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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Barber in the Glen: Jeff Weaver gives customer Mike Winters the brushoff.
A Tale of Two Barbers
They may be a dying breed, but barbers say as long as there's hair they will endure
By Chantal Lamers
They don't serve beer, but it's known as a man's last sanctuary. Inside they talk sports, politics and cars and trade stock tips. They are the last of a dying breed. But they all agree that as long as there's hair, they'll have a job.
Like many traditions, the red-and-white striped poles that signal barbershops have mostly disappeared with the century. But the few barbers that remain in Willow Glen take pride in their haircutting handi-work and plan on keeping their barber chairs booked into the next decade.
Jeff Weaver kept the barber tradition thriving in Willow Glen when he purchased McReynold's Deluxe Barber shop at 994 Willow St. almost two years ago. "It's got to be one of the oldest ones around," the proud owner said about the 65-year-old shop.
Weaver, who changed the name to Jeff's Deluxe Barber Shop, said he's been cutting hair for 35 years, including the years he spent before he got his barber's license, cutting hair on the street for friends when he was 17 years old. "I meet new people, different people every day and hear all their stories."
Weaver, a Southern California import, worked for eight years at a nearby barber shop. "I had my eye on this shop," he said about McReynold's. He brought 204 clients with him from his old barber shop and has been attracting new ones ever since.
"I'm a good barber from the old school. I give a good haircut and they come back," Weaver said. "When you do something for 35 years you get good at it--it comes natural.
"It's a neat place to come get a haircut and a place for guys to be guys," Weaver said. "I'll probably be doing this for another 15 years, maybe 20 depending on my health."
Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Old School: A few traditional barbers still thrive in Willow Glen.
Weaver was inspired to become a barber at a young age. His sister's boyfriend was a barber who owned a Corvette. Weaver wanted to become a barber, too, so he could get his hands on a Corvette. The barber, who keeps his Harley-Davidson motorcycle parked in front the shop, says he's been looking into finally getting that sports car.
"You never get rich, but I've never been hungry," he says about barbering. Weaver enjoys his work even as the trade seems to be fading. "We're like buffalo dying out. I'll be here a while though," he said.
Bob Paez has only owned the Garden Theater Barber Shop at 1165 Lincoln Ave. for two years, but he's no rookie. Paez has been a barber in San Jose for 33 years and has customers aged 2 to 100. "A lot of my customers that are twenty-five, thirty years old that I cut--I cut their hair when they were two years old," Paez said.
The veteran barber has even been active in barber competitions since 1965. "I've won over 110 awards in men's hairstyling," he said. Trophies once filled the small barber shop, but now Paez keeps his shiny medals and awards at home.
It's not just the fresh scent of shaving creams and cologne that Paez loves about coming to work, it's the customers who have returned to him for haircuts and clean-cut shaves over the past three decades.
Over the past 33 years, Paez has listened to his customer's stories as he clipped their beards and mustaches. "There's not a boring day," he said.
Although his barber shop is traditional, from the antique barber pole to the gleaming sharp razors, there is one thing that sets it apart--Sandy Fields. "At first, men frowned on that because they thought she was a hairstylist. But Sandy can cut hair just as good as a man can," Paez said.
Cutting hair is something Paez hopes to continue for the next 15 years, as long as his health permits. He loves the barber shop business and wants to keep it alive as long as he can. "The barber industry is kind of fading away. But I'm proud of being a barber ... you'll always have a job as long as there's hair," Paez said.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
