When it comes to cutting hair, frilly salons aren't the only way to go--not the way one local barber sees it.
"The man in the 'beauty world' has been sold short ... because of these salons and these boutiques," barber Bret Saylor said.
Bret, who was born in Illinois but moved to Auburn in 1981 after a four-year stint as an Army medic, once made a living in salons and boutiques. He began cutting hair in 1983, working in different hair salons throughout Auburn--until the day he gave it up.
"I decided I wanted to get out of the business," Bret said. "On a Friday, I just quit. I packed up my stuff, called all my customers and told them, 'I'm done.'"
Bret said he felt the job was too stressful to fit with the lifestyle he wanted.
"I couldn't have quality family time--I was too busy with highlights or a foil," Bret said.
But it's not so easy to give up a passion, and there's more than one way to have quality family time.
In August 2009 Bret and his family opened Sportsman's Barber Shop on South College Street. He and his wife, as well as their two daughters, are involved in the business, and owning the business allows them to set the hours.
"The hours change up depending on what we have in the schedule," said daughter Brittney Saylor, 13. "If we have something going on in the family, he'll put out a sign saying, 'Sorry, we're not open on these days.'"
But when the shop is open, good prices and good service are a focus. Bret said he wants the barbershop, a job he calls "a dying art," to be reminiscent of the experience he had as a child, incorporating old-time elements like hot lathers, hot towels and powder.
"When I grew up, going to the barbershop was every Friday or every Saturday morning, (and) you went with Daddy and got a crew cut," Bret said.
And while he says the residents are his 'bread and butter,' student customers are an added bonus--students like AJ Wilkerson, sophomore in computer engineering.
"He knows what he's doing," said Wilkerson, who said he gets his hair cut at Sportsman's Barber Shop about once a month. "I usually get a high-and-tight ... but he does all kinds of men's styles."
Bret, who said he gives 20-30 haircuts per day, said he will sometimes style women's hair, but not every cut is possible in a true barbershop where some salon essentials are purposely absent.
"There's not a shampoo bowl in this place," Bret said. "My wife said to get it, and I said, 'There ain't no way--not in a barber shop.'"
At the end of the day, being with his family is the best thing about the shop, Bret said.
"Life in reality is family, time you spend with your family and love you have with your family, because that's all you have when it comes down to it."
*Content has been corrected from original publication.
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