Salem shop has changed in 100 years, but work, atmosphere are same
March 31, 2007
Tinny jazz and swing music, baseball memorabilia, men's magazines, pomade and the buzz of hair clippers are as familiar to barbershop patrons as the twirling barber's pole outside the door.
And you'll find all of the above at OK Barber Shop on State Street, which has been operating continuously as a barbershop for 100 years.
You'll also find wireless Internet because times change as fast as hairstyles do, and one must keep up.
"You mean I can bring my laptop in here and go online while I'm waiting?" said Tom Frohn, the first customer of the day on a lackluster Wednesday.
There is a hint of disappointment in his voice, because Frohn, like other OK Barber Shop customers, comes for the experience as much as the product.
He gets a quick seat in the empty barbershop.
Normally by 8:30 a.m.
, Mike Witenberger and Denny Holmes, who drove to barber school in Portland together in the 1960s, are knuckle-deep in hair, but it's spring break.
"It's been slow all week," Witenberger said.
Frohn sits in the first chair, Witenberger's chair, the chair he inherited from his father, who bought the shop in 1954, one of six owners since 1907.
Fohn's been coming to the shop for 15 years, a relative youngster in the worn, tan swivel seats that have seen the seat of a lot of trousers in their years of service.
"I like the simpleness of it, not having to make an appointment, rolling in here as early as I can in the morning so I don't have to wait," Fohn said. "And Mike does the best job in town.
"
"Atta boy," Witenberger said, as he clips the hair above Fohn's ears.
Yellowed newspaper clippings, faded photographs and sports cards hang on the walls of OK Barber Shop, one of Salem's oldest continuously running businesses.
New York Yankees memorabilia lines the walls and shelves, a sign that baseball at least is safe conversation material, if not sacred.
And the reading material defines the shop as much as the antique beer bottles, the bar napkin signed by Mickey Mantle and the buzz of the electric clippers.
"I don't understand these guys going into beauty shops and looking at Bride or Seventeen magazines," Witenberger said.
At OK Barber Shop you'll find plenty of reading material, such as Sports Illustrated, Golf Digest and Playboy.
"It really is a male refuge," Witenberger said. "That's what my customers enjoy."
The men tell dirty jokes, swear and carry on in the little hallway of a shop.
"It's a meeting place, you come in, there's nothing politically correct," Witenberger said. "You can tell all the stupid jokes you want, some people laugh, some people won't, but a lot of information passes through here."
So do famous Oregonians.
"Vic Atiyeh came in here once," Witenberger said, referring to the former governor, though hoards of other lawmakers have sought refuge in his hallway.
In 1971, there were 1,250 barbershops and 2,400 barbers in Oregon, and according to a Statesman Journal article published in 1974, barbering has been dying for a long time.
In 2005, there were 14,000 registered barbers in Oregon, but Oregon laws changed, and now barbering is one of four separate licenses granted by the Oregon Health Licensing Agency.
The four fields of practice today are barbering, aesthetics, nail technology and hair design, according to Kraig Bohot, a spokesman for the Oregon Health Licensing Agency.
Bohot said the number of barbers has dropped by 7,000 during the two-year license renewal cycle, which may indicate a decline in the number of old-fashioned barbers in the state.
"It could just be that people are dropping the barbering certification because there's no reason to have it if you just cut hair," Bohot said.
Witenberger holds no illusions about his profession.
"Young people aren't coming into the business for one thing," he said. "And too many people are willing to go to beauty shops to get their hair cut.
"
There is a lot to be said about nostalgia, such as the vintage baseball cards, the signed balls and bats, the clippered hair cut and the girlie magazines, Witenberger said. "But nostalgia won't put food on the table."
Bruce Bertrand has been getting his hair cut at OK Barber Shop for 45 years.
"Mostly I come in to see my old buddy," Bertrand said.
The haircut, even though it's paid for, is based more on friendship than professional service.
Somebody starts a string of conversation, and someone else picks it up.
It's just the way things are done.
"It's a V8," Witenberger said, following a random, and typical, conversation string.
"But does it burn rubber?
I bet Denny'd turn over in his grave when he seen that," Bertrand said jokingly.
"Oh, he's still standing right here," he said, shooting a look at Holmes, who's clipping hair in the next chair, and laughs.
Witenberger clips Bertrand's eyebrows.
"They're getting kind of long and caterpillary," Bertrand said.
Perhaps the times have changed too much and barbershops will become a thing of the past.
For now, OK Barber Shop is the old man on the corner who's seen more than his share of life.
Haircuts aside, the barbershop's appeal is in its purpose, a meeting place.
"I'll bump into friends and foes in here," Fohn said before he slips Witenberger a bill to cover his haircut. "Every time I come in I learn something other than about my slowly diminishing hairline.
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