Old-time Barbershop Makes Memories in Hayward
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Updated: 4:26 PM Jun 18, 2008
Old-time Barbershop Makes Memories in Hayward
A historic barbershop in Hayward has been a community landmark for years, boasting some colorful clientele and a few secrets too.
Posted: 6:41 PM Jun 7, 2007
Reporter: Lindsay Veremis
Email Address: lindsay.veremis@weau.com
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For many, a stroll down Hayward's historical Main Street ends at Grey's Barbershop.

"I can't tell you how many people have walked by and said oh look kids, this is an old-time barbershop, would you like going to get your haircut there?" barber Dean Rindahl said.

Rindahl has worked at Grey's for 35 years and says the shop been a community fixture and landmark for Hayward since 1892.

"We're the oldest still established business in Hayward," current owner Ron Wittwer said.

"We have guys that cut, sat in this chair and they're 75, 80 years-old now," Rindahl said.

Over the years Rindahl says his clippers, and those of the barbers who came before him, have given lots of cuts and shaves. Their most famous client? The infamous Al Capone.

"Tony cut his hair I know and he said when he would come in he'd have two other guys with him and have one guy standing at the back door and one guy at the front door and when Al Capone was getting his haircut nobody else came in," Wittwer said.

Wittwer is the current owner of the shop and keeper of a trade and tradition he's been proud to maintain.

"We used to do a lot more shaves back then, but we still do basically the same haircuts, you know haircuts and shampoos and whatever," he said.

It's a simple formula, but one his clients are more than happy to stick with. Clients like Tom Van Roy who's been a regular for years.

"Nobody's every laughed at my haircut so that's worthwhile," he said.

But, it's not the cut that brings him back, it's the conversation.

"Between the four of us, we can talk the different languages of the different people, some like to fish, some like to golf, if your going to spend money you might as well have fun doing it, and we make fun," Rindahl said.

Still, Wittwer says old-time barbers are a dying breed and he fears Grey's may be the last of its kind.

"There are no more barber schools in Wisconsin, so once we're gone, this shop will be gone," he said.

But, after one hundred years of cuts and clips, he says it won't happen on his watch.

"We like our people, we got some great customers, we're working on third generations now, so it's not just a barbershop, we've got a lot of friends here too," he said.

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