by Geoff Fox
Gene Truax has been cutting men’s hair in Hancock for the last 48 years, and on this Wednesday before Thanksgiving, he will be hanging up his scissors for the final time, retiring after 57 years as a barber.
Truax got his start as a barber after finishing barber school in March of 1967 and beginning the trade at the Long Meadow Barber Shop in Hagerstown.
“It’s been a good life and after 57 years of cutting hair, I’d do it all over again,” Truax said.
It was a guidance counselor at Southern Fulton High School who got him into being a barber.
Truax told the guidance counselor, Wayne Bard, he didn’t know what he was going to do after he got out of school. Bard gave him a few ideas, including being a barber.
When Truax said he didn’t know how to cut hair, Bard told him he couldn’t do English or history before school and that’s why you go to school to learn.
With his personality, Bard said Truax could be a good barber and learn the trade. After a year of barber school, Truax was on his way.
He added there were another at least six other Southern Fulton students Bard sent to barber school and they’ve all been successful.
After nine years at the Long Meadow location, Truax said he got tired of traveling up and down the road with the sun in his eyes going to work and sun in his eyes coming home.
When he returned to Hancock to open Style Rite Barber Shop on Pennsylvania Avenue in May of 1976, Truax said there were “at least five” other barbers in Hancock.
“There was business for all of us back then,” he said.
His first shop was across the street from his current shop on Pennsylvania Avenue. It wasn’t until two years later that he moved to his current location.
His first Hancock customer was the pastor at his church – Rev. Conrad Schaffer of the Church of God.
Truax said he had a few appointments scheduled that day, but Schaffer showed up a half hour early and got a haircut.
Over the years, there have been generations of people get their hair cut by Truax.
By his recollection, he’s cut the hair of four generations and remembers the great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and now kids getting their hair cut.
“That’s a long time 57 years,” he said. “It’s been rewarding. Very rewarding.”
In 57 years, there have been a variety of haircuts come into style and go back out of style.
For Truax, the one he was glad to see go was a lot of long hair, and now the man bun. He also said the curly hair Afro was not one of his favorites.
He didn’t have a favorite style to do as he enjoyed doing them all, but Truax said the flat top haircut is not that easy to do.
He said some of the people who came in for the flat top wouldn’t have the head for the style or the hair wouldn’t stick up.
“Other than that, I enjoyed all of them really,” he said.
When he first opened his shop, one of the big things was people getting their hair styled.
Truax said the instructor at barber school sent the barbers at Long Meadow to Baltimore each weekend to learn how to style hair.
After about five or six years, though, Truax said that approach started to wane.
Truax said he’d made a lot of memories over the last 57 years and a lot of nice people, “all nice people really.”
“I’ve become almost like family to a lot of them,” he said. “They’ve become family to me.”
When men come in to get their haircuts, Truax said sometimes their wives come with them and they’ve given him some goodies over the years.
“They’re all very, very friendly, very personable, and very thankful that I was here,” he said.
Barbershops have become a place where men swap stories and solve problems.
In Truax’s barbershop, there have been numerous world problems solved in the barber’s chair.
Truax said there have been “quite a few” such problems solved, “but they didn’t last too long.”
He said you learn everything from boxing to racecars and everything else.
“It’s really a learning experience,” he said.
Truax admitted he had to be careful when it came to politics and be neutral to both sides because “some of them get kinda rowdy.”
“If they was talking about someone, I just didn’t comment who I was for,” he said.
Truax said he made the decision to hang up the scissors because he’s been a barber for 58 years and he’s getting tired but his health still good.
Two years go, Truax started being open every other week, which has worked well for him.
“I think it’s just time to slow down,” he said. “I’ll keep busy.”
Truax has been cutting hair for shut ins and those unable to get out of their house. As long as those folks still need his services, Truax said he’ll still continue to do that.
“They really appreciate that because they can’t get out,” he said. “That was about the most rewarding part was people who couldn’t get out. I was honored to go to their house and take care of them.”
Right off, Truax doesn’t have any plans after he retires, just take it day by day.
“I’m not a big traveller,” he said. “Just taking it easy.”
Truax offered some advice to those who may not know what they want to do and why they should consider becoming a barber.
He said in the winter you have heat and in the summer you have the air conditioner and it’s a clean job where you won’t get greasy.
“It’s really rewarding and you’re meeting a lot of nice people and it’s what you make it,” he said. “I’d recommend it anyone. I really would.”
He would encourage anyone who was undecided about things to consider it.
There was bookwork from 8 a.m. until 11 a.m. regarding state laws and regulation, sanitation and “all that stuff,” and at 11 a.m., Truax said they went to the barbershop and were cutting hair the first day of classes.
“Scared to death, but I cut hair,” he said.
Of course there was someone standing beside him helping with instructions and what to do.
Truax said there haven’t been any inquires or replacement barbers for his location. He likened it to when Dan Murphy retired from his veterinary practice a few years ago.
He said when Murphy retired, he tried to get some vets to come to Hancock, but no one wanted to have their own practice, preferring instead to have a nine to five job.
Even the schools, Truax said, aren’t as busy as they used to be.
Truax said he really appreciates his customers over the years and they’ve been kind and welcoming to him.
“They’ve become great friends and I’m going to miss them,” he said. “Hopefully I’ll get to see them in the grocery stores or the dollar stores.”
An open house to celebrate Truax’ s retirement will be held on December 15 from 3- 5 p.m. in the upper room at Hancock United Methodist Church.
