COLUMBUS - The old fashioned barber shop is becoming something of a scarcity throughout the country, but Gene's Barber Shop in downtown Columbus continues the tradition of inexpensive cuts in a masculine atmosphere.
The shop waiting area is not cluttered by curling irons, wash basins, product displays or dryers. Gene Arnold, owner of Gene's Barber Shop, wouldn't use those things. He does not do shaves, colorings or styling, using only a pair of scissors, shears and a suction hose to remove hair.
“I do hair cuts, period,” Arnold said. He throws in conversations for free, which are interrupted only by the noise of the hair vacuum. “We talk about a variety of everything. Everyone has an opinion on something, and it is always fun to argue about something.”
His clients range in age from 1 to 95, and all but one are male. The lone female customer “gets her hair cut shorter than (many men).”
The shop has the appearance of a combination hunting lodge and sports shop with guy's publications such as Popular Mechanic, Field and Stream and daily newspapers filling the reading rack.
Chuck Cantrell, a long time client of Gene's, said it is obvious why he returns to Gene's to maintain his appearance.
“Hanging out with Gene is always a good time,” Cantrell
said. “I don't have to make an appointment. I can tell a lot of golf lies. It's a guy thing. What happens at Gene's stays at Gene's.”
Arnold, 59, said he thinks maintaining a manly business is what keeps long-time clients coming back.
“They want a barber shop. They don't want to smell like perfume when they walk out,” he said. Plus they can discuss topics or make jokes that may be too “colorful” for the opposite sex without fear of reprimand. And the only sound to drown out the conversation and laughter is the suction hose to remove hair when Arnold is finished.
Brad Brakenhoff, 19, has always had his haircut at Gene's and occasionally heard some of the more lively conversations as he was growing up.
“They talked about guy stuff,” from politics and sports to more lively discussions, Brakenhoff said. “We talk about anything and everything. Whatever comes up.”
He has continued to patronize Gene's because of the atmosphere, he said, and it is where he would converse with other men to talk about “man things.”
Cantrell said he also frequented barber shops because it was a tradition with his father.
“My dad took me to a barber shop, not a beauty shop,” he said.
Arnold opened Gene's in 1970, when a hair cut cost $2. He now charges $10 for every hair cut, no matter how short.
The Clarkson native has cut hair for 39 years and when he started the gender roles of the profession were reversed and the sexes were isolated.
“It used to be one gal for every three classes. Now it is the other way around,” Arnold said. “You rarely saw a man in a beauty shop or a woman in a barber shop. It was strictly one way or the other.”
He said he knows that men-only barber shops are going out of style, but maintains his business for those who enjoy the male-oriented business.
“They want a barber shop,” Arnold said, “a plain, old barber shop, as old fashioned as it can be.”
Print This Story
Email This Story
