He wrote 'BER' on the 'BAR' sign, and has been cutting hair ever since

By Doan Nguyen

December 27, 2004 | BRIGHAM CITY -- A red, white, and blue striped barber's pole endlessly spins in front of Wyatt's Barber Shop.

"We don't discriminate the bald, they pay the same," said barber Ralph Wyatt.

Wyatt was trimming the hair of a gray and bearded man in his small shop at 25 E. 700 South, Brigham City. The shop had a magazine rack filled with fly fishing magazines, hung on the wall was the horns of a steer. Next to horns was a list of prices he charged for his services: $9 for a regular haircut, $10 for razor, layer, or specialty cuts, and $4 for beard trims. Since his barber shop business started in 1958 prices have gone up -- at that time it was $1 for a regular haircut.

Wyatt has had loyal clients that have come in for more than 30 years, and overt ime they have gotten gray and bald. Still, he doesn't charge on how much hair he cuts, he said. The shop is run by Wyatt and his son, Brent Wyatt, who is also a barber.

The barber shop is place to socialize. Wyatt said those who come into his barber shop keep up on the gossip in the community. Wyatt said he hears about a variety of topics from his clients that come in, such as, divorce, girlfriend problems, politics, religion, and people in the community in trouble with the law.

"We just listen and they just have to let it out," Wyatt said.

"The more you come in here the more you find the stories change," said a middle-aged-looking man named Eddie Allred. He was dressed in overalls and glasses and was waiting for his turn to get a haircut.

At random moments, a burst of static police calls came from a police scanner in the corner of the room. Wyatt said he keeps it in his shop so he knows what is going on in the community.

Above the police scanner was a picture of Wyatt cutting Gov. Mike Leavitt's hair. The photo was autographed with a black marker. Written in a quick slanted cursive, the note read, "To Ralph, great haircut!" Underneath was signed, "Mike Leavitt.

"That was from the time when he was running for the governor of Utah," said Wyatt. "He had a nice head of hair, pretty and brown," he said.

"Many politicians come to find votes, but not all of them come to get haircuts like Leavitt," Wyatt said. The recent election brought newly elected Jon Huntsman Jr. by for a visit.

The barber shop business is not only a father and son tradition for Wyatt and his son Brent, many of the clients from the community have brought their sons in to get haircuts.

In the other chair, Brent was cutting the hair of 68-year-old Dr. Gregg Wilding. The family practitioner said he has had his hair cut from the Wyatt's for 33 years. Wilding said his son, David, who is also a doctor, grew up getting haircuts from this same place.

Wyatt said being a barber pays better and is a lot less stressful than his other occupations. Wyatt has served in the U.S. Air Force for four years, been a chef for Maddox Ranch House Restaurant in Perry, Utah, and a police officer or the Brigham City Police Department. As a policeman, he's seen everything from suicides to car accidents, he said.

Wyatt's business has moved three times since it started and all relocations were on the same block. The first business place of his barber shop was in the lounge and bar of a motel. The motel use to exist before its demolishment, in the place of a newer building that now holds the Bess Realty business.

"The window said 'BAR' on it but I put 'BER' on the end and made it become a barber shop," Wyatt said.

Wyatt was raised in Wellsville at the Jensen Historical Farm.

"My father was one of the largest corn distributors for Del Monte Corn," he said.

He grew up riding horses and feeding farm animals. But he said he had always wanted to cut hair. When he was younger he watched the "old town barbers" do it in Wellsville, he said. Wyatt said Wellsville use to have two barbers, but now there are none.

He said the difference between a barbershop and a salon is that males usually go to a barber and most females would rather go to a salon. He said only a few women came to get their haircuts from him. Another difference is that salons don't offer to shave beards.

"They didn't do anything with razor blades," he said.

Nowadays most existing barbers use clippers instead of razors because it doesn't cut skin easily, he said. Wyatt said clippers don't give close shaves with sharp lines like razors do. He said he still uses razors to cut hair.

There were several barber shops in Brigham City when Wyatt first started his business, he said, but now his shop is the only one in town. Wyatt officially retired in 1977, and now only cuts hair part time. Since then, his son Brent took over the shop cutting hair full time. Brent said he followed in his father's footsteps because he thought cutting hair would be fun and he couldn't find a steady job in other places he had applied for employment, like Thiokol.

"The only place he could get a job is a place with a sharp object," said Allred and chuckled.

Wyatt has six children, 32 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren. Two of his granddaughters are beauticians.

When asked whether anyone will be willing to takeover the business, Wyatt said that barbering is no longer taught to keep the tradition going. He calls barbers "vanishing Americans," because barber schools are no longer offered.

"I would probably be a barber until I die," said Wyatt, who attended Salt Lake Barber College in 1957. He said he doesn't know what his family will turn his shop into.

Wyatt finished cutting the hair of the man sitting in the chair. The grey and bearded man was named Cordell Jensen. Jensen was asked if he would go to a beauty salon if Brent retires the only barber shop in town,

"Nope, I'd rather go hippie," he said.

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