Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series of stories profiling Centre Countians at work.
There may be few things more nostalgic than a visit to the barber shop. From the hum of the clippers to the ring of the cash register; from the traditional red, white, and blue pole to sitting back in the chair as the barber props it up and spins it around; and from the smell of pomade to the feel of a fresh cut, there is something about a barber shop that harkens back to a simpler time:
A time when a person could stop by their neighborhood shop, sit back, and have a great conversation while getting trimmed and shaved close, and leave feeling a little better about themselves.
While times are no longer as simple as they once seemed, some State College-area barbers are keeping the tradition alive.
Historical landmark
Some things haven’t changed since the Prohibition era at 107 S. Allen St., home of Rinaldo’s Barber Shop. While the cost of a haircut is a bit higher than the 15 cents customers paid back then, Rinaldo’s still feels like an old-school neighborhood barber shop, even as it sits in the heart of ever-growing downtown State College. Owner and longtime barber Rebecca Durst greets regular customers by name as they walk through the door of the historic landmark, and lets everyone know they are welcome.
Working on one of the busiest streets in a college town keeps her feeling young, says Durst. Every fall, she hears a familiar story from new, fresh-faced clients who walk in the door for the first time.
“My dad told me to get my haircut here, because this is where he got his hair cut when he was at Penn State,” they tell Durst.
While the dress may be a little more casual than during the roaring ’20s when the shop opened, Durst says customers are a little more particular about their haircuts than when she got started in the business more than 30 years ago.
“Trendier cuts are more common now. Guys have become more particular about their hair and how they look, which is fun. It’s kind of nice to have gone from what I learned many, many years ago to what I do now,” says Durst.
The location was opened by George Smith as Smith’s Barber Shoppe in 1925. The year before, a fire destroyed the block from where Miska Jewelers to Rapid Transit now sit.
“George Smith had a barber shop across the street. The person in this location did not want to rebuild, so George decided, ‘Hey I am going to move across the street,’” says Durst.
The business got passed on to its current namesake, Dicky DiRinaldo, in the 1950s, to Wayne Bitten in the ’80s, and then to Durst in the ’90s. But through it all, some things have stayed the same, such as the original sinks and barber chairs from the 1920s.
‘Old school meets new school’
A longtime barber shop got a fresh makeover a few years back, when Eddie Fisher opened Badger and Hound Barber Company at 105 S. Pugh St.
The walls of the “old school meets new school” shop are covered with colorful artwork, and the refrigerator is always stocked with beer, all the while maintaining that classic barber shop atmosphere.
The punk-rock loving Fisher got into the hair game by being around the right people, namely his wife and father-in-law, who are hair stylists at My Beyond Looks in State College. Fisher started helping in the shop while working a job at Penn State that he wasn’t fond of, and he secretly went to barber school. He found out he had some serious skills with the clippers.
Fisher started his business with his apprentice Cody White – who has since gone on to open Black Diamond Barber Parlor in Bellefonte – in front of a nail salon on College Avenue. Because they were down at the bottom of a staircase, the shop had a speakeasy kind of vibe to it, and through their detailed cuts and hard work, word of mouth about the shop grew.
“Sometimes we would go out to the bars, have a couple of drinks, and see people who’d be like, ‘Hey how’s the barber shop?’ We’d be like, ‘Good man, you want to come get a cut?’ and we would open at one in the morning,” says Fisher with a laugh.
After years of hard work, Fisher says he got lucky again when Debra Noon decided to retire from the barber business and asked Fisher if he would be interested in taking over her South Pugh Street location. He jumped at the chance.
“So, 105 South Pugh Street has been a barber shop since like the ’20s, or even before then,” Fisher says. He credits his crew of professionals with the growth of the shop.
“We take real pride in our work; we treat it like a craft, but we are not super-pretentious about it,” says Fisher. “We try to keep an old-school mentality, but if there is a new or better way to do something, then we do that. I guess we try to keep up with current trends, but keep it traditional.”
Some of those traditions include a 14-step shave with a straight razor that Fisher says “is the same shave that barbers have been doing for years. But it is still one of the best shaves, and it is kind of nice to think that you are doing what has been done for almost a hundred years.”
Fitted
Jonathon Atiyeh remembers going to the barber almost every week growing up. He always enjoyed watching people getting their hair cut and kept up with the latest styles. Then, as a student at Penn State Berks in 2003, he started cutting hair for friends and things grew from there. When he transferred to the University Park campus, his burgeoning side hustle took off because of the sheer number of students.
“Once I came out here it was word of mouth; I just started cutting people’s hair. It was enough for food, rent, bills, expenses that you need as a college student,” says Atiyeh.
After graduating, he continued to cut hair on the side until he decided to make it a career by getting his license and opening his own shop in 2011. Fitted Cuts operated in the Fraser Street Mini Mall until the shop grew enough to move to its current location across the street at 112 S. Fraser St. in 2019.
Specializing in multicultural and urban-style haircuts, Atiyeh says the shop helps fill a void in State College.
“There are not a lot of options as the diversity – at mostly the university, but also the town – grows. … Those are a lot of the conversations that we do have on the phone. ‘Hey, we are African American, and we are looking for a haircut. Is this the right place to come to?’ And we are like, ‘Yes, as a matter of fact, we specialize in this,’” says Atiyeh.
People from all over the region travel to State College to get a “Fitted Cut” because they are unable to find a barber that can meet their needs in their towns, he says.
“It is an awesome feeling when someone says, ‘I drove an hour away from Dubois, Clearfield.’ A lot of college kids from those campuses come out here just for a haircut, talking about how they skipped class to come out here to get a haircut. It is crazy to hear that,” says Atiyeh.
Inside, the shop has a vibrant feel with the latest music playing and barbers shaping up the latest trends. In the back, Gertrude Gaba-Abbey brought her talents over from her former salon — Gertrude’s International Beauty Salon — to round out the offerings at Fitted Cuts.
Atiyeh likes to keep a family atmosphere, bringing in his kids to the shop on weekends to hang out with their dad, and he enjoys giving the younger generation fresh cuts to show off to their friends.
“I love to have kids come in and get haircuts. I coach – basketball, football – so I do meet a lot of these kids,” he says. “They all want to come to Fitted Cuts to get a haircut.”
Growth along North Atherton Street
Owen’s Barber Shop has been growing right along with the busy North Atherton Street corridor, where it has been located since Becky Trate took over 10 years ago. The former owner had operated a “one-man band” barber shop on North Atherton for more than 50 years. The shop was relocated to its current spot at 355 Colonnade Way to make way for Penn State Federal Credit Union.
“He put in a two-chair shop here. When I bought it, we went to three, then we went to five, now we are at 10,” says Trate.
Five years ago, Trate opened a second location along the Benner Pike, also with 10 chairs; the only problem is finding enough barbers to fill them all.
The traditional barber shop continues to run a straight razor and clippers, as opposed to scissors like a salon.
“Some people would say it is impossible, but we can do a whole entire haircut using a pair of clippers, even if we are only taking a quarter of an inch or an eighth of an inch. Their hair can be 6 inches long and I can do that entire haircut holding a pair of clippers,” says Trate.
That allows barber shops to get haircuts done much faster than a salon, she says.
“We can run clippers and have them done in 10, 15 minutes, where if you go to a salon it is going to take a half-hour to 45 minutes,” she says.
The popular short hairstyles of the day have allowed shops like hers and the other “really good barber shops in town” to flourish, she adds.
“Back in the ’70s … it was long hair. Now, it seems like a short phase of haircuts, although the mullets are back and other different-style haircuts are back,” says Trate.
The free parking also allowed the business to grow, and the lower cost allows customers to come back more often to keep their cuts looking clean, she says. Inside the shop, Penn State and State College sports memorabilia hangs on the walls. There is often a fast-moving line of customers waiting for a cut, and lively conversations over the hum of clippers.
The former owner was old-school and unsure about a woman taking over a barber shop, Trate says, but he turned around once she started working with him. She says that some old-time customers still struggle with female barbers, but they are becoming more the norm these days.
“And probably 98 percent of our clientele is male, but we do have some females that come in that like the clipper cut,” says Trate.
Being the only traditional barber shop on one of the busiest sides of town, Trate says the shop is busy all the time and it doesn’t look like it is slowing down anytime soon. She just hopes she can hire a few more barbers to keep up with the demand.
‘A lot of good customers’
The original chairs still in use at Fetterolf’s Barber Shop have an interesting feature that probably came in handy when the shop was first opened at 234 E. College Ave. in 1967, but don’t get any use these days: ashtrays.
While smoking is no longer allowed, not much else has changed inside, where barbers still use the straight razor to clean those necklines, and Penn State students and local residents stop by often for a cut and a bit of conversation.
“Not much has changed; just the haircuts, and some haven’t even done that,” owner Donna Weaver says with a laugh.
The daughter of a barber – Weaver still runs her dad’s old business, George’s Barber Shop in Tyrone – she started cutting hair at Fetterolf’s in 1979. After switching over to Rinaldo’s for a few years, she came back to Fetterolf’s, eventually purchasing the business in 1996.
Weaver is the third owner of the shop, following Howard Smith and the current namesake, George Fetterolf.
“I loved that man. He was a good man to me. Good family man,” Weaver says of Fetterolf. He was a collector of old barber shop memorabilia, some of which still is in the business.
Through the years, Weaver has cut the hair of many a Penn State legend. She remembers Joe Paterno stopping in regularly, bringing in his sons Jay, Scott, and David.
“David still comes in and I get his grandson,” she says. “Over the years, I have a lot of good customers.”
And while little has changed over those years at Fetterolf’s, some adjustments had to be made recently because of the pandemic. Shower curtains separate the chairs, and all the magazines were removed from the waiting area. Each customer gets a fresh disposable mask, so they don’t get hair on their own personal cloth one.
Through it all, Weaver found ways to adjust and says her customers have been very supportive. When asked if it is difficult to cut hair when a customer has a mask on, she says, “Are you kidding me? … No.” Then she adds with a laugh, “If we cut the string of the mask, we’ll just give them another one.”
Vincent Corso is a staff writer for Town&Gown and The Centre County Gazette. This story appears in the December 2021 issue of Town&Gown.
