Local barbers keep clipping

The red, white and blue poles outside barbershops, once a small-town America staple, are now endangered.

In Kirksville, however, they’re still alive and spinning.

Charlie Donaldson, owner of Charles Donaldson’s Barbershop, has cut hair for more than 53 years. He opened his shop in 1992 at 110 E. Jefferson, in a stand-alone building originally built for a KFC. Three walls of the main room are lined with chairs opposite large mirrors, and a single barber chair that dates back 75 years sits in the middle of the room.  Donaldson bought the chair for $15, a good investment, he said, because it is now worth several thousand dollars.  On the counter a vintage cash register sits next to jars of candy orange slices for the clients.

His shop is a place for expression, he said, and no opinions are excluded, as shown by the political cartoons and posters tacked to the walls.

“We discuss anything,” he said. “Nobody gets angry at anybody in here. Everything is our opinion, and it’s right because it’s our opinion. But we love opinions because that’s how we are, that’s how you learn.”

Donaldson said he learns something from all of his clients, who tend to be older men from all around northeastern Missouri. He loves coming to work, Donaldson said, because of the people.

“I work in this barbershop for the people,” he said. “I don’t call it mine. It’s not my barbershop, it’s the people’s barbershop.”

Business has slowed down, Donaldson said, because more and more people are going to beauty salons.

Hurdland resident Buddy Funk said he gets his hair cut by Donaldson about once a month. Donaldson gave Funk’s now 53-year-old son his first haircut, he said.

“He does the best job of cutting hair in Kirksville,” Funk said.

A few blocks away, Larry Platz, owner of Platz Barbershop, also has cut hair  in Kirksville for decades.

In 1983 he opened his store on Elson St. Its previous occupant, Bill Martin, also ran a barbershop, opened in 1961 or 1962, Platz said.

Vintage items fill Platz’s store, including old photographs of Truman’s campus and a metal chair shaped like a car for kids to sit in while they get a haircut. A hornet’s nest hangs on a tree branch in the corner and old leather razor straps line the walls. Platz said the razor straps were used to sharpen straight edge razors for shaving, although he doesn’t offer those services anymore.

Despite the diverse paraphernalia, Platz describe his store as “just an old barbershop.”

“I’m not into the styling and all that stuff, I just cut hair and that’s it,” he said. “I don’t retail nothing, just haircuts.”

Platz said he also has noticed a shift away from barbershops as more beauty salons begin catering to men. As other barbers in northeastern Missouri have put down the scissors, he said, he has picked up their clients.

Everyday is different, Platz said, because haircuts take only about five minutes, so some days he can cut 20 heads of hair while other days won’t cut any.

Customer Dennis Garlock said he has come to Platz’s barbershop since it was occupied by its previous barber. He said he stayed after the transition occurred because he “didn’t know any better.”

“I like to get in and get out,” Garlock said. “I don’t like that sitting around for an hour or two. And he can cut hair faster than anybody in this town.”