40 years of history to move with OTR barbershop

There is no tragedy here. There is no injustice or heartache. There is just change. And sometimes change is hard.

Some time in February a barbershop in Over-the-Rhine will close its doors after 40 years or so at the same spot — nobody knows exactly when it opened or even what the barbershop is actually called. It's that type of place.

It will open again, just a few blocks away and everything will probably be fine. But it will be different, and that makes people a little uneasy.

This barbershop on 12th Street, just west of Republic Street and around the corner from Washington Park, has been old-school for a long time. There are straight-edge razors and leather strops and older guys on the couch talking some, teasing more and analyzing the Bengals at great length. (For the record, the consensus here is that it is time for some changes with the team.)

"That's one of the reasons people keep coming. We're old fashioned," said Don Johnson, a barber there since 1992. "The hot towel, the straight razor. People know they can count on us."

The barber shop has to move for a variety of reasons familiar in Over-the-Rhine: The street has changed, property values have increased and the old building is in need of some renovation. This past summer, the owner of the building, Urban Sites, decided not to renew the barbershop's lease so it could do some rehabilitation. Urban Sites did, however, help the shop find a new location at 1339 Walnut St. The rent will be similar, so the business can remain in OTR.

Courtney Waller Sr., 34, will follow it. Johnson is his barber, and this is his shop. "It's a good place, I feel comfortable here, Waller said. "It feels like home a little bit."

Waller will keep bringing his son with him, too. Courtney Waller Jr. says he doesn't know exactly why he likes it here so much.

"I don't how to explain it," Waller, 15, said. "I've never had my hair cut anyplace else."

Many people come for Johnson.

"My hands are so straight, I should have been a surgeon," he said, using his razor to clean a man up. He won't say exactly how old he is, but says he is "old enough." Johnson went to barber school in 1986 because he had been laid off from a couple of factory jobs when work slowed down. He hasn't been laid off since.

The experience also allowed Johnson to learn what a client wants.

"When I was just out of school, a man said to me: 'I want my hair short, and I want the conversation shorter.' He never said another word." But Johnson said other people are different. "Sometimes I feel like a therapist, people really spill their guts to a barber," Johnson said.

The cost is $14 for a hair cut and $6 for a beard and all races and gender are welcome.

"White, black, it's all hair to me," he said. But most of the clients remain black.

This is part of what makes this place feel safe. Waller mentioned safety, and so did Johnson and two other men in the shop on a recent afternoon. The neighborhood used to be riddled with drugs and crime, and this was literally a safe place because there was never any crime here. But safety has been a decreasing issue in the neighborhood since the riots and Washington Park's rehabilitation.

What safety means now, it seems, is that this is a shop where a group of black men can still gather in Over-the-Rhine at a reasonable price and with similar stories.

"When this neighborhood was harder, I saw a lot of things. A lot. But now that's all gone. But so are the pool halls and bars where people can get together," Johnson said. "We are the last of the Mohicans."

And these Mohicans talk a lot. The chatter is almost nonstop. Talk of work and money and women and sports and haircuts and family. Sometimes it feels more like a beauty shop — and a place where people get started. Sometimes Johnson will pay a kid a few bucks here and there to clean up the shop and sweep.

"It teaches them about work and responsibility and how to handle their money," he said. He loves it when those boys return as men with their own sons and get their haircut. Those little boys have heard the stories. They know the place matters.

Some of the older guys pick up a little money, too, brushing a customer off after a haircut and helping him put on his coat. If the client doesn't offer a tip, Johnson will slip him a buck or two.

Lorenzo Law is as dedicated as a person can be to a shop. He keeps his hair tight, and he likes it clean. For 20 years, he has been coming once a week. Do the math: That's 1,000 haircuts.

"He (Johnson) is the best barber in Cincinnati, I'll tell you that," Law said, running his hand over his head and walking out into a cold winter day. "I don't ask for anything, he just cuts it. Sometimes he changes it, I don't mind. I trust him."

And of course Law will follow the barbershop over to Walnut Street. There may be a little less foot traffic there, and it is possible some customers will fall off, but ultimately Johnson is not all that worried.

"We make people look good," Johnson said. "And people feel like family here. We'll be all right."