Glenn Gatlin and Pat Kelly never had an argument in their half a century as owners of Buccaneer Hair Design Center.
After 50 years of cutting hair together, Buccaneer Hair Design Center will close at the end of August.
Kelly served in the Air Force before deciding to become a barber.
“I came out of the military,” he said. “I had only one year of business school and I didn’t want to do that.”
A Clarksdale native, he attended barber school at Hinds Community College, where he met Steve Walsh, who was from McComb.
Rodney Dickey sold his barber shop located in McComb’s Southwest Mall to Kelly, Walsh and Gatlin.
Gatlin was already cutting hair when he teamed up with Kelly and Walsh.
“I had a barber shop in east McComb,” he said. “They asked me to come join them.”
Walsh went to work for Croft Metals in the late 1970s and Kelly and Gatlin have been the two owners ever since.
Kelly’s uncle, Toy Kelly, was a barber at Kings’ Den Barber & Hair Styling in Clarksdale, and that inspired him to become a barber.
Gatlin’s first barber in McComb was Glenn Griffin.
“When I was young, I would go get a haircut and I was always amazed at how they would cut hair and how good it looked,” Gatlin said. “I just kind of wanted to do it.”
On Jan. 10, 1975, the barbers were at work when bad weather started to roll in.
“I was at work and it came on the radio,” Gatlin said. “You know how they’ll say tornado watch. And, a few minutes later, some of our customers said, ‘My ears are burning or ringing.’ Steve, this other fellow, opened the door and it was pitch dark.”
Gatlin said he started to hear the noise.
“Then, the lights went out and then most of that mall fell in except for that place we were in, thank goodness,” he said. “That got us out of that lease. We decided to come build a shop and not pay rent.”
Buccaneer Hair Design Center’s current location on Kendall Avenue has rooms for three barbers, a lobby, a TV and a breakroom, all of which is more spacious than the former location.
“You just opened the door and it wasn’t much of a lobby,” Gatlin said.
Kirk Kirkland is the other barber at Buccaneer. In 1970, he won the title of Sculptor Cut Champion of the USA. It was a razor cut style contest that Roffler Hair Products sponsored.
While haircuts have gone from $8 to $20 in the past 50 years, Kelly and Gatlin said the customers have remained constant.
“Our customers became a part of this shop,” Kelly said.
Kelly said M.D. Bilbo, a former Franklin County High School principal, has been a weekly customer for 49 years.
Bob Hemeter, a McComb a native, is Kelly’s longest customer. Kelly was cutting Hemeter’s hair in a Jackson mall more than 50 years ago.
“I was just out of barber school,” Kelly said. “I’ve been cutting Bob’s hair ever since.”
Alton McCulley of Summit is a distant cousin and longtime customer of Gatlin.
“Great place,” McCulley said. “Absolutely great. I’ve been around here, I don’t know, 20, 30 years. They cut my hair good and they’ve got good manners.”
Buccaneer Hair Design Center has an old-school approach.
“When we started, we brought men’s hairstyling into McComb,” Kelly said. “It was just regular barbers up to that point. We brought hairstyling in.
“The old barbers were skinning these kids. We came in. We had beards and we had long hair. We built our business on these kids that didn’t have didn’t have any faith in men’s barbers.”
Kelly said he and Gatlin wash the customer’s hair, section it off and razor cut it, use a blow dryer and blow it out. Today, Kelly said many barbers use clipper guards to cut hair.
Gatlin will continue to cut hair after Buccaneer closes. He’s moving to Three’s Company Hair Skin & Nail Salon in McComb.
Kelly is retiring.
“I’m having some neck problems,” he said. “It’s probably coming off of bad posture. I live out in the country and I’m sure my wife (Linda) will keep me busy.”
Kirkland may retire.
“I’m probably going to retire,” he said. “I don’t know for sure. I’m getting 82 years old. I’ll do what an 82-year-old can do, I guess.”
Gatlin and Kelly will stay in touch. Both attend New Heights Baptist Church in Summit and said it was those close friendships with customers and each other that kept them going all these years.
“I enjoy people and we make friends if people come back to you every three weeks, every five weeks over the years,” Gatlin said.
