Looking back at Decatur's Barber Shops , my favorite was Willie Bradford's Barber Shop.

Decatur had a few Barber Shops in the 1950's & 1960's. The first photo called Barber Shop window is just a great 1950's style "Barber Window" that you would see in Decatur. This photo is of the Northport Barber Shop in Northport, Alabama , but it was such a great example of how windows looked back then I had to use it for my story.photo credit is : DIAMONDduste his flickr site is :http://flickr.com/photos/diamondduste/1126628582/.

The second photo is Willie Bradfords Barber Shop on College Ave.
This is the one we went to growing up in Decatur in the 1950's & 1960's.
It was a 2 chair shop. The first chair was Willie's the second one was his brother Herbert.
I remember it like it was yesterday, as you enter the shop the chairs for customers waiting for a haircut lined the left wall, all the way to the back. On the back wall
was a large picture of "Dogs playing Poker" under the photo was a very long white wooden bench with arms on both ends and on this bench were stacks and stacks of comic books for the kids to read. The cash register was one of those big gold color ones.
I have fond memories of this place.

The vintage barber ads are from old Decatur High Indecatur's.

Also the black & white photo is from a Indecatur book. Kids from Decatur High are fooling around for a photo, the shop they are in was The Decatur Barber Shop located on College Ave. also it just down from Watson's Drugs. Willie's shop was down past that strip of stores, his was a stand alone building.

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Did you grow up in Decatur GA.
Maybe you had a first haircut photo taken in one of the Decatur Barber Shops.
If so send a copy to me and I will post it, and you can write your own story around your photo.


This comment is from my brother
Phil Whitefield:
I can still smell the "Cool Bay Rum" lotion Willie would pour around our necks.
You can still buy that stuff at Walmart today.

Thanks Phil, I'm going to Walmart tomorrow.