Barber is solving the world's problems a haircut at a time

BLOOMFIELD, Ind. (AP) - It's nearly 6 p.m. on a Friday, and Ken Robertson is giving a smooth, clean shave to a new customer, a man in his 20s headed off to two weeks of National Guard duty.

Carefully guiding a straight razor across a rough lathered cheek is part of this small-town barber's everyday routine, and it has been for five decades.

Ken's Barber & Style Shop in White's Square on the eastern edge of Bloomfield has filled the role of town gathering place the past 50 years.

The official celebration was on Saturday, an open house with refreshments for anyone who stopped by. He opens at 6 a.m. on Saturdays, and usually has a few early-bird customers waiting in line.

Last Saturday, Dr. Owen Batterton had a 5:30 a.m. appointment for an $18 cut and shave before heading off to his rounds at Greene County General Hospital.

Robertson was just 20 years old when he went to work for David H. Lynn, who had opened the shop a few months before. It was April 1967.

"He called me today, and I told him that I wouldn't be here if not for him," Robertson said. Lynn is 86 and is a regular at the shop he started.

When Lynn branched out to sell real estate in the 1970s, he sold the barber shop to Robertson.

"We always say the first deal he made in the real estate business was selling this shop to me," Robertson said.

In the early days, a haircut cost $1.25. Now, it's $14, plus another $4 for a hot-towel shave.

"I'm into five, six generations now," the 70-year-old barber said. His oldest customer is 102 years old.

Robertson hopes to keep working another 15 years, he said, to continue "solving the world's problems one haircut at a time."

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Source: The (Anderson) Herald Times, http://bit.ly/2pQ9sLP

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Information from: The Herald Times, http://www.heraldtimesonline.com