ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997 TAG: 9703310080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
The longtime barber usually works just two days a week, but he had a special appointment Saturday with a 2-year-old.
At first, it was fun. He got to fly his Matchbox cars through the air and drive them over chairs.
'I used to could put my hands in [Zachary's hair]. Now there's nothing there.'
|MELISSA SAUNDERS| |ZACHARY'S MOTHER| |-| |By BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER| |THE ROANOKE TIMES|
Sooner or later, every little boy must make that first trip to the barbershop.
On Saturday, it was 2-year-old Zachary Saunders' turn.
Zachary would rather have been anywhere else at 7:30 Saturday morning. Anywhere but Highland Park Barber Shop in Roanoke.
At first, it was fun. He got to fly his Matchbox cars through the air and drive them over chairs.
He paused to watch his grandfather, Galen Saunders, get a trim from longtime family barber Lewis Farmer. A contemplative look crossed Zachary's face for a moment, then he returned to playing.
Zachary didn't end up at the barbershop on Fourth Street Southwest by accident. It had been inevitable since a trip to the DMV with his grandfather last week.
The clerk thought Zachary, with his white-blond hair and pretty face, was a girl. The haircut could not be put off any longer.
There was no question who would do the deed: It was Farmer who gave Zachary's father, Darrell, his first haircut, and now was not the time to break a family tradition.
Farmer, 69, has given more than a few first haircuts in the 48 years he's been in the business. He's been cutting Galen Saunders' hair for about 30 years and also cut Saunders' father's hair.
He is semiretired now and usually works two days a week. He came in Saturday especially for Zachary.
It's hard to imagine a better place for a first haircut than the vintage Highland Park shop, with its old leather and porcelain barber's chairs, the miniature barber's pole hanging in the front window and the antique cash register that still works. An old plastic Dr Pepper clock - shaped like a bottle cap - tells time, not that anyone keeps track.
Zachary didn't need to look at the clock to know his time was up. Once Farmer vacuumed the hair from Galen Saunders' neck and shirt, he placed a board across the chair's arm rests for Zachary to sit on.
"Noooooooo!" Zachary cried as he was lifted onto the board. He was not going to go along peacefully.
Plan B: His dad stepped in and put Zachary on his lap, which calmed him a little but not completely.
He bawled as Farmer cut the first lock and handed it to Zachary's mother, Melissa Saunders.
It's not unusual for little boys to cry while getting their first haircut.
Farmer remembers one boy who cried and cried, except when he was having his picture taken. He smiled for the picture, then started up again.
That strategy didn't work with Zachary. He was oblivious to the three cameras trained on him and a videocamera that recorded the event for all time.
Zachary was almost hiccuping, he was crying so hard.
Plan C: Barney and a stuffed panda bear were retrieved from the car. Zachary kept crying, but now he clutched his toy cars and his stuffed animals.
Farmer worked quickly and decisively. He whirled around Zachary, snipping away.
"Does that sound like an airplane?" Farmer asked as the shaver buzzed around Zachary's ears and neck. The intensity of Zachary's cries diminished, and there were intervals of silence.
"Nobody will call you a little girl anymore," Darrell Saunders told Zachary as hair collected on the floor and on Darrell's shirt sleeve.
When it was all over, Zachary ran to his mother's arms. She stroked his head.
"I used to could put my hands in it," she said. "Now there's nothing there."
The newly coiffed Zachary undoubtedly looked like a boy.
As the Saunderses left, Farmer made a light-hearted pitch for more business. Melissa and Darrell are expecting their second child, which the doctor says will be a girl, in July.
"We cut girls' hair, too."
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/THE ROANOKE TIMES. Zachary Saundersby CNBreluctantly gets his first haircut Saturday from Lewis Farmer at
Highland Park Barber Shop. Zachary's father, Darrell, holds him,
grandfather Galen Saunders videotapes the event, and mom Melissa
stays in the background. color.