CORTEZ, Colo.—One thing that hasn’t changed much in the 50 years the Cortez Barber Shop has operated is the most requested haircut: the flat top.
“A lot of places can’t cut them, just us old guys,” said owner Dave Allen, noting the cut is definitely an art form.
Allen became a barber when he was 18 in Monticello, before moving to Cortez to start a new career in another shop.
There were 21 area barber shops back then, and business was booming because beauticians weren’t allowed to cut men’s hair before the late 1960s, Allen said.
Barbers used to cut most women’s hair, too.
When longer hair became more popular for men, many barbers refused to leave it longer.
“The fact is, a lot of barbers quit barbering when the long hair took over,” Allen said, adding the number of barbers in Cortez has dropped to three.
The majority of Cortez Barber Shop’s customers today are older men. Gone are the days when the client base consisted mainly of men under the age of 30.
“Gray’s a popular color around here,” Allen said.
Allen invited his former rival, Leo Lewis, who barbered across the street, to share his shop a few years ago.
“I’d kind of use both of them,” said Gary Gnas of Dolores while getting a cut from Allen. “When Leo wasn’t looking, I’d sneak over to Dave’s, and when Dave wasn’t looking, I’d sneak over to Leo’s.”
Allen bought the building next to the post office 35 years ago, and it’s been his best location.
“They’ll stop by to mail letters and notice we have a barber pole,” he said.
Beauticians aren’t allowed to display those barber poles or straight edge razors barbers used for shaving.
Lewis said they’ve had customers from all around the world, including France, Argentina, Venezuela, Germany, Japan and India, who travel to the area to see Mesa Verde National Park.
Lewis learned to barber in the Navy, where he mainly traveled the Pacific, up and down the coast of Korea, China and the Philippines, for 45 days at a time, cutting the hair of 1,600 men.
He even cut President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s hair in 1953.
Since he was a 3rd class petty officer aboard the Helena CA75, Lewis outranked the other nine barbers, all seamen, and earned the title of head barber.
“We picked him up in Guam and brought him back to Pearl Harbor,” Lewis said about the newly elected president’s arrival onboard, unannounced until they were at sea.
“I was more nervous about the men sitting around us with guns making sure we didn’t make a mistake,” he said, adding Eisenhower wanted a military haircut.
In Cortez, summers are busier with tourists, but the RV parks fill up with snowbirds who live here in the winter, adding to business, Allen said.
Locals also frequent the shop, including 8-year-old Chadmen Carter of Montezuma Creek, who got a flat top and has been a customer since he was a year old.
Carter’s mother, Valerie, said her son always liked to ride the horse, which he has now outgrown.
Gage Phillips wasn’t too old, though, and rode “the horsey,” made by a local carpenter, while Lewis gave him the “little boy haircut,” his seventh one according to his mom, Kami.
Kami said she takes her son to Cortez Barber Shop because her little brothers always went there, and she wasn’t happy with a salon’s cut.
After Lewis handed Gage a Tootsie Pop for staying still, the 4-year-old chattered to Allen, asking him if he wanted one.
Allen said the most rewarding part of the job is all the people he has met.
Lewis and Allen said the only topics they both avoid discussing with customers are politics and religion.
“If you agree, you’re OK, and if you don’t, you keep quiet,” Lewis said.
Prices have jumped in 50 years, from $1.50 to $13, but you can still get a shave from a straight edge razor for $11.
Despite the lower numbers of clients—about half—the men still do well since they are two of the three barbers in the surrounding four towns of Dolores, Mancos, Dove Creek, Monticello and Blanding.
“There has been quite a little changes of businesses,” Allen said. “There’s no soda fountain, and now we’re the only old-fashioned barber shop around.”
