By ANDREW BAILEY
BG Independent News Correspondent
After being unable to go to a barbershop for almost two months, Bowling Green resident Mitchell Hogrefe considered trying a new look for his long locks – a mullet.
“I know a lot of people that have been getting mullets lately,” Hogrefe said. “My girlfriend did.”
But he ultimately decided to get his usual short trim.
“I almost considered going with a mullet because the hair was so long. Ended up not doing it but it definitely weighed into my consideration because my hair was so long,” he said.
His situation was one many locals found themselves in after barbershops began to reopen.
Most customers of Colonial Barbers decided to go with their usual cuts, in what barber Kyle Mauk considers to be a desire for normalcy.
“I think they just want the normalcy,” Kyle said of the customers who are getting their typical haircuts. “It’s just what they’ve always done. I don’t think they want to change. My customers are like, ‘Cut it short man. Get it back to normal.’”
Normalcy has also begun to return for Kyle and his father, Tom Mauk, the duo running Colonial Barbers. As a small shop sitting across from the Wood County Courthouse on North Prospect Street, Colonial Barbers has gladly handled a surge of customers upon reopening, Kyle said.
After the closure of all nonessential businesses back in late March, Colonial Barbers was among the many businesses to close its doors until it was safe to reopen. They were closed for seven weeks, and ready to open back up as soon as they could, Tom said.
They can only service two customers at a time, but because of how the shop is set up, maintaining a six-foot distance from others is easy.
Although they can’t cut hair from six feet away, they follow the safety guidelines of sanitization and face covers. The barbers and customers almost always have their faces covered with masks and the barbers allow themselves extra time in between appointments to clean their tools.
While the extra time for sanitization has been a necessity, it has cut into their efficiency.
“I used to see about four customers an hour. Now I’m mostly seeing about two,” Kyle said.
Despite the restrictions caused by COVID-19, a simple haircut can be an enjoyable and much-needed experience during these times of social distancing and staying indoors. Especially if their hair has grown longer than they prefer.
“People’s hair has never been longer,” Kyle said.
Some were looking forward to getting their normal haircuts and chatting with their barber, but the rush of appointments upon reopening resulted in them having to wait a little bit longer.
Bowling Green resident Mike Pack badly needed a haircut but decided to wait initially, “for the rush of people to get through a little bit,” before he got his hair back to its usual state.
The wave of customers upon Colonial Barbers’ reopening made it harder for people like Hogrefe and Pack to schedule appointments as early as they would have liked, but it was a boon for the Mauks. They could finally begin to recover from the financial impact the coronavirus left on their business.
“Not being open for two months hurt. But since we’ve been back it’s pretty much been nonstop,” Kyle said.
They even extended their hours on Saturdays to 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. to account for the increase in customers and recover more quickly.
It’s not just Tom and Kyle who have worked to make sure they bounce back, because the community’s support has been integral as well.
“A lot of customers pay for a haircut they would have gotten while we were off,” Kyle said.
“They’ll say, ‘Here, this is for last time I missed you. I hope this makes up for the time you were off.’”
With Colonial Barbers giving its customers the haircuts they’ve been waiting for and the community showing its support in kind, Kyle is optimistic about the shop getting back to its old groove.
“The support that we’ve gotten in this small town has been way above anything we’ve seen, me and dad,” Kyle said. “People just want to be normal again and we’re hoping to provide that.”
