Four walls, a single Johnny Cash poster and a barber with all the chops. Sometimes, that’s all you need.
In today’s over-priced salon culture, Mark Mintor, aka Mark The Barber, serves up classic cuts and straight-razor shaves with more than a slice of old-school wisdom. For 22 years Mintor has been cropping the top of everyone from Roanoke regulars getting the usual to slick youngsters going the way of the greaser.
Tucked away on Jameson Avenue in Southeast Roanoke, the tensions of the busy street fade away inside the small, green building, with nothing but a barber’s pole and a sign the size of a hubcap to betray the establishment. There’s no pulse-pounding music or flashy advertisements, which, for some, can be hard to brave.
The mood is calm, the atmosphere welcoming, unassuming. All of the chairs, barber’s or otherwise, are rickety and mismatched. The conversation is familiar, soothing. Always a barber, sometimes a historian, Mintor is also something of a sage to his clients; a wise-man savant bearing gifts of pomade and Barbasol. Of course Mintor also never misses an opportunity to “cut up.”
“I like all three types of music: Country, Western, and Rock-and-Roll,” Mintor said, laughing in working-class duds as he combed his finely-crafted pompadour into submission.
“Meeting people, hearing their stories, laughing with them, that’s what I love most about my job. When I was a kid, I got into building model cars. I liked hand-and-eye work, and the art it takes to do it right. I like the idea of taking something, creating something new out of it, something beautiful. What I like about hair; it grows back, so if I do a good job, then people come back, and I can see them, and do something artistic all over again.”
Mintor may be a local legend in vintage hairstyles for men, but you won’t hear him say it. “I still like to learn to be better,” he said. “I want someone to come in here and cut hair better than me, so I can learn from them. I’m still learning.”
Mintor’s mastery of the straight-razor shave, however, is something he takes pride in. “I am good with a razor! In twenty-two years I’ve never cut one person.” In fact, a Google search of “straight-razor shaves in Roanoke, Virginia” will generate responses that tell mysteriously of “the guy”located in different barbershops all over the city. In every instance, “the guy” is Mintor.
As he settles into his new digs, opened in July, he explains his frequency in changing locations. “I’ve had four barber shops. The reason why I’ve moved so much is that landlords see me being successful, and after a while they raise the rent, so I gotta go.” Even that hurdle hasn’t stopped his loyal regular customer base, a figure Mark estimates to be somewhere in the fifties or sixties, from following him to locations from Vinton, Williamson Road, and Downtown Roanoke.
As the recent trend in rock-a-billy fashion rises, so does his list of new clientele. “The pompadour is a formal way to be rebellious, which is to be American,” Mintor mused.
“It’s a comfortable, professional look with enough in the front that you can create your own identity. In many ways, young people are more patriotic today than I’ve seen in previous generations, and some want a hair style that reflects that. ”
As many young vintage-Americana enthusiasts in Roanoke will drive for hours and pay exuberantly for the perfect quaff, Mark wants them to know that they don’t have to. “Not enough people know I’m here, and I want them to know they’re welcome here, and I can give them what they want without taking every penny they’ve got.”
And the price is hard to beat. A man can get any cut he likes, including Mintor’s signature pompadour, for $12. A straight-razor shave is $7, complete with warm towel and aftershave, a process which, according to Mintor, is very important. “It’s for the pores! Gotta be good to the pores!”
And being good to the pores means being good to the customer. Every swipe of the blade, every careful lop of the sheers, every historical factoid or chuckle comes from a down-to-earth man who executes his craft with a meticulous attention to detail, the most important detail being the customer.
“You want to have good neighbors?” he asks. “Then you gotta be a good neighbor. That’s it! Now, I know you like Hemmingway; you ever read Thomas Wolfe? You need to read some Wolfe, man!”
And off he goes.
Mark Mintor, aka “Mark the Barber” is the owner and operator of “A Razor’s Edge,” located at 1024 Jameson Ave. And when it comes time to pay the bill, just remember the only art that decorates Mark’s walls: a poster of The Man in Black, Mintor’s funny way of saying “Cash only.”
– Jeremiah Rhodes