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Thursday, April 3, 2003
JOHN ROLFE: ShopTalk
A Well-Coiffed Career
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||
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Also on this page: Bernice Vadnais | |
Q. How long have you been doing this? A. I started working for Hervey Binette's barber shop on Alfred Street in Biddeford in 1961. In 1966, my brother Ralph and I started Ralph and Bernice Barber Shop, on Main Street in Biddeford. He's still there now. Q. So you've been doing this for more than 40 years? A. I 'retired' in 1976, and then my husband and I were divorced, and I went to work for a styling salon on Forest Avenue, doing men and women. I worked there from '77-'82. Then I said, 'why not start my own business,' and I've been here since '82. Bob Wade was my first customer there, and he still comes in. He's been with me since the first day I got there in February 1977. Most of the other customers are from referrals, or they've been coming here all the time. They're faithful to their barbers. A lady in Falmouth sends everyone here when they're new in town and she thinks they need a good haircut. I've done her family for 18 years. Q. So this must be your dream job? A. It's long hours, for anybody who wants to make it in this business. I'm here from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. It's down to four days a week now, including Saturday, but that's without too much vacation, either. But seriously, yes. I'm proud to be able to make customers feel good about themselves. It makes me feel good when people are happy about their hairstyles. It wasn't (a dream job) in the beginning, but it is now. It was tough to start. I was the only woman barber in Maine at one time. They made it very tough. Guys were not used to it. Q. You were just out of high school? A. I was 17 when I went to Hanson Barber School in Lewiston. Fifty-four students and only one woman, me. Q. Why did you decide to do this? A. There wasn't much for a lady at that time — you could be a secretary, typist, nurse . . . My brother was already a barber and I thought I would like to do the same thing — he seemed to enjoy it. I never thought it would be that hard to start. It's good now, but at that time, unheard-of. I was a novelty, more or less. They didn't think a woman could cut men's hair — 'what did she know?' They were not used to seeing a lady barber, so-called and they were not comfortable, so they used to bring me their kids. That's what I did, all the kids in town. But I stuck with it, and thank goodness. It's the only thing I've done. I couldn't work as a nurse, and it's kind of hard to type when you're talking, and I need to talk. Q. How long was the barber schooling? A. School was nine months, 1,500 hours. I never missed a day. Driving up from Biddeford every day in a '59 Morris Minor, it was so cute! I passed my exam in June of 1961. You had to give a haircut, a shave — my brother Paul was my model, as you would call it, and he still hasn't forgiven me. And you needed to pass a written test on general stuff related to the skin, anatomy, whatever. Q. Do you still do shaves? A. No, it's almost illegal now because of AIDS — there's no way to sterilize a razor to make it safe. The state has not removed it, but I don't think there's a barbershop left that does it, and barbering is a lost art. There are no more barber schools — now they're hairstyling schools. When I went to school the difference was, barbers could shave and hairstylists could not. Q. How much does a haircut cost now ? A. It's $17. When I started it was 75 cents, and they wanted their change, too. For the collection plate in church. Q. Did they tip back then? A. Not much, if any. But in those days they used to come every week and a half or two weeks. It was the thing to do. So I'd work 12 hours on Friday and Saturday. Everybody wanted to look clean for the weekend. Now, the busy days are more spaced out. Q. When did things change? A. It started after the Beatles, in the late '60s. We were starving — people weren't getting their hair cut. So my brother and I went to Boston to shows to learn new ways of cutting — we didn't know how to cut long hair. We started using a razor, scissors more, to keep up with the new styles. Q. You don't have a pole out front? A. No, when you had a pole in the olden days it meant a walk-in shop, and I work by appointments. Q. How did the pole originate? A. It started with dentists. The red is for blood, the white for bandage and the blue for veins. They used to cut hair and pull teeth at the same place. But it's for barbers only now. The dentists went on their own. Q. Do you do women's hair? A. A couple of basketball teammates from Senior Olympics, but that's about all. Q. What position do you play? A. Oh, I just shoot. Dribble and shoot. It's a three-on-three thing. I've got the ball, I shoot. I'm the one they inbound the ball to. I'm only five-five. Donna McNelly, she's our center. She's 5-10. We want her to keep growing, but if she's got the ball, I want it. I never played team sports that much. I wasn't allowed to, in a Catholic school. Now that I'm single and the daughters are grown and I have time, it's like I've found a new love. We might have a chance to go to Virginia Beach in June to play to represent Maine. But my passion in life is playing golf. I just came back from playing in Florida, and I'll play 36 holes at Biddeford-Saco whenever I have time. I compete once a week in the Southern Maine Women's Golf Association. Q. And you've won titles? A. One southern state championship, about five years ago. I've been runner-up 10 times and I think I've won two or three senior state championships and about 25 club championships. Q. How did your frog collection start? A. It started with Pam Matthew, a stylist I used to work with. She bought a framed picture of a lady frog dressed in a skirt and it had a golf club. A dollar picture, from Bradlees. She said if I wore a skirt, that's what I would look like. That was in 1979. She started all this mess! Now I have 1,328 frogs, all given by my customers. Broach pins, underwear, T-shirts, watches, ties, pencils, a six-pack of beer called Bad Frog, a wine bottle — I drank the wine — toys and figurines, sponges, clips, tea kettles, socks, mirrors, puzzles, a radio, stuffed ones that used to be real . . . What's nice about it is that when people go on vacation they make an effort to get that frog and bring it in. It's nice. It makes me feel good when they come in and hide the frog until they're in the chair, to give to me. One guy brings me a frog almost every time he comes in. Q. Are you running out of room for them? A. We make room, don't worry. I have shelves all over the place and I'm going to put another shelf up. ABOUT SHOPTALK Shoptalk allows people to describe in their own words the rewards and challenges of their jobs. In doing so, they reflect the energy, imagination and hard work that characterize the workplace in Maine. The questions for Shoptalk are compiled by staff writer John Rolfe. Do you know of someone who would make an interesting candidate for Shoptalk? Send your suggestions to jrolfe@pressherald.com.
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