Barbershop

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT: Family's been in 'shave and a haircut' business since the 1920s
Sunday, October 12, 2003
By Matt Donnelly
There are people in Zelienople who have gone their whole lives and had only an Eppinger cut their hair.
The family of barbers, now in its third generation, has been snipping away in the borough since the 1920s. Customers today still crowd the barbershop, tucked into the corner of an office building at Main and Spring streets in downtown Zelienople.
The spot has been occupied by barbershops, under various ownership, since 1911. And yes, there's a red, white and blue barber pole outside the door.
Walking in today, a customer is likely to be attended to by Dan Fritch, stepson of Bill Eppinger, who is the son of shop founder Hugh Eppinger.
Fritch, formerly a commercial real estate consultant, has been working for his stepfather for three years. Bill Eppinger, 64, still works every day, but now takes a few afternoons off every week.
Eppinger says he feels comfortable leaving Fritch to run the family business. "I think it was a good career change for him," Eppginer said. "For all I know, he's happy as a clam down there."
But Fritch doubts Eppinger will ever really give up the shop. "Old barbers don't retire," he said. "They just cut back on their hours."
Fritch said his stepfather brought him into the business so Eppinger could spend more time sailing with his wife, Fritch's mother, Angelene. The couple has been married nine years.
However, having Fritch at his right hand also ensures Eppinger's will remain a family-run business through another generation, a prospect Fritch said is rare in the field. Many barbers, he said, keep working well past retirement age because once they decide to quit, their barbershops often are forced to close.
And it's good for Fritch, too.
"When consulting was good it was extremely good, but when it wasn't, Bill invited me to come over," said Fritch, a father of three. "He was always making his pitch for the barbershop, and one day I said OK."
Eppinger's Barber Shop has been at 128 S. Main St. since 1968, when Bill Eppinger bought the space. He remodeled it in the classic barbershop tradition, but added a few personal touches, like mounting a 9-point buck's head and a walleye nearly as big.
Previously, Eppinger's was across the street. Hugh Eppinger opened a shop there when he moved to Zelienople from Evans City in the 1920s.
Hugh passed on what he'd learned to Bill and Bill's cousin, Rich, now 74, who runs a barbershop of his own down the street.
Bill started cutting hair in 1955, at age 16, and never stopped. "I'm currently in the fourth generation of people I've cut hair," said Eppinger -- and he's had some customers for more than 40 years. "Quite honestly, I'm rather proud of that."
Fritch has made some subtle updates -- so subtle Eppinger himself hadn't even noticed. Fritch has started a Web site, www.barberdan.com, giving a brief history of the shop and allowing customers to make reservations online.
Along with historic photos, the Web site traces the shop back to its original owner, Bill Kloffenstein, who ran it from 1911 to 1957.
The site also offers Fritch's slogan for Eppinger's: "Eyebrows and Earhairs trimmed. No chemical smells. No cackling hens. No shampooing. Just great short haircuts."
On a recent Friday afternoon, Seneca Valley football Coach Bob Ceh was in Fritch's chair a few hours before his team was to take the field against North Allegheny.
Fritch said "Coach," as he called Ceh, was "as close as we get to a celebrity." Much of the barbershop chatter in Eppinger's this time of year revolves around the Steelers, the Panthers, the Nittany Lions or Ceh's team.
It's been a tough season for Seneca Valley, which is a drag on conversation. When they're not talking football, Fritch said, customers chat about some of Zelienople's looming civic concerns, such as truck traffic on the Main Street corridor or the ever-expanding enrollment in Seneca Valleyschools .
National politics don't come up much but when they do, Eppinger's barbers know where Zelienople stands.
"Most guys that come here don't want to talk politics, it turns them off," Fritch said. "A few of your token liberals like to talk about it, but we just get them riled up."
Fritch finishes a haircut for Ronald Bair, of Cranberry, but before he can take off the cape, Bair reminds him of his beard. Fritch plugs his clippers back in and takes Bair's beard down to a goatee.
"There aren't many places you can still get that," Bair said.
"You don't really learn any of that stuff until you come out and start doing," Fritch answered.
When he switched careers, Fritch took classes in barbering from the Pittsburgh Beauty Academy, but beard trimming was a skill passed on from Bill Eppinger. "It's tough for a guy to go into a place and ask for a trim because the schools don't teach you how to do it," he said.
But for a place that's been open for nearly a century and a family that's been cutting hair almost as long, Eppinger is pretty low key about his trade, his accomplishments and his longevity.
"You can comb it forward, backwards, sideways," Eppinger said. "To tell the truth, cutting hair hasn't changed."
Matt Donnelly is a freelance writer.