- November 14, 2021
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Cloudy with rain ending for the afternoon. High 43F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..
Some clouds. Low 23F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Updated: November 14, 2021 @ 8:06 am
Serving Terre Haute and Wabash Valley
Submitted photoBack in the day: Future Tribune-Star columnist Mark Bennett gets his first barbershop haircut from late Prairieton barber Paul Hannum in the early 1960s.
Tribune-Star/Mark BennettComing soon: Zeliha Caputo has given numerous first haircuts in her Wabash Avenue barbershop in downtown Terre Haute since entering the vocation 12 years ago. Customer Isaac Wright’s haircut Friday morning wasn’t his first, but figures his 1-month-old son will probably be coming in for his first sometime next year.
Submitted photoTeamwork: Beau Jackson sits on the lap of his dad, Kyle, while the little one gets his first haircut this week from Jerrilynn Bayless at Parting Company in Terre Haute.
Submitted photoBack in the day: Future Tribune-Star columnist Mark Bennett gets his first barbershop haircut from late Prairieton barber Paul Hannum in the early 1960s.
Tribune-Star/Mark BennettComing soon: Zeliha Caputo has given numerous first haircuts in her Wabash Avenue barbershop in downtown Terre Haute since entering the vocation 12 years ago. Customer Isaac Wright’s haircut Friday morning wasn’t his first, but figures his 1-month-old son will probably be coming in for his first sometime next year.
Submitted photoTeamwork: Beau Jackson sits on the lap of his dad, Kyle, while the little one gets his first haircut this week from Jerrilynn Bayless at Parting Company in Terre Haute.
My memory is fairly sharp, but that day escapes me. It’s probably because I was barely 2 years old.
Thank goodness, my parents snapped a photo and captured my first barbershop haircut on film.
It’s a truly Prairieton moment. The late Paul Hannum, a longtime barber and town icon, is combing my blond hair. A Capps Hardware calendar hangs in the background, a reminder of the handful of decades that have passed since then. (OK, a half-dozen decades.) Through my later haircuts at Paul’s barbershop, I got accustomed to the aromatic scent of the hair tonic, the cool of the air-conditioning, his casual humming and good-natured conversations. Paul’s affable style kept it fun.
Plus, like millions of other 1960s kids, I was a faithful viewer of the “Batman” TV series, and going to Paul’s barbershop meant I got to wear a cape. And, rising into the air aboard a cushioned, massive — at least, that’s how it seemed then — barbershop chair felt throne-like.
It’s a pivotal point in any kid’s life. A child suddenly looks so grown up, a glimpse — a parent hopes — of the clean-cut adult to come. Of course, I grew into a teenager and college student during the ’70s and early ’80s, so the term “clean-cut” didn’t exactly describe my hair style later on.
But those childhood haircuts at Paul’s barbershop remain fond memories.
Still, on that first haircut, the photo shows me wearing an “Are you serious?” expression, as if I’d just been offered spinach as a reward for sitting still.
I saw that photograph for the first time earlier this year, when my sister went through stacks of old family pictures.
That image popped into my head this week, when our youngest grandson, Beau, got his first barbershop haircut. He handled it with greater serenity than I did. Beau got his strawberry blond locks trimmed just weeks ahead of his first birthday, wearing a look of mostly curiosity as he sat in his dad Kyle’s lap while Jerrilynn Bayless cut his hair at the Parting Company salon in Terre Haute.
Likewise, our sons kept their composure on their first trips to the barber — the late “Roundy” Bedwell — in Southland Shopping Center a few decades ago. Ironically, they both got their first barbershop haircuts on the same day. (Our younger son’s hair grew in quicker.) It probably helped the younger to have his big brother along, while Roundy methodically trimmed their mops.
Skilled hands can make first haircuts go smoothly.
“Some barbers are really experienced at calming kids down and getting their minds off the haircut. A good barber can make that experience fun,” Damon Dorsey, president of the 4,300-member American Barber Association, said Friday by phone from Milwaukee. “It’s about making that kid — who will be a customer, long-term — comfortable.”
Zeliha Caputo has developed an assortment of techniques to entertain youngsters undergoing their first haircuts. Caputo has been barbering for 12 years and operates Zeliha’s Barber Shop at 1218 Wabash Ave. The guys getting or awaiting haircuts in her downtown Terre Haute shop Friday morning were grown-ups. Still, one of those customers, young father Isaac Wright, knows he’ll soon see that situation unfold. His son is one month old.
“He’ll probably be here after awhile,” Wright said, as Caputo clipped and shaped his close-cropped hair and beard.
When that moment comes, Caputo will likely use scissors to give the little boy that first haircut, instead of electric hair trimmers. “Sometimes, they don’t like the noises,” she said.
Another beneficial tactic is having a parent join the process. “They sit in mom or dad’s lap,” Caputo said.
Sometimes, kids aren’t even awake for their haircut. “Best time is when they’re sleeping,” she said.
Caputo has also found that the youngest first-timers usually don’t cry, fidget or fuss during a haircut as much as slightly older kids. “Four- and 5-year-olds, they don’t sit still. They’re moving all the time. First haircut [kids], they sit still,” she said.
She also turns to old reliable motivators. “I give them candy — they love it — or [let them] watch a cartoon,” Caputo said.
Whatever the formula, one of the most important elements of a no-tears first haircut is speed. Kids’ attention spans, and tolerance, can be short. (The same is true for adults, these days.)
“The quicker the better,” Caputo said. “I do it quick, fast.”
The final and perhaps most crucial step is to preserve the evidence. “With the first haircut, [parents] keep the hair,” Caputo said. Sometimes those locks get tucked into an envelope. If they get tucked into a scrapbook, it’s probably best to add a caption with full details, just so decades later you’re not wondering whose hair it is, and why it’s there. Printed photos of the moment help solve that problem.
And, they can spark memories a few thousand haircuts later.
Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
Mark Bennett has reported and analyzed news from the Wabash Valley and beyond since Larry Bird wore Sycamore blue. That role with the Tribune-Star has taken him from Rome to Alaska and many points in between, but Terre Haute suits him best.
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WEST TERRE HAUTE [mdash] Josephine E. Harden, 83 of West Terre Haute, passed away on Friday, November 12, 2021 in Meadows Manor North. She was born in Terre Haute on May 2, 1938 to Andrew Sellers and Josephine Smith Sellers. Josephine is survived by four children: Wesley Harden (Paula), LeAn…
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