed on the sides with the clippers. The square back is in style now, but that’s all new,” Mr. Provenzano said. “My father taught me: ‘Hair tapered in the back and never square,’ ‘Be polite with the customer,’ and ‘Give a good haircut.’ I’ve always done it.”