Ernesto Portillo Jr.: Tucson's old-time barbershops special

Billy Sanchez and his barbers are known to break out the accordion and guitars and belt out a few Mexican corridos at the end of a day.

When true barbershops are slowly vanishing like record stores and civil discourse, Billy's Barber Shop remains a throwback to another time.

"We're old-fashioned guys," said Gilbert S. Gastelum, the accordion-lovin' and -playin' barber.

The distinctiveness of Billy's Barber Shop, with a striped barrel doubling as a barber pole outside the cabin-looking shop, is captured in a new photo book of our borderland's barbershops.

"Barberia" is a pictorial tribute to barbershops from Tijuana to Texas. Montana photographer Roy Jacobson, a one-time, part-time Tucson resident, spent several years photographing border barbers, their customers and the shops.

Barbershops were once combination social halls and dispenser of local news. They are disappearing or transformed into salons, said Jacobson.

But along both sides of the border, old-fashioned barbershops can still be found, he said.

Curiously, Jacobson found Tucson to hold a special place for owner-operated barbershops.

"Tucson is the center for the old-time barbershops," he said. "El Paso is second."

Jacobson's love and admiration for our barbers is clear in his book, which was published last month.

In addition to photos of Billy's and its barbers, Jacobson included photographs of Bob Burnett of Old Fashioned Barber Shop; Alfred Gastelum of Grand Central Barber Shop and Gilbert Barrios of George's Barber Shop, both in South Tucson; Dane Johnson of Out West Barbers; John Hunter of Hunter's Barber Shop; Al Longmire of Al's Barber Shop; and of course, Johnny Gibson and his successor, Thomas Curley of Curley's Downtown Barber Shop.

Jacobson has several photos of Gibson, the dean of Tucson barbers, in his book. A young Gibson and an older Gibson cutting the hair of Police Chief Richard Miranda.

Jacobson initially wanted to photograph shops in Montana and Arizona. But traditional barbershops are almost all gone in Montana, he said.

When he looked our way, Jacobson found barbering still alive.

"There seems to be a culture of barbers, many of whom still keep to the old ways," he said.

He said the barbers he met love their work and don't want to give it up.

"It really is in their blood," he said.

Like Gibson who began barbering in 1942 and in 1949 opened his first — and only — shop in Downtown. In 2001, Gibson sold his shop, and he retired early this year.

But not all barbers are old-timers.

Joe Baltus, co-owner of Buddha and Joe's, an eight-chair shop on North Swan, has been barbering for eight years. He left tile cutting to cut hair.

"If I left barbering there'd be a void in my life," said Baltus, whose shop facade is in Jacobson's book. His stepfather barbered for 50 years and his mother was a barber for 25 years.

At Billy's, family barbering is a way of life. Gastelum, the accordion player, has an uncle who barbers, and barber Juan Alcalá, born in Agua Prieta, has four brothers and a daughter who are barbers.

Billy's owner is proud of his shop, which he opened 18 years ago on South Mission Road. It has unpolished wood floors and the walls are covered with family pictures, calendars and heads of wild game he hunted.

It's a special place that his customers appreciate, said Billy Sanchez.

"I don't want to change nuttin'," he said.

Opinion by

Ernesto

Portillo jr.