Fun Times in the Barber Chair
Wooten’s Barber Shop is the first shop in the “Downtown” section of the museum. It is one of the most popular interactive displays in the museum and a favorite for photo ops. School children love sitting in the chair, often with a classmate pretending to give them a haircut! Adults sometimes slide into the chair and tell stories of their own “Wooten” haircut experiences. Teachers use the hand-painted signs as a teaching tool for students to learn about the cost of haircuts “then and now.”
The barber chair, shoe shine stand, advertising signs, and barbering tools were all given to the museum by the Wooten family in honor of their patriarch, Marvin R. Wooten, better known as “Wooten.” Often referred to as a “character,” Wooten provided a favorite hangout for his friends who came for a haircut or just to share tall tales!
Originally, Wooten’s Barber Shop was located downtown, upstairs in the Pruden Building on the corner of Marion and Jefferson, where the Eatonton Messenger newspaper is located today. Wooten moved to the present location next to Shoppers Pharmacy in the early 1960’s.
Today, Wooten’s son Sammy and grandson Brian are continuing the tradition of “providing rich entertainment with a quick haircut,” as one Eatonton native described it.
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Frequently, our museum docents are asked to explain “tonsorialist” and the “ barber pole.” The word was used to indicate that tonsorial (barbering) arts were performed in the establishment. It originated because tonsorialists or “tonsors” could not only do shaves and cut hair, but they could also perform minor surgery and dental work. Barbers were allowed this combination practice as early as the 12th century.
As for the barber pole, it had a rather gruesome beginning. When barbers performed surgeries or pulled teeth, they would hang the bandages outside to dry. With the wind blowing around, the bandages would twist together, thus creating a bloody spiral effect. Seeing that, people would be able to locate the tonsorial parlor. Eventually, surgery and dentistry were phased out of tonsorial arts, and poles painted with red for blood and white for bandage were erected. The blue stripe we see on poles today came much later to indicate blood inside the body. To this day, barber poles remain the symbol of a barber shop.
