Thread: New town, new barber

Went looking for a haircut in my new home town yesterday and came across this wonderful throwback place. Went in, and it was a two chair shop with only one barber "on duty" and a customer drinking a cup of coffee and talking. I looked around and being new to the area said, "Hey, can you fit in a new guy?" The barber waved at the row of empty "waiting area" chairs and said, "Do you guys mind if I take this new guy first?" Immediately I knew this was going to be a treat.

I sat down in his old barber chair, he asked me how I wanted it cut, and then launched into 30 minutes of non-stop conversation with me about topics ranging from NC State Wolfpack sports, to Jesus. Turns out he's a part time minister.

Along the way, in addition to a great haircut, I got a full education on his background: 25 years cutting hair in that shop which his partner (chair #1) opened in 1956; disabled veteran; two hips replaced; almost killed by a drunk driver (which he said unfortunately was him) and because of that became a teetotaler, a church goer and a preacher. I gave him some tips on working with VA, since I worked there for a long time, and we parted ways with a handshake, ignoring the social distancing thing!

Great guy, great haircut and I'll be going back! Like being in the 60s again!

Great story. Just the kind of event you want to hear about while the world is going nuts.

If only we could turn back time to the 60's.........................

In this new age of "high tech" hair stylists....

What a cool thing to see. Makes me miss the old days.

Pete <:-}

Originally Posted by DoughBoy68

If only we could turn back time to the 60's.........................

I'd probably be getting into trouble like I did the 1st time around!

It's a very nice thing to have a real barber. Mine has been cutting hair for 40 years in the same building. And his name is Jerry. I figured that was a sign and I've never gone anywhere else since I found him.

That's awesome! I miss a barber shop sometimes. I had trouble finding one that could cut a flat top right and so about 25-30 years ago I started cutting it myself. I do all of it except for shave my own neck and I can do that too but you need three mirrors. Still, I like to have my neck shaved with a straight razor and I'm not doing that in the mirror so I have my wife do it for me. After 30 years it's still terrifies her but she does it anyway. God bless her!

Anyway the last good REAL barber I had was back in about 1980. His name was Joe and he was one of about three or four others in this place called Charles' Hairquarters. The first time I went in I had gotten a little shaggy and decided I wanted to go back to a flat top. I sat down in his chair and he asked me what I wanted and I told him a flat top. He looked at me and said, "Son how old are you?" I answered him. I don't even remember exactly how old I was at the time but he looked off into the distance for a minute and said "I've been cutting that haircut since before you were born." Anyway it was the damnedest thing the way he did it. He did the whole thing with a manual pair of clippers, a comb and a pair of scissors and it only took him about 15-20 minutes which is pretty astonishing considering he smoked probably a half a pack of cigarettes in that amount of time. Of course there were a shot full of men talking about fishing and football and cars and everything else you'd expect to hear in a barbershop. It was just like Floyd's out of the Andy Griffith show. Now those were the good old days.