Barber celebrates 54 years cutting hair behind the same chair

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    WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (WXII) — Growing up in Statesville, Mike Wallace somehow ended up surrounded by barbers.

From friends to neighbors to relatives, everyone was going down that career path. Out to drinks with one of those friends one night, they suggested he join them.

“I come down the next week and signed up to go to barber school — on a whim. I had never given it a thought. I’ve never forgiven him for that,” Wallace said, joking.

Wallace immediately started chuckling, admitting he’d probably be working alongside his friend at his barbershop if he still lived in Statesville.

Instead, the 72-year-old is constantly cracking himself up as he works at Hawthorne Barber Shop. His first day at the Winston-Salem shop was on March 15, 1967 — just four days after graduating from barber school.

The shop opened in 1929 on Hawthorne Street, making it the longest operating barbershop in the city. It moved to its Burke Street location a few years after Wallace started working there. He’s been cutting hair behind the same chair ever since, right on the end closest to the door.

“I don’t know where 54 years went,” he said. “I’m now waiting on third generations of families. You get to know ’em, they become friends.”

Wallace has kept many mementos from his beginnings. From his barber school textbook to his very first set of clippers, the shop is filled with Easter eggs of stories.

In all those years, Wallace hasn’t taken more than two weeks off work at a time. That is, until the pandemic shut down the barbershop for nearly three months.

“It was crazy,” Wallace said. “It was a weird feeling cause I’d just never experienced not getting up and going to work. I’ve worked all my life.”

While he’s whittled his schedule down to just two days a week, the pandemic convinced him that he’ll never fully retire. He said he missed seeing his customers, especially the ones that have been with him from the beginning of his career.

Wallace said he might charge a little extra now that he’s “TV famous.”

Wallace works Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

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