Thursday, December 8, 2005
Barber pulls extra duty to get Marines presentable
By Daniel McNamara
THE JACKSONVILLE DAILY NEWS

JACKSONVILLE

The early bird may get the worm, but a few local night owls are making their nest eggs with late-night buzz cuts.

The decor may draw inspiration from 1950s pop culture, and the sign out front may read "Old Tyme Barber Shop," but most old "tymers" are tucked in bed when owner Brian Yates' clippers are just getting warmed up.

Sunday nights at Old Tyme, on Richlands Highway in Jacksonville, the vacuum-equipped hair clippers regularly stay plugged in until 2 a.m. and sometimes even later.

"We've stayed here till 4 o'clock as long as they're coming," Yates recalled while taking a break between serving up high-and-tights.

The "they" Yates refers to are an increasingly loyal flock of Marines who come to get their low regs, medium regs, high regs, regulation fades, flat tops, horseshoes and high-and-tights in time for Monday formation.

Whereas the military-civilian ratio during the rest of week is about 50-50, the Sunday night clientele - who shell out an additional $2 a cut after 8 p.m. - is about 95 percent Marine.

Yates, who also conducts late hours at the tail end of 72- and 96-hour leaves, says that many of the late-night high-and-tight recipients are returning drivers funneled in from Interstate 40 and I-95. Yates, a 33-year-old Jacksonville native, has gotten customers from as far as Virginia, New York, Georgia - even Texas.

"Everybody's coming from out of town," Yates said.

Cpl. Mike Ray, a rifleman stationed at Camp Lejeune, stopped to get a medium fade while on the way home from Clinton, 45 minutes away. But Ray said that vacationing Marines aren't the only ones in need of ninth-hour trips to the barber's chair.

"You gotta lot of procrastinators," Ray chuckled.

When asked what the penalty was for showing up to formation with Armylike locks, the responses were unanimous.

"You'd probably get your (butt) chewed," Ray said.

"First off, I'd probably get my (butt) chewed a couple times," Cpl. Kurt Francis said. "Then I'd probably get my hair cut during lunchtime if I didn't have papers put on me."

Lance Cpl. Jacob Harrington said that it is not just butt-chewing gunnies who leathernecks have to watch out for.

"Everyone notices, even the low ranks," Harrington said. "If you don't get your hair cut, the people you're in charge of, they're going to laugh at you."

Don Hobbs, one of two other barbers Yates enlisted to take care of the itinerant - and the procrastination-prone - summed it up.

"If we weren't open, their butt's in a clink," Hobbs said.

For the last four years, Hobbs, who works at his own shop in Wilmington, has made a weekly commute to Jacksonville to cash in on the surplus business.

Hobbs said he wouldn't do it every day, but the Sunday shift more than pays for the cost of gas.

And even though heavy nights of hair trimming have been known to give even the best barbers a case of the Mondays, Yates and his crew say they're willing to make the sacrifice for the men in uniform.

"It hurts," said Robert Zenz, who opens Old Tyme at 10 a.m. "You don't want to wake up and come back in."

Old Tyme isn't the only shop in Jacksonville to provide late-night ear-lowerings. Of the three shops Yates owns, two - Old Tyme and Quality Barbershop on Lejeune Boulevard - offer the same service.

Yates credits his mentor, former barber-school instructor Jonathan Brown, with pioneering the concept of third-shift cuts.

"He's the first one that started it," Yates said.

Yates has been cutting hair until the wee hours for most of his 10 years of hair cutting.

And even though Old Tyme is a recent acquisition of his - Yates bought the store from another barber in July - the place is already attracting repeat customers.

Since the shop opened this summer, Harrington has been bringing himself and his 3-month-old son, Eligah, to Old Tyme every Sunday night.

Tucked soundly in his baby basket, Eligah is still the only one who gets any sleep.

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Ellie