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JACKSONVILLE — When ex-legislator Tom Shelton sits down in a barber’s chair, he wants to be entertained.

He doesn’t want to listen to a crackling FM radio station or watch reruns of “Friends.”

He wants to participate in the music of conversation — especially conversation about politics.

“If someone holds you captive for 30 minutes, (you) want to talk about something other than sports,” he says of the reason he goes to the Joe and Doc Grimes’ Barbershop in Jacksonville.

Political discussions seem to be the most compelling ingredient for the 76-year-old Shelton. He said he had to leave one barbershop “when I discovered they were Democrats.”

The relationship between politics and haircutting cannot be overlooked. Shelton, who served in the statehouse between 1974 and 1978, remembers that there was a time when the barbershop board in Alabama regulated buzz cuts the same way restaurant health inspectors might inspect a bowl of soup for stray hairs.

But somewhere between two decades of crew cuts and neck shaves, something was chopped from Alabama’s regulatory conversation: Barbershop rules are no more.

There has been no state barbershop board for 25 years.

With no money allocated for inspections, barbering is one of the few, self-regulated professions that affect public health, if not the only one.

At a time when diseases are rampant and even tuberculosis patients seem to fly under the radar, some barber officials and politicians think it’s time to bring back the regulation.

“As far as I knew, there was still a barber board,” Shelton said, his eyes wide with surprise. “There really should be some oversight; there could be a communicable disease.”

Shelton adds, smiling: “I’ve been to a barbershop that, if they had a board, would probably be shut down.”

Since the elimination of the barbershop board in 1982, Alabama remains the only state in the country lacking in oversight by the state health department.

A cosmetology board exists to oversee hair establishments in which manicures and other chemical treatments occur. But other than differing levels of oversight at the county level, business licenses are the only kind of registration required.

In Calhoun County, that adds up to $4.75 for one chair, with a fee of $3.75 per additional chair.

An ancient profession

Barbershops long have been relegated to the category of pending extinction — a symbol of an era when cheap haircuts and close shaves communicated something about character beyond frugality.

Today, the swirling barbershop pole is more of an antique than an advertisement. Its ancient status lends delicateness to a profession in which some people regard them as craftsmen from a different era — like shoe shiners, perhaps.

Beyond health concerns, the absence of regulation complicates matters for barbers when they go out of state, says Charles Kirkpatrick, executive director of the National Association of Barber Boards of America.

“We’ve always had Alabama red-lined because they have no law,” he said. “If you were a barber in Alabama, you’d have hell going anywhere (else).

“There are so many things that can happen. There are sterilization and sanitation issues. Every other state in the country goes around making inspections. Who do you want to cut your hair?”

Lisa Green-Garrett, manager at Green’s Barbershop in Anniston, says the customers who return are the customers who trust you, and no one gets hired without demonstrating their skills to her satisfaction.

“Our reputation is word-of-mouth,” she said. “Our customers do our advertising for us.”

To say that Alabama’s Board of Barber Examiners no longer exists is not technically accurate.

Founded in 1971, the board was proposed for termination in a Senate bill in 1982 on the recommendation of the Sunset Committee, according to an account published at the State Department of Archives and History.

Although the bill did not pass, the board has not received operating money since.

By most accounts, whispers of corruption that included bribing inspectors, as well as aggressive lobbying from barbers in some areas, contributed to the demise of the board.

“It was rife with all kinds of abuse,” said Bob McKee, executive director of the state Board of Cosmetology.

Cosmetologists are defined as anyone who practices “arranging, dressing, curling, waxing, weaving, cleansing, cutting” hair, among other verbs, with “hands or mechanical or electrical apparatus or appliances, or by the use of cosmetic preparations,” according to the Alabama code.

The code says courses in cosmetology education are required; usually a minimum of 1,200 credit hours, but an apprenticeship of no fewer than 3,000 credit hours can substitute, as long as the training takes place within three years.

Barbers are defined as people who “arrange, clean, cut, style, dress, curl” hair, among other verbs.

Exemptions are also made for “massaging, cleansing, stimulating, exercising or similar work upon the scalp, face or neck of any person with the hands, or with mechanical or electrical apparatus or appliance, or by the use of cosmetic preparations, antiseptics, tonics, lotions, or creams.”

If the defining characteristics between the two professions are not immediately obvious, there’s a reason, says Carol Reynolds, administrative support assistant for the state Board of Cosmetology.

“There are a lot of gray areas,” she said. “It would be much easier if you could be either a barber or a cosmetologist.”

The way the laws are currently written, she said, the similarities between the two professions make the contrasting regulations more vexing.

In previous years, efforts to reinstate the board have failed, such as a 2000 bill introduced by Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville. The bill died because of the outcries from barbers, who did not like the similarities a proposed barber board would have with a cosmetology board, he said.

Despite these previous struggles, McKee says, if nothing else, bringing the board back would provide clarification for aspiring barbers, cosmetologists and anyone who wants to earn money by cutting hair in a safe environment.

If a barbershop board were to be reinstated, it would most likely exist as a separate body, distinct from the cosmetology board.

Still, financing for the board could be modeled after the cosmetology board’s, which relies on fees from licenses, some say.

“I’ve always been pretty cool on too much regulation,” McKee says. “But our law (provides) a huge exemption for barbers to do what cosmetologists do.”

A September 2005 report issued on the Board of Cosmetology by the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts also takes issue with the current law.

“An exemption in the board’s governing statues allows the proliferation of unlicensed barbershops offering essentially the same services as cosmetologists, which reduces the board’s ability to regulate the practice of cosmetology and protect the public safety and welfare,” the report says.

“Our confusion arises from when people who ought to be under us don’t want any regulation and consider themselves barbers,” McKee said.

What some perceive as necessary regulatory oversight, others might perceive as bureaucratic meddling. The report from the examiners office, for example, cites numerous instances of overpaid cosmetology employees and failure by inspectors to follow up on inspections.

Unless more resources were provided, that oversight would likely be even more difficult.

Reynolds notes that with just eight inspectors registered to oversee as many as 5,000 licensed cosmetology shops statewide, there isn’t a lot of free time.

McKee said cosmetology inspectors are full-time positions with starting pay around $19,000.

In the absence of state regulation, some counties have provided local oversight.

County barbershop boards have popped up in Baldwin, Etowah, Jefferson, Lauderdale, Madison and Mobile counties, according to the 2005 Examiners of Public Accounts report.

“That’s the last place we need to get involved,” said Rep. Lea Fite, D-Jacksonville, who says he goes to Green’s barbershop. “Just because it’s regulated by the government doesn’t mean it’s the best in the world.” He said self-regulation seems to be working, because no one has ever complained to him about barbershops.

Complications occur, though, when a business involves safety, says Rep. Barbara Boyd, D-Anniston.

“I think there’s a health risk involved for people who do any kind of hair,” she said.

Indeed, concerns over spreading staph infections and HIV through reuse of razors were among the possibilities Reynolds mentioned as health concerns when regulation is absent.

Boyd said age is the biggest obstacle to state oversight, because some older barbers might choose to go out of business rather than pay for more training and licensing fees.

“Some of them may feel they learn more through practice,” she said.

Shave and a haircut

Ford’s Barbershop in Eulaton features autographed photos of Army generals, a mounted deer head and a Dale Earnhardt plaque that states, simply: “the Intimidator.”

Ford’s Barbershop also is a bastion of Alabama football.

The 18-year barber says watching the Tide roll in fall means taking off 10 or 15 days every year.

Next June, his barbershop will turn 10 years old, he said. It attracts an average of 500 customers per month, he said.

Although he remembers sharpening his skills on soldiers at the former Fort McClellan, a time some consider the glory days of Calhoun County barbering with so many “high and tight” haircuts, Ford said business has remained pretty constant over the years.

Still, he acknowledges he might be the exception.

“It’s kind of getting to be a dying breed to be honest with you,” he said, walking around the head of a customer with the slow precision of a professional accustomed to talking over the hum of clippers.

Unlike some barbers, Ford has a cosmetology license, which he bought in 1989, seven years after the barbershop board disbanded.

With an eye on eventually quitting, he said the license will make it easier to instruct others.

“When I get in retirement mode, I’m going to teach people how to use clippers,” he said, smiling.

Without proper licensing, he said, a lot of people “claim they’re running a barbershop” even though they don’t know proper techniques.

But Ford said reputation matters the most when it comes to barbering. “You get daddies, then sons,” he said.

Although he never has had an incident in which he felt threatened, or thought he was going to hurt someone, he said he handles straight razors with extra care “because of the AIDS scare.”

For some of his customers, such as Ray Van Choubroek, going to barbershops is a rite of passage.

“It used to be every other man didn’t put on deodorant and went to a barber shop,” he said. “Today every other man doesn’t put on deodorant and goes to beauty salons.”

Legacy and necessity

In Anniston, Anthony Wood oversees his father’s legacy at Jr’s Barbershop.

The shop was built in 1984, he said, and at one point his father, Pink “Junior” Wood, ran 14 barbershops at Fort McClellan before retiring in 1968.

Unlike Ford, Wood uses his barbershop primarily as a place to outsource business — he charges $100 a week to rent chairs to barbers who are responsible for attracting their own clients.

As far as licensing goes, certified or not, competition requires barbers to be skilled, Wood said.

“Most people today have to have some type of knowledge, otherwise they wouldn’t cut hair,” he said, sitting in a chair outside his shop and smoking a cigarette.

Anniston resident Calvin Stowes, who rents a chair from Wood, said he started cutting hair about eight years ago as a kitchen barber. He started cosmetology school, but never finished.

Now, he says, he has about eight friends who come to Jr’s for a haircut.

For Stowes, also of Anniston, barbering was born of necessity.

“I couldn’t find anyone to cut my hair,” he said, explaining that barbering is not his primary means of employment.

Even though lack of certification isn’t a problem in Alabama, Wright and Stowes would run into problems if they tried to ply their trade in bordering states.

“Anyone who transfers from Alabama to Mississippi cannot transfer,” explained Sondra Clark, director of the Mississippi Board of Barber Examiners.

Mississippi’s board, which has been in existence since the 1930s, employs four part-time inspectors who are responsible for visiting roughly 1,800 barbershops per year, she said.

Operating without a license is a misdemeanor charge, she said, and punishable by a fine of up to $250.

Inspections involve checking for clean, sanitized water, as well as making sure conditions do not exist for ringworm or lice to fester, Clark said.

She said annually about 20 or 30 barbers set up shop in Mississippi, and they are required to answer 10 questions on a state test.

Barbers who move away even maintain their Mississippi license out of state. “That way they don’t have to worry about transferring them back,” she said.

Overseeing barbershops lends respectability to the profession, according to Don Baker, a member of the North Carolina Barbershop Board.

He said many of the inspectors in North Carolina were barbers themselves, and visiting shops means verifying the legitimacy of the business.

Some shops function as places to deal illegal drugs, he said.

“If you think about it, there is no better place to traffic drugs,” he said. “If you don’t have inspectors that can go out there and get a pulse on that activity, they can’t get a feel for it and report it.”

In addition to surveillance, health conditions cannot be overlooked.

“If you’re cutting someone’s hair with a pair of clippers, and they have an open sore or wound, sanitation is just absolutely imperative.”

Final Cut

If there is ever an example of a shop caught in the middle, Razor Sharp in Jacksonville is it.

Appointments are appreciated, but not required.

Salon-style treatments are available, but haircuts for men, women and children all cost $9.

A notice written on faded yellow paper says haircuts are “Cash only, unless otherwise approved.”

When it comes to regulating barbershops, Misty Champion, the managing cosmetologist, has mixed feelings.

She says she was not happy when her cosmetology license increased from $15 to $80 a few years ago — the $80 is the renewal fee, which occurs every two years.

“I guess a lot of beauty shops did become barber shops,” she says, shrugging her shoulders as customers sit behind her.

Champion said she received her training at Ayers Technical College in Anniston and has practiced treating hair for the past 10 years.

Her license gives her the opportunity to open a salon one day. It also allows for easy certification in other states.

On the other hand, nobody looks at your qualifications, Champion said. They care when they see themselves in the mirror and walk out the door.

“If you suck at hair,” she said. “They won’t come back.”