Barbers talk shop
As the years pass, veteran haircutters see profession dying away

There’s a growing list of professions moving onto the endangered list – joining such occupations as ice-truck delivery man, buggy whip manufacturer and Pony Express rider.
John Hascoolidge, 76, is sad to say that the trade he’s worked at for more than 47 years is one of them.
Hascoolidge is a barber. After owning and operating a chain of salons in the Bellingham area, he retired to Spokane Valley. He now cuts hair part time at Ron’s Barber Shop in Greenacres, one of about a half-dozen barber shops remaining in the Valley.
“I like to keep my hand in,” he said. “I’ve always hated hanging out in bars to be around people. I’d much rather do this a few days a week. I like talking to the customers.”
Ron Chimenti, 62, who owns the shop at 18317 E. Appleway Ave., is glad to have him.
“I could never replace him,” he said. “You can’t find barbers these days and you’ll never find anyone with the kind of experience John has. I’ve run ads before looking for help, but you don’t want to hire the kind of people who come through the door.”
There just aren’t young barbers out there, looking to keep the profession alive, he said.
“Most of the barbers you see these days are my age or older,” he said.
The barber shop used to be a neighborhood fixture – the yin to the yang of the beauty parlor.
It was a place where men went, took a seat and waited for their turn in the big, red barber chair – breathing in air scented by talcum powder and bay rum. Where they discussed the news of the day with their peers. Or thumbed through a months-old copy of Popular Mechanics or Sports Afield.
It was a place where proud fathers took their young sons for their first official haircut.
“You could make a good living as a barber,” Hascoolidge said. “You didn’t get rich. The barber who taught me told me that, if you really wanted to make money in this business, you have to find a way to clone yourself 10 times.”
He laughs at the thought.
“He was right. When I had all my shops up and running, I had to clone myself 40 times.”
These days, the neighborhood barber is being pushed aside by salons and haircutters who refer to themselves as stylists.
“They’re replacing barbers with pretty young girls,” he said. “We used to have to do an apprenticeship of about 18 months to learn what we needed to know to be able to cut hair professionally.
“Now they take a few classes and are cutting hair in no time.”
That’s not enough time to learn the intricacies of cutting hair, he said.
“I don’t think you could find anyone who could do a proper tapered cut,” Hascoolidge insisted. “The way they do it now is a shortcut.
“It took time to learn how to do it properly. I still remember my teacher coming over and knocking the scissors out of my hand and saying ‘That’s not the way I taught you how to do that.’ He’d make sure I was doing it right – and the customer appreciated that.”
Talcum powder and bay rum have given way to conditioners and styling mousses. The barber’s straight razor, used to shave the back of the neck, has given way to an electric clipper or, at best, a disposable razor.
“I still use a straight razor,” Chimenti said. “But most places don’t do shaves anymore. I can’t remember the last time I did a shave.
“These days we pretty much do short hair and our clientele is a little older. They’re guys who appreciate a good, clean haircut.”
Hascoolidge pulls out his license.
“Take a look at this,” he says. “I have every license there is to have in this business. I can do anything a stylist can do. I can do perms, I can do coloring. I can do any hairstyle you want – from a flat-top to a D.A. I know what I’m talking about.
“I’ve offered to teach what I know, but no one is interested. Last I checked, there were just two barber schools left in the state – one at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla and one at the state reformatory at Monroe. I’m not sure I like the entrance requirements for either one.”
Hascoolidge is close. An Internet search reveals only one barber school in the state still offering classes – Evergreen Beauty and Barber College in Everett.
Meanwhile, Hascoolidge and Chimenti will continue on.
The shop is in the midst of a slow summer. Appleway is undergoing much needed repairs – slowing the shop’s traffic to a crawl.
“It’s hurt business everywhere,” Chimenti said. “Everyone along here is having trouble this summer. But it will be done soon and, I hope, everything will get back to normal.”
As the current crop of barbers head toward retirement, he said, there’s no one left to take over the neighborhood shop.
That’s a sad fate for such a noble profession, Hascoolidge said.
“You know, a barber is the world’s second-oldest profession,” Hascoolidge laughed. “You can figure out what the oldest one is.
“In the old days, the barber was also a surgeon and a dentist. In fact, the red and white on the barber pole comes from the towels the barber used to blood-letting. They’d hang them out the window and they would twirl in the breeze. Now it’s one of the most recognized symbols there is. Everyone recognizes the barber pole.”