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Norman Millette has been cutting hair in Portland, Maine, for 65 years. He’s been in the same location for 62 of those years, in a tiny triangle-shaped shop with a red, white and blue barber pole out front and one barber chair.
The shop once was busier, with three chairs and another barber working alongside Millette. But now Millette works four days a week, solo, opening his door at 7 a.m.
On good days, Millette, 85, will cut hair for as many as 20 customers, who are mostly men but run the gamut of ages and professions. Some days are slower, he said. The beginning of the month is always busiest, when many clients get their benefit checks, he said.
“I’ve seen everything. The Elvis Presley. The flat top with the duck tail back—those were a pain. Mohawks. I’ve seen some crazy ones,” Millette said.
He went to barber school in 1957 after trying other vocations such as plumbing.
“I didn’t like that,” Millette said. “This, I get to talk to people all day and I’m good at it.”
Millette said he’s an expert at 15 minute chitchat—or the length of time to cut a customer’s hair.
“People talk a lot about sports, how the neighborhood has changed, and the weather—especially the weather and especially when there’s a snowstorm brewing,” Millette said.
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The most famous customers he ever worked on were late actor Gary Merrill, and Fred Hale Sr., once the world’s oldest man, who died in 2004, just 11 days short of his 114th birthday. Millette said he’s cut the hair of everyone from local neighbors he’s worked with for years, to the homeless and state legislators and a bishop and even a bank robber.
“A guy came in and said ‘Give me a good haircut because I have an important appointment this afternoon.’ He did have an appointment—he robbed a bank and went and robbed another and got caught. It was on the news. I never saw him again,” Millette said.
When his two daughters were young, his oldest would come and play cashier at the shop.
“Customers would tip her and not me,” Millette laughed.
The biggest tip he ever got was a $100 bill he received in the past year.
“I was shocked. I said ‘I can’t change that.’ And the guy said ‘You don’t have to. It’s for you.’ That was something,” Millette said.
When he first started out, Millette said a cut was $1.25 for men and 90 cents for children. The sign in his shop now says “Crew cuts, flat tops and regular haircuts” cost $16, with a $2 discount for those 62 years and older. Children under 12 are $12. Cash only.
Millette’s business started as Longfellow Barber Shop, but changed its name to the Senior Citizens Barber Shop in the 1960s when it was stylish for young men to let their hair grow longer, which Millette said was bad for business.
He recently changed the name back to the original Longfellow Barber Shop name, saying it got too complicated to keep explaining he served everyone and didn’t discriminate.
When Millette himself needs a trim, he said he trades hair cuts with “another old barber. I go cut his hair and he cuts mine.”
He’s made special trips to cut clients’ hair in hospitals and nursing homes.
People often ask him if he’ll ever retire, but Millette said he always says “Not yet.”
“I don’t know what I’d do. I guess I’d find something to do around the house—there’s always something. But I like this and my wife doesn’t mind,” Millette said.
When asked about all the changes he’s seen in his lifetime, Millette said the most amazing development was the invention of television.
“Television was a big invention. I used to listen to the radio when I was younger,” Millette said. “But now TV has so many commercials. I like PBS.”
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He said one of the handiest innovations he’s seen lately is a language translation app that allows immigrants who don’t speak English to talk to him and explain what kind of haircut they want.
“That’s pretty neat,” Millette said. “There’s all sorts of things I’ve seen. Medical developments. The clothes dryer—which meant you didn’t have to hang out the clothes. But I’d still say television was the biggest.”
When he’s not cutting hair, Millette said he’s taking care of his wife, who has cancer.
He used to be an avid sea kayaker, which he started doing in 1968 before it was trendy.
“When I first went out, someone offered to tow me in, saying I’d drift out to sea. But I loved it. I liked boating. Canoeing I didn’t like. And I didn’t want a rowboat—I want to see where I’m going, not where I’ve been,” Millette said.
