Longtime Barber Shop is Always in Style

Walking into the is like going back to a simpler time. The shop literally buzzes with electric clippers or the rapid snips of scissors and with conversations about the Glenbard West's football team, The Hilltoppers, homecomings and other village happenings.

The barbershop has been a fixture in the community since 1922. Located at 417 N. Main St., the shop promotes a hometown community spirit with pictures on the walls of the village’s Little League and T-ball sports teams on its walls to the more than 100-year-old cash register and the hellos, handshakes and walks to the chairs from the shop’s three barbers: owner Joe Etheridge, Jim Burke and Norm Tolle.

A friendly, easygoing atmosphere, small-town feel and basic haircut and trimming services has kept the shop going well into the 21^st century. Etheridge has been the shop’s part-owner in 1976 and its current owner since 1981. Etheridge, a Glendale Heights resident, recalled a few things about the shop’s such as its original location which is currently occupied by , an upscale women’s store, on Main Street. It came to its permanent location in the early 1960s. The shop had many different owners over the years

In its earliest days, the shop was a popular place that attracted businessmen who wanted to look sharp. About four or five barbers tended to their needs.

“Back in the older days, before my time, business people got their haircuts every 10 days to two weeks, and this was the place in Glen Ellyn that offered appointments,” he said. “If you had a good time on Saturday, you kept your appointment on Saturday because it was hard to get good appointments. That’s how we operate today.”

Talking and styling

Glen Ellyn resident Jim Burke has been a barber at the shop for 39 years. Burke’s wife owns , which is the next door neighbor to the shop.

He’s seen generations of customers where fathers, sons and grandsons sit in their chairs for their cuts. Over the years, “When I first started, hair was a little longer,” he said. “In the 1960s, hair was cut short and then it got longer. People always blame it on the Beatles but their hair wasn’t that long. The (long hair) trend and sideburns went throughout the 1970s. In the 1980s, it got back shorter again.

'For a while, kids then and still today wear buzz cuts. We do a few Mohawks. During the punk rock era, a couple of kids came in and said they used Elmer’s Glue for their spikes. They came in to get their hair cut around the side.”

Right now, the businessman’s short haircut is in vogue but children, especially junior high students, like having it a little longer. Burke has seen these children grow into adults, attend college, live life in the big city of Chicago and return to Glen Ellyn.

“Glen Ellyn is a good place to raise a family,” he said. “They want to live downtown for a couple of years to get it out of their system. Once they get married and live out for a year or two, they want to start a family and then they try to get out of the city and come back here. It’s pretty cool.”

Just like beauty salons, barbershops also hold court to fun conversations. At the shop, the subject of sports is king with customers, especially talking about the success of the Hilltoppers or the standings of the Cubs, Sox and Bears.

“Everybody has their opinion but it doesn’t mean anything,” Burke laughed. “People just like coming in.”

Trimming tales

For 32 years, Wheaton resident and barber Norm Tolle has trimmed and clipped many a head. Unfortunately, he doesn’t see many going into his field.

“We don’t have a lot of barbers anymore; they’re in these chain places,” he said. “You have people who have licenses from cosmetology or beauty schools where they learn how to do permanents, colors and tints. They are probably not as into doing the haircuts as we are. We are also losing barber colleges. The pricing has hurt and has made a difference. When you start out, you start out with a percentage. You take a look at the percentage barbers would get and their cost of living. You hardly make it when you work in of lot of these communities like Glen Ellyn where its so expensive to live.”

Tolle said that there are many reasons his shop has retained such a loyal following.

“I think a lot of people come in and they see us, and as old as they think we’re getting, we have a pretty good history with them,” he said. “There are people that have come here and we’ve been cutting their hair since I started 32 years ago.”

That history includes many an anecdote. Tolle can be considered a storyteller of sorts in his recollection of special visitors whether they are children, men or animals.

Tolle remembered the time when a dog came in, sniffed around, did his business at the gumball machine, exited the door and jumped into his owner’s pickup while the owner was at another store.

Another time, a feisty grandmother decided not to put up with her squirmy grandson. She told him to sit still and to stop moving for the barber to cut his hair. She then apologized to the barber for what she was about to do.

“She comes over, grabs her grandson and slams him down on that booster chair,” Tolle said. “She said, ‘I asked you once nicely to sit still and not move a muscle. Now, I’m telling you. Don’t move!’ He never moved another muscle. The three of us were just sitting there and thinking ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ You don’t see that. That was pretty intense.”

On the sweeter side, Tolle did a first haircut on a baby in a stroller and remembered all the times he helped students look their best for homecomings and proms, as well as some grooms. He also does house calls and thought of the time he went to a rehabilitation center to cut the hair of a man who suffered physical injuries from an accident.

“You wonder how you get tight with your customers.” he said. “You wonder what the bond is. Doing these things is all part of it.”As Tolle told some of the tales, his customer Dennis Cavanaugh came in for his appointment. Cavanaugh started coming here in 1986, and has been a regular customer for 13 years.

“I like the way Norm cuts my hair,” Cavanaugh said. “You don’t have to say a lot to Norm when you come in. It’s a wonderful environment here. You can see how the work with the local community. They sponsor all kinds of teams and they’re very knowledgeable about a number of topics. There’s not a person or a topic that you can’t talk to about virtually anything and everything.”

Cavanaugh likes to talk about sports to Tolle. The current topics are the Chicago Bears and the National League baseball playoffs.

“He certainly has an opinion or two about the Cubs and the White Sox, but Norm always says ‘This is what I think. It isn’t what’s right or wrong; it’s what I believe.’ He is so knowledgeable as are the other folks here. I primarily go to Norm.

"I listen to other close conversations. It is truly what it appears to be: a local, iconic establishment.”