Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Still cutting after all these years

Step through the door of 112 W. Elm St. and time stands still inside Fairchilds Whiz Barber and Beauty

Shop, with its 50s-era Coke machine, rustic deer trophy, hand-crafted furnishings, family portraiture, and classic green-upholstered barber chairs.

Presiding over this haven away from the hurly-burly is James Erwin Poss Fairchild, who at age 86, remains an active barber shop owner-operator in Prescott.

Ive still got some of my original customers, Fairchild said. Back when we opened it up, a guy in town had been here since 1914, and he came in and said, Yeah, it looks good, but if youre around here 50 years, youll outlive a lot of them.

Hes been dead 40 years, he added.

Fairchild has, indeed, outlived many of his original customers from his opening on March 15, 1950.

I put the seventh shop here in 1950; and, now we have two in town, he said.

Fairchild has been cutting hair for 66 years, since his days as a part-time barber for one of his two brothers.

I started back in 1937, he explained. I got out of agriculture college and went to beauty school in 49; stayed on the road a year. Hair styling wasnt going too good in 49 and 50.

Fairchild took over for his brothers part-time hair cutting business in 1937 while the two of them were still living on the family farm. He studied for two years at what is now Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, and made his way to Prescott in 1945.

Years ago, it was a farm town; you couldnt get in here on Saturday, and we worked six days a week, Fairchild said. Now, we close on Wednesdays, and at 2 on Saturday afternoon. Theres nobody around town.

Fairchild has worked with a variety of contract barbers over the years.

I had one barber, Jerry Sullivan, he and I served in the National Guard together, Fairchild said. Hes dead now. I outlived all my barbers. I couldnt name them all.

One boy worked one day, and died that night, he added. He had a heart attack; that was back about 66

or 67. He came in from Little Rock and stayed here two or three days. At that time, we had five shops in town, and he decided to come in with me.

Fairchild said three factors have changed the barber business since he began cutting hair for 35 cents in 1937: Prices per haircut have risen dramatically; fewer barbers are entering the business; and, men are wearing their hair longer.

Back when I first went to barbering, if a man went a week without a haircut, he was sloppy; now, if they dont get it cut in two weeks, theyre not bothered, he said.

The pay made owning a shop more attractive than working for a base salary, which at minimum wage totaled about $180 a week 10 years ago, he said.

Ive seen haircuts go from hand clippers, shears and razors, bulbs and brushes to hair vacuums, Fairchild

said.

He has also put his own mark on his shop, building a shoe shine stand, cabinets, a smoke stand, and installing a hand-made oak waiting bench.

I made the entire deal; the cash register and the sterilizing cabinet is the only thing I didnt make, he said.

A wood and glass bookcase mounted to the wall and filled with mementos covers a hole where the air conditioner, now above the door, once hung.

A truck almost got it one day, so I moved the air conditioner over the door, he said. The renovation is scarcely noticeable.

What is noticeable in Fairchilds shop is the conversation; it is a specialty of the house, he admits.

All of my brothers took after our dad; they called him windjammer because he talked so much, and I guess Ive been like that, Fairchild said. I try to keep a line of conversation that you and your wife can listen to.

He said conversation is what many customers brought to town with them on Saturdays in years past.

Back when I first came here, people worked at their jobs or out on the farm all week, Fairchild said.

Ive enjoyed meeting the people.

But, Fairchild said his nickname Poss is actually a contradiction to his personality. He said the name was given to him by a relative whose son was a curious sort.

She called him raccoon, he said. I never would tell things on him, so she said I was sullen like a possum.

Fairchild is both philosophical and modest about his longevity.

If I live another 86 years, Ill see another change, Im sure, he said. But, thats extravagant thinking.