MURFREESBORO, DNJ, 6/11/2012 — After 60 years of cutting hair and sharing wisdom with his customers, long-time Tip Top barber Eurel Sauls finally stepped away from his head-shearing chair for good this month.
Long-time Tip Top barber Eurel Sauls retired after 60 years of cutting hair on the square in Murfreesboro. He is pictured at the barber shop during a retirement party, May 31, 2012.
The nearly 90-year-old man—whose wits have remained as sharp as the razors he’s used to satisfy his customers over the years — said he finally decided it was time to call it quits after realizing he was having trouble with his mobility.
As he enters retirement, he plans on doing a lot less haircuts and more relaxing. The barbershop on the south side of the Public Square will go on without him, though he still owns it.
“My dad always said old folks should get a lot of rest,” he said.
Even still, he couldn’t say goodbye to all his friends and loyal customers around the county without telling a few more stories on his last day, including one about the time a man drove a car through his business on accident.
After all, it’s those stories and his vast knowledge on a variety of topics that have kept farmers, politicians and even the likes of people like Grand Ole Opry harmonica player Herman Crook coming to Sauls for years.
People gather at Tip Top Barber Shop on the Square for a retirement party for Eurel Sauls, right, May, 31.
Of all the stories he tells, though, Sauls said the one of how he got started in his vocation is one of his favorites. It is the epitome of an American, boot-strap story.
“Well, I was working at Avco in Nashville and got laid off,” he said. “We was making deep freezers and they demolished that line and laid us all off. It was hard to find a job in Murfreesboro at that time — I put in an application at Carnation and the Russell Tire Company and two or three other places.”
One day in 1953, Sauls went to go get his hair cut and told his barber he’d been considering going to barber school.
“He said, ‘If you’ll go, I can get you a job right here beside me,’” Sauls said. “I went to one of only two barber schools in the state down in Nashville and started working at that shop and stayed there for 10 years. That was in April 1953.”
In 1963, Sauls bought a half-interest in the Tip Top Barber Shop then owned by Joe Davis.
“In ‘77, when he retired, he let me have it all and I’ve owned it now for almost 49 years,” he said.
Sauls recalled how when he first started in the barber business, hair cuts were 75 cents, while a nice, warm shave was 60 cents.
“Of course, gasoline was 20 cents per gallon back then,” he explained. “I had bought a ‘53 Ford, and gave $1,650 dollars for it and they pulled it off the showroom floor.”
After a while, Sauls also got into selling honey at his shop, something that is still done there to this day.
“I had some bees back long years ago and started bringing honey down here and selling it, and built up a pretty good honey business,” he said. “I think I was the one who got the trend of honey-selling started around here. I used to sell a quart for $1.17.”
A quart of honey these days costs roughly $18, Sauls said.
A sign thanking Eurel Sauls who retired after 60 years of cutting hair at Tip Top Barber Shop on the Square.
“It’s always been high, but not in the olden days when you could buy a quart for a dollar,” he said.
As Sauls sold his honey and continued cutting hair over the years, he saw several changes in the downtown area and in his profession.
“Styling came into place,” he said. “A lot of barbers went to a hairstyling school. I went to a hairstyling school, but never did style it. I just kept cutting regular haircuts ‘cause I had a lot of older fellows that just wanted a regular haircut.
“They didn’t want to pay $20 for a haircut.”
Haircuts at Tip Top are about half that.
As he worked over the years, Sauls also saw several famous customers visit or even get their hair cut at his shop.
“Mr. Jimmy C. Newman from the Grand Ole Opry was one,” he said. “Mayor Richard Fulton of Nashville, when he was running for governor, came in here. We recently had (then Knoxville mayor and current Tennessee governor) Bill Haslam in here last fall when he ran for governor.”
Practically every congressman and state representative elected in the area, including John Hood, has also visited Sauls’ business, he said.
But the people who meant the most to Sauls over the years were his regular everyday customers, many of whom have now unfortunately passed away.
“I’ll really miss seeing my old friends,” he said. “I had a lot of friends, I cut their hair regularly. A lot of my customers have died.”
One of his all-time favorites visited him on his last day, Judge J.S. “Steve” Daniels. They discussed Daniels’ own honey business, and a certain Woodbury lawyer who one day lost his false teeth in the middle of court.
“I got me some honeybees,” Daniels told Sauls at his May 31 retirement party. “When I get them going, I’ll call you and we’ll get you some honey. But listen, I’m a rookie in the honeybee business. I’ll probably give it all away if I don’t get stung to death first.”
“It’s a good hobby,” Sauls replied, moving on to the next story.