A child sits in the center of the one-room building. He white-knuckles the elevated chair as people lining the walls watch with a curious look on their faces, as though they are wondering, “how is this going to end up looking?”
Other kids play in the corner with action figures, anxiously waiting their turn in the seat that will change how they appear.
Buzzing fills the air as Chris Perez’s hair clippers fly furiously around the child’s head. The South Tucson barber makes a cut here, a trim there, some fading at the bottom and a defined hairline on the forehead and Perez’s job is complete.
He pulls out a mirror and puts it in front of his client’s face, whose white-knuckles and nervousness shed to a smile bigger than the room. The room fills with a booming laughter from the families waiting, as they bear witness to the raw excitement of a child’s new haircut.
The number in waiting grows as the day goes on, much to the pleasure of Perez, who says there is a lot of competition around, even on the same block.
“When you see me with lots of people in here, I’m at my happiest,” says Perez, owner and sole-barber at Chris’s Barber Shop, which is located on the southeast corner of 6th Ave. and 31st Street.
Barbers are an old-school breed that is slow-growing in modern times. The projected increase in people who are barbers from 2008-2018 is only 12 percent, compared to a 20 percent increase in cosmetologists and hairstylists, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Perez decided he wanted to be a barber at age 15, when he visited his first barber, Johnny Gibson. Up until that point, he never received a haircut he was happy with, and felt distant from the people who were lowering his ears.
“I have always been a people person,” says the 35-year-old Perez. “It’s not just about the haircuts, it’s about taking care of people.”
Perez plays to the old-school nature of his profession, lining the walls with faded newspaper clippings and “WANTED” posters from Tombstone. He knows everyone who walks in on a first name basis, and is a “cash-only” barber. His favorite style of cutting is what he calls finger cuts, which involves more freehand skill, rather than using clippers that are growing more popular and common.
His style fits with the community of South Tucson, which has its own old-school feel about it. The people come to his barber shop feeling at-home and to receive a personal touch when getting their hair cut.
“I try to maintain a positive environment in my shop,” says Perez. “It goes back to the times where barbers were also psychiatrists. I like to help people with their problems and have them leaving my shop with some new-found hope.”
Roman Burruel brought his son Roman Burruel Jr. to get trimmed up before a Halloween party, noting the environment and his own personal traditions as reasons he comes to Chris’s Barber Shop.
“This is where I usually come,” says Burruel. “I came before I had my son, now it’s his turn.”
Jackie Samaniego enjoys the atmosphere for her son, and always feels welcome, even though the shop is tailored for men. She said the feeling is much like the beauty shops she goes to regularly to get her own hair cut.
“Aside from the sports and car magazines, they really have the same atmosphere,” says Samaniego. “When you walk in, the owners just make you feel comfortable and they want you to leave happy.”
Perez doesn’t charge a hefty price, ten dollars for a haircut, five for a full-faced shave, for his personal-touch haircuts, nor does he want to. He enjoys his job and says that in today’s day and age, he is just happy to have one. He also says that he isn’t in it for the money.
“To be a good barber, it can’t be about the money,” says Perez. “There isn’t a monetary value you can put on pleasing people on a daily basis."
