Customers entering Jerry’s Barber Shop in Somerset are greeted by the familiar buzzing of hair clippers and the twang of country music. A lot has stayed the same around Jerry Wheeldon’s shop in the nearly 50 years he’s been cutting hair — even the chairs.
Jerry can’t remember wanting to be anything but a barber.
“My dad used to say that I had said I wanted to be a barber since I was 8 years old,” Jerry says.
There’s no appointment necessary at Jerry’s two-chair shop near downtown Somerset. Customers stop by when they get a chance and get a trim, catch up on local news and talk about University of Kentucky basketball and local sports teams.
The discussions aren’t likely to change, but one thing will.
Jerry is planning to retire.
“It’s been enjoyable for me,” Jerry says. “After 50 years it’s about time to retire, isn’t it?”
There won’t be a retirement party for Jerry, who also is on the Somerset City Council. He just plans to hang up his clippers and go fishing.
While he will be busy trying to catch a fish big enough to brag about, his son, Ron Wheeldon, plans to keep cutting hair at Jerry’s with his own son, Brannen, who will finish barber school in the spring of 2012.
Ron joined his father’s business after he got tired of working in a factory. Ron worked full-time for a year and a half while also going to barber school, then completed the requirements to earn his barber-pole stripes by cutting hair alongside his father.
Jerry’s retirement comes as no surprise to regulars, but it does mark a big change in a local institution.
“I’ve been coming here since I was 10,” says 30-year-old Keith Ashley. “When I started I had a head full of hair. Then I got married, and now I have a big piece of bologna back there.”
Many customers have come to Jerry for haircuts their entire lives. At times, three generations of a family come to the shop together for cuts and some conversation.
Some can’t believe that after early 50 years behind the chair, Jerry is really going to lay down his comb and scissors.
“He might fish a little more, but he won’t quit,” says longtime customer Larry Stewart.
