A Hair-Brained Thought

[MK]

I have been thinking about something for a few months. Here is what I have have concluded:

Back in the day, men got their hair cut in a barber shop and women got their hair done in a salon.

Then The Beatles come along and by the late sixties guys were growing out their hair. Barbers were not happy with this new trend and didn't have much interest in learning the techniques or buying the products and tools to meet the demand.

As a result guys left the den of masculinity for the foo foo hair parlor so that they could look grooooovy. The hair stylists were more than happy to have the business.

.....or that is at least the way I saw it. When I was a kid in the sixties, I had my hair cut in the barber shop. It was a guys place. Men could talk freely.......sometimes a bit to freely....but it was a place for men. Sometime in the mid seventies I too abandoned the tradational barber for the salon to groom my curly locks for my rock and roll look?¢‚Ǩ¬¶..and paid a lot more for it too.

Spring forward to the present. Few men have long hair these days. Some years ago I did what I thought I would never do?¢‚Ǩ¬¶.I cut off my long hair. Mostly because of this hole in the back. I didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t feel that the Frier Tuck look was very becoming on me.

Now that I have short hair?¢‚Ǩ¬¶..a love for most things 30?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s-40?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s?¢‚Ǩ¬¶?¢‚Ǩ¬¶and an appreciation for the ways of the traditional gentlemen?¢‚Ǩ¬¶..I am going to revisit the den of masculinity.

I am going to go to a barber shop. Today.

I will let you know what I think later.

Wish me luck.

 

[Andykev]

Barber shops

I only go to barber shops....but today most of them have female employees working along side of the "barber".

We have lots of "traditional" shops in the area....my regular guy is the town gossip, remembers all his customers, and charges $12 bucks.

THe other place I go is "a traditional" barber shop... but they charge $16, and yes the girls work there tool It's upscale, but the barber "Giovanni" does the full service, and a good job.

Remember the old chart on the wall of the barbershop where you could point to the style of cut you wanted? The b&W drawings showing buzz, flat top, "jelly roll" and regular. I always wanted to find a repo of that......

And that was when kids were .75 cents and the adults were $1.50. Gee and I'm not that old either.....

 

[Matt Deckard]

Remember the old chart on the wall of the barbershop where you could point to the style of cut you wanted? The b&W drawings showing buzz, flat top, "jelly roll" and regular. I always wanted to find a repo of that......

I frequent a few barber shops in the area and one of them has the old barber pole and the drawings you speak of.

My grandfather used to take me to one of the barber shops and it was the same one he went to as a kid. No ladies working there yet, there are pictures of 1940's planes on the wall and one of the barbers still wears a bow tie.

There are at least three places I like to go to and I sometimes get a "regular cut", sometimes a 20's style cut.

I have always loved the atmosphere

 

[Nathan Flowers]

My wife is the barber at our house. Since it all started falling out right after we got married (this is true, but marriage is decidedly not the reason for hair loss ), a haircut for me now means cutting it all one length with the clippers. So we just save the $8, and cut it at home.

When I did go to the barber, I went to a gentleman that is 80 years old. He was a barber on the USS Enterprise during WWII.

 

[MK]

Originally posted by Matt Deckard
I frequent a few barber shops in the area and one of them has the old barber pole and the drawings you speak of.

There are at least three places I like to go to and I sometimes get a "regular cut", sometimes a 20's style cut.

Where?

 

[Fedora]

I am so lucky. I go to the quintisential barber shop. Mr Mack, all of 77 years old still cuts my hair. You can catch up on local and national politics, revisit big football games, have your shoes shined on Saturdays by an old black fellow named "Nickels" or read your favorite male oriented magazine. My good fortune may be coming to an end. Mr Mack is considering retirement soon. I am already having panic attacks thinking about what I will do, or where I will go. Haircuts are 8 bucks, and they do like the old days. A haircut is not complete without the straight razor shaving your neck and around the ears. Vintage hair cuts. This barber shop looks identical to what it did 40 years ago when I got my first haircut there. It is like walking back in time. Back in those days, you normally got a haircut every couple of weeks to keep the well groomed look. The 60's really hurt the traditional shops around here. Only one is left. Makes the heart sad. Fedora

 

[Andykev]

WOWW

That sounds so cool. Are you willing to take a camera next time and snap a shot or two? With his permission, of course.
Tell him its to show your friends who envy you , and fear the loss of his shop!

 

[Fedora]

Will do. regards, Fedora

 

[MK]

The barber shop experience was good. He cut my hair a bit too short for my taste....but I would say he did a great job considering it was his first time cutting mine. I will look for a good barber in my area.

 

[The_Edge]

I few years ago I used to go to a foo foo salon and pay forty-five bucks to get my hair cut. I never felt comfortable there and I hated paying that much money for my very simple and short hair cut. But the girl I went to there had a great ass and a nice rack so I kept returning.

One day after paying all that money for a fifteen minute cut I decided I was through. So I sought out a barber shop and found a great one only ten minutes from where I lived. Mike's Barber shop. Yup, Mike had a beautiful vintage barber chair, a police scanner, coat and hat rack, used a straight razor around your ears, a barber pole out front and was a wonderful politically incorrect fella to chat with. Haircuts were only twelve bucks but I would always tip him a couple extra.

Well, a few weeks back circumstances dictated that I wait about three weeks longer than usual to go back in for a cut. Upon opening the door a new fellow walks out from the back and introduces himself. I inquire where Mike was at and he informs me that Mike up and retired. I was very disappointed. The new guy bought the shop and still has the chair and all but the scanner is gone, the straight razor is gone and the old fashioned converstion is gone too. Prices are the same but it just isn't the same now. I've been back a couple, three times since then but I'll probably seek out a new barber. I yearn for vintage hair care.

 

[Pyroxene]

In Texas, there are plenty of old barber shops still around. Small towns are the best place to find them.

I used to go to one in Katy, TX. He include a shave and gave a quick massage on your back before letting you get up from your chair. It was first class all the way. And, the men waiting would sit and discuss guns, politics, war, life on the ranch, etc.

After a while, I didn't even need to tell them how to cut it. They just knew me when I walked in.

Pyr.

 

[Renderking Fisk]

In the town next door in Jaffery NH there?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s a traditional barber shop. The guy who owns the joint is a no-nonsense guy but gets the job done and my fedora always looks better on my head after he?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s taken a wack at my locks.

Once in a while I have to go to the foo-foo joints and find myself bitting my tounge to the point of drawing blood. I have to ask myself if these dames are for real or is the shallowness an act for this kind of gig. I never look like myself after leaving these places?¢‚Ǩ¬¶ I look like a queer-evil twin of myself.

 

[Minnesota_Jones]

I used to hit a local Barber shop back in my high school days prior to growing out my mop for a few years. Afterwards, I started hitting one of those male/female salons. They did ok. But you never knew who would cut your hair. So finally I went back to the original barber shop of my youth - Buzz's Barber. It's exactly the same. Playboys in the magazine rack, fish and other critters mounted and on display, and chit-chat that would be considered to "ris-kay" for the salons. I loved it.

I've converted back and that's where I'll stay.

He even cut my hair just how I wanted!

 

[Forrestal]

Here is something I have wanted to know.....Why do the chairs at a barber shop face away from the mirror....and the chairs at a salon face toward the mirror?? And how come the combs at a barber shop are always in that "Barbaside" stuff....and at a salon they are not? And is Koken Mfg. the only company that makes barber chairs??? They all seem to be made by them.
Geez... I have too much time on my hands during the holidays.....
Regards,
Forrestal

 

[Rundquist]

I get my hair cut every two weeks for 9 bucks (plus a tip) at a place that is decidedly non-frills. The ironic thing is that years ago I tried a place whose main draw was that it was a real throwback to barber shops of old (atmosphere and decor-wise) and they gave me a lousy haircut. Cheers

 

[Bogie1943]

As you all know I hale from a small town in Ohio of all places. Here, things move slow, including some of the drivers, which drives my young mind to it's edge. But there is one place in this town that I don't mind being slow or old fashioned, yes the Barbor Shop. I have been going there since I was a little kid with shinny blond hair cut like a bowl on top of my head, lol. The same man has cut my hair for most of my almost 19 years (Jan 7th). I am pretty sure this man even cut my dads hair at one time in his young life. This may sound a bit wrong to some of the ladies out there but now there is a woman working in there along side the two men and that just makes it loose it's charm as a mens domain, call me old fashioned but it has changed. Once again proves things can never stay the same, change is inevidable.:cool2:

 

[Andykev]

Good God!

That makes you born in 1985!!!!!!!! Yikes!
I on the other hand was born (transpose those last two numbers).

I remember watching "Casablanca" in college when it was on 35mm and DVD or VHS were not yet invented.

I am not that old. But to see a young man like yourself a "bogie" fan warms my heart.

My 11 yr old son LOVES Bogie too, and he has almost memorized all the movies!

 

[Art Fawcett]

MK..you have just struck a cord with me.

 

[Art Fawcett]

MK..you have just struck a cord with me.
As you know, my father just passed away last month from dementia/alzheimers and that I traveled every other week to Oregon to help care for him. Now, first I need to tell you that he was a hard drinking, hard nosed bricklayer from 1946 to 1998- 52 yrs in the industry that makes a young man old. He loved every day of it and was proud of his work. As his disease progressed, he kept losing his abilities slowly..to the point that he was in need of full time care..24 hrs surrounded by his loving wife and all of the nurses that were there to help but no MAN to talk to and tell lies. With this in mind you'll understand that every time he found out I was coming he would sit on the front porch and wait. She learned quickly to not tell him until I called from a few miles away or he would try to sit there all night!

Once his dependency on me became clear I started to think about things that were simple but meaningful to me. He started climbing into my truck to just go...maybe just a mile or two and turn around, but he was in a truck again. What a joy! Then we started going to Dairy Queen, just him & I, to get ice cream for "the girls". Like I said, the simple things. Well, I was coming up on a show in LA and was looking pretty shaggy so I decided to shun my "stylist" and find a shop in Medford that could do a simple cut. I asked Dad along and the minute I asked if he wanted to his eyes lit up and a smile was pasted on his face that couldn't be erased. Unfortunately, it was 8pm and had to wait till the next day. At 6am he was standing in my bedroom doorway waiting for me to wake. Just waiting. Wow..we were out of the house by 7am and (figuring there was NO chance of the barber being there) went by the local barbershop. To my surprise, he not only was there at 7:10, but we were 3rd and 4th in line!! By this time my dad had alot of fear as he knew he was losing his faculties and no longer trusted anyone but my Stepmother and myself, so he handed me his wallet (very important) to keep, climbed into the chair, and never took his eyes off of me while the barber was working. I couldn't really tell what he was thinking, but after his hair cut I gave him his wallet back and he proptly gave the barber a $20 for a n $8 haircut & told him to keep the change!! I had not seen him so excited in years. What a treat.
Did I mention that I am 54 and was the youngest man in the joint by 20 yrs? The barber knew that dad wasn't right so he quietly slipped the change to me, but I only took the ten.
After I took Dad home, I went back just to thank him for his understanding and the gesture. We have become good friends and until the last month of my fathers life, we went to see Mark every two weeks. Something as simple and mundane can, and should be, enjoyed to the fullest. The conversations about WWII, the attitudes and experiences of the other patrons were something to behold. All of us sharing the simplist task. A haircut.
I know this is long winded, but you need to hear all of it to understand that this is the way things USED to be. I also remember the neck shaves with a straight razor, the clipping of eyebrows, etc. and it was good. May those things be always remembered so that they might be repeated again someday.

 

[MK]

What part of Oregon? I go to eugene and Portland at least twice a year.