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DEL.ICIO.USBarbershop appeals to entire family
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A female customer sat in Juton Gatewood’s chair while some of the other barbers used profanity and degraded women.
Naturally, the customer took offense. So did Gatewood, 31, of Suwanee. He asked them to stop. They ignored him.
It was a straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. It led Gatewood to do what he’d dreamed of doing for some time. Open his own barbershop.
Essential Cuts, located at 5550 Lawrenceville Highway in Lilburn, has four barbers, including Gatewood.
And here’s what’s appealing about it: It’s family friendly. Designed to be that way. So when I don’t feel like fiddling with the clippers, I can take my son there and not worry about what has become all-too-common in too many businesses, not just barbershops.
Profanity-laced lyrics on the stereo. Scantily-clad women on magazine covers. And, especially in barbershops, loud barbers and customers who engage in some of the most crude and indecent conversations imaginable.
If this happens at Essential Cuts, be assured of one thing: Gatewood will squash it. After all, it’s his shop, livelihood, reputation and, in his words, his “part of America” that would suffer.
“I got kids,” said Gatewood, referring to 5-year-old Tyler and 9-year-old Juanita. “I don’t like [subjecting] my kids to a lot of stuff. My children should be able to go to certain places and not have to deal with certain types of behaviors.”
At the previous shop, Gatewood was an independent contractor. He tried occasionally to talk to the offenders about their behavior — how it looked, its negative impact on the bottom line. He wanted the guys to think about their actions from a customer’s viewpoint.
“If they took the time to think how they would feel if it were their momma or their daughter, or their kids, and someone was talking this way in front of them,” he said. “But people just don’t think anymore. It’s their mentality, the way they were raised. No respect for other people.”
Gatewood started cutting hair in his hometown of Anderson, S.C., when he was 15. He recalled a neighborhood barber who wasn’t too swift with the scissors and blade.
“This dude didn’t know how to cut any hair,” Gatewood told me. “One Christmas, I just decided I wasn’t going back to his shop. I asked my mom to buy some clippers and my God-brother asked his mom to buy some. I’ve been cutting ever since.”
He has an engineering background, but after two layoffs in one year, he decided to take another route and try something he knew like the back of his hand. Now, he owns the shop.
“It’s the greatest thing that has ever happened to me,” he said. “It feels like you’re part of something, like you’ve got part of America. I just want a family atmosphere so everybody — regardless of color, race, creed or any of that — can come in, get a haircut and feel like they are somebody in this shop.”
I am somebody.
How about you?
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By LT5000
September 20, 2008 10:49 AM | Link to this
Hey Blubbering Badie, why did you close comments on the last blog? That one actually had real substance.
Now I have to tell you. Every barbershop I’ve ever been to didn’t have profanity, scantily clad women on magazine covers or rap music on the radio. Most of the places are fairly professional.
Where can I get a good Gumby fade?
LT5000
By Junkyard Willy
September 21, 2008 1:10 AM | Link to this
I have to agree with LT5000. Somethinge doesn’t “smell right” when an open forum suddenly is locked.
At any rate “He has an engineering background” = he was a janitor in a technical building? Don’t mean to be a protagonist, just saying…. :)
By What're you an idiot
September 21, 2008 11:34 AM | Link to this
Don’t worry junkyard you aren’t a protagonist. You might want to double check the dictionary unless you were trying to be ironical.
As far as closing comments on the last entry, when I first read Rick’s entry I thought it was like throwing bloody chum to circling sharks. I don’t know that the commentary to follow would have furthered debate in a positive manner.
By Gerald
September 21, 2008 1:21 PM | Link to this
Junkyard Willy:
You and LT5000 are living proof that all racists will receive God’s wrath and burn in the lake of fire for eternity. Repent of your wicked ways before it is too late.
And if he was a janitor, so what? Being a janitor is good, hard, honest, decent work. Jesus Christ loved the poor and stated that they will inherit the earth. If you hate the poor, you obviously hate Jesus Christ, who was God in the flesh, sits on the right hand of God the Father, and will rule forever. On the day of the Lord, all wicked people will feel the wrath of the Lord almighty. And what are you going to do when God’s wrath pours out on you? Repent of your wicked ways before it is too late.
http://healthelandgeneraldocuments.wordpress.com/2007/04/13/the-three-step-salvation-plan/
By CuttingEdge
September 22, 2008 8:35 AM | Link to this
*I am somebody.
How about you?*
Did you outsource your column this week to Barney? What a nerd.
By Sloan
September 22, 2008 9:47 AM | Link to this
I’ve been to dozens of barbershops since living in GA. I’m not picky about my hair so I usualy just stop at whichever I see when I’m driving along. I’ve never ever ran into the scenario’s described above. They all have been profesional, prompt, and some do like small talk but it’s always appropriate. Things like, what do you do for work, how long have you lived here, and stuff like that. Is Badie now selling his column out as advertising space? This whole thing wreaks of propaganda. If you don’t have anything good to write about, just skip a day or two, or months, or years.
By Michael H. Smith
September 22, 2008 10:31 AM | Link to this
The barber shop I patronize is very traditional. None of the “offending garbage” as stated in this article will ever appear in that shop. More often than not topics usually concern the issues of the day. Currently the talk would most likely focus on the present subject of Wall Street verses Main Street.
Wall Street is still winning and it shouldn’t be. Regulation schegulation: The crooks are getting away with fraud on Wall and Broad and no one is enforcing the laws.