Local barber shop turns 25

WASILLA -- Irene Anderson-Hixson has operated Wasilla Barber Shop for 25 years without ever taking a yellow-page advertisement or even so much as a white-page listing for the shop's telephone.

"I'm not in there because I don't want the phone in the shop to ring. I don't take appointments, only walk-ins," Anderson said.

That's one difference between Wasilla Barber Shop and the eight dozen or so beauty parlors and salons in the phone book. Another is that the shop isn't decorated with posters of models sporting hairstyles that are permed, dyed, propped up with mouse or otherwise chemically enhanced.

"We don't necessarily take appointments and we don't try to sell them any products, and we taper by hand," she said.

The other difference is Anderson herself. She grew up in Sitka and attended Lake City Barber College in Seattle when she was 24. She regards humor and conversation as important parts of barbering, right alongside keeping a clean shop and holding a straight razor at just the right angle.

"The key to straight-edge shaving is in stretching the skin real tight and holding the blade at an angle," she said. "We were trained on balloons."

The straight-edge shave has been going out of style, and Anderson said there are a couple of reasons for that. First is customers don't believe they have time to sit in a barber's chair that long -- with an old-school straight edge the barber has to stop and sharpen the edge of the blade several times mid-shave.

"That takes time," Anderson said.

The second reason is technology. Clippers with fine blades are better than they once were. The straight edge itself has also changed. When Anderson shaves the back of a neck she uses a disposable straight edge.

"Men who like to wear their hair short, they like it because it makes them feel cleaner," she said.

Irene met Robert C. "Andy" Anderson in Seattle just prior to attending barber college. Irene was a widow and Andy was the barber cutting her son's hair.

The Anderson's moved to Anchorage in the 1970s and owned a shop called "Hare and Bare" in midtown, before coming to Wasilla in 1977. Andy was an entrepreneur who loved to start things that never seemed to finish right, and Irene doesn't mind saying so. Life with Andy was always about the next big venture and it was fun, if not always profitable.

"In the end, he always either gave it up, got sued, lost it, or never made any money. I stayed with barbering," she said. "He knew property though." Andy was particularly vulnerable to the dream of owning his own restaurant.

"In that business, you can make $100,000 a month, but you're lucky if take home a thousand," she said.

The Anderson's opened the Post Office Barber Shop in Wasilla in 1977. The post office and the shop were side-by-side on the Parks Highway, but Wasilla was changing fast. In the '80s, the post office moved and eventually Irene grew tired of new customers asking why she called her shop the Post Office Barber Shop. The shop was moved to its current location on Railroad Avenue so Irene's customers don't have to fight traffic to park.

"Everybody's in a hurry to get to Anchorage or maybe to Wal-Mart," she said.

Lately, her customers seem to be too busy to get their hair cut during normal working hours. So at 65 years old -- and just when she was cutting back on her hours -- Irene has made one concession.

"I had it down to four days a week, but it gets so slow I needed to be open on Saturdays," she said.