In need of a haircut?

If you need a haircut in the Lower 58, your choices are limited.

Drive to Oakridge, to Eugene, to Springfield or make an appointment online or in-person at the Pleasant Hill Barber Shop.

There you will meet a bearded, youngish-looking fellow who has been plying the trade for nearly two decades.

Chris Barnhart moved to Pleasant Hill when he was six months old, graduated from the high school there in 1987 and headed for Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to fish commercially.

Later, he joined a Fortune 500 company, then traded a tie for an apron and began cutting hair and shaving faces in Pleasant Hill 17 years ago.

“I went to the Springfield College of Beauty,” he said during our Thursday chat. “I not only can cut hair, I can give you a permanent.” Today, he specializes in clipper cuts, fades, straight razoring and business haircuts. His wife Katrina, who he met in the fifth grade, is a beautician who owns the Now & Zen Salon Boutique next door to the barbershop.

Chris’ customers apparently appreciate his work, judging from comments on the barber shop’s website.

Peter Strandjord, a retired music teacher who lives in the Lost Creek area of Dexter, said Chris “has some old-style skills.” He’s referring to the feel of a hot towel on your neck before Chris goes to work with a straight razor.

“One of my favorite memories,” Chris says, “was my father in a barbershop when I was 10 years old. I sat in the chair and they slapped that lather on the back of my neck. I felt like I was one of the guys.” Today, Chris will slap some lather on the back of a young customer’s neck and shave but with a dull blade.

“I don’t want to nick any of them,” he says.

Another customer wrote: “Chris has been my go-to since I moved here almost eight years ago, and judging the clientele he’s the go-to for about every other male in town. Great conversations, great haircuts and without a doubt a staple of our community. Thanks, Chris for keeping us locals clean-cut and handsome!”

Today, Chris wears a mask in keeping with the COVID-19 mandate, which he says is the subject of comments by many customers.

“Customers talk about politics, civil unrest, government,” he says. “They want someone to tell them that everything is okay. This is the place where they can do that.”

Haircuts cost $20, but Chris sometimes makes an exception. He became friends with a customer, the late Lloyd Hanson of Oakridge, who was a prisoner of war in North Africa during World War II. Before Lloyd died just shy of 100, Chris would drive to Oakridge to give him a haircut.

“He would give me a $20 bill, and I would hand back two 10s. Then he would hand me two 10s and I would hand him a 20. I never let him pay.”

Chris occasionally reports early for work to accommodate a busy person, especially a law enforcement officer, who may find it difficult to stop for a haircut during regular hours. Chris reduced the hours he cuts hair when he began experiencing back and hip pain and now works four days instead of five: Wednesday through Saturday. Another barber, Jordan Stevens, works Monday through Thursday.

“I like doing this as long as my body holds up,” says Chris, who is 52.

You can’t miss him when you show up at the Pleasant Hill Barber Shop. He’s the guy with the beard, a bit like the one he first grew as a high school junior.

Longtime Oregon journalist Dean Rea, widely known for his years as a University of Oregon journalism educator and editor at The Register-Guard in Eugene,  serves as a founding board member, correspondent and columnist for The Herald.