Published Thursday, March 18, 1999, in the San Jose Mercury News
caption: Mane men: Rudy Chavez, right, and his brother Fernando,
left, tend to a couple ofclients at their soon-to-be-shuttered
shop -- author George Schnurle and 4-year-old Luca De Lorenzis,
who's getting his first haircut.
Popular barbershop to end 43 years of old-fashioned scissor skill
BY GEORGE SCHNURLE
WHILE I was getting a haircut a few weeks ago, my barber, Fernando Chavez Sr., told me that Fernando's Barber Shop would be closing at the end of March. He might just as well have said ``Oops!'' while shaving my sideburns and then turned the chair so I couldn't see that my left ear was on the floor.
I've been going to this shop since 1985, and it probably took more than five of those years before anyone greeted me by name. Going into Fernando's is not like going into any one of Safeway's seemingly 5,000 locations in California and having to deal with them trying to create a sense of neighborhood by reading your name aloud off the receipt: ``Have a nice day, Mr. . . . aahhh, is it Snurgle?''
SCHNURLE At Fernando's it's ``Do you have an appointment?'' even if you made one an hour ago and made sure you said ``George'' three or four times. Even if you started going there before the birth of your son, who today has walked in with you and who is now opening up his Dr. Seuss book and reading aloud about some eggs belonging to a Mr. Hooper.
No, here you say, ``Yes, I just called'' and Fernando or his brother Rudy checks the book and replies: ``Oh. Are you George?''
I guess in the transient boomtown of Silicon Valley, there is only one way to separate the drifters from those who are dependable about coming back for another cut. You watch and wait. For about six years. No sense remembering names if they're going to stop showing up when their Internet portal web site start-up goes public and they move to San Ramon. Or if their Internet portal web site start-up goes belly-up and they have to go to some $6 franchise barbershop.
Number 9
Fernando tells me he opened his place in 1956. It's on that stretch of De Anza Boulevard that some people, vainly trying to slow the rate of change, still refer to as Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. My in-laws, who moved here in 1961, would still today refer to the highway as Number 9, as it was when Fernando started. Anyway, from Stevens Creek Boulevard it's just a block toward Saratoga, in between a car parts store and a plastics shop.
It's been nice all these years to have a barbershop that didn't get franchised or change barbers or go upscale. I could just make a phone call in the morning and make an appointment with Rudy, or if he wasn't in I would go with Fernando Sr.
Over the years I've heard stories of everything from Rudy's trips to islands in the Pacific, to his last-minute party flight to the Super Bowl in Florida (with no tickets, but he managed to get a great seat!), to tales of his youth and how he worked and played on the farms of California. And how, a few years ago while talking with a woman he met on a trip, he realized that she had grown up on one of the farms where his family had worked. They had played together as children. I even discovered one day that Rudy knew and worked with my neighbor Bob.
Naturally when Fernando told me the shop would be closing I wondered why. He said the place is actually owned by his son, Fernando Jr., who goes by Junior and who has decided he just doesn't want to cut hair anymore. Junior has seen and heard about all the opportunity around here: the stock options, the paid vacations, the paid medical insurance and other benefits.
After comparing running a barber shop with his other options, he made the obvious choice. He has a college degree and some experience in teaching, so he can probably get a great job just by sticking his well-trimmed head in the right door and saying hello. I wish him well and hope he gets a big slice of the Silicon Valley dream.
Follow that barber
While I certainly will miss the shop, it is Junior's clients who are upset the most. It looks like Fernando Sr. and Rudy will cut back their hours but will still continue working part time at another shop nearby. So their clients, including me, will just have to put a little more effort into scheduling a haircut.
But Junior's people have a less fortunate fate, because he is hanging up his clippers for good. Compounding the tragedy is the fact that most of his clients regard him as a sort of modern-day inverse-Delilah; they gain their strength and confidence from his cutting, styling and blow-drying technique.
But soon that will end, their hairstyles will change and their power and status will diminish. There will be a lot of stress, frustration and bad hair days over the next few months.
After announcing the shop's closing, Fernando picked up a couple of pictures from his counter and handed them to me. He said both were taken from the front of the shop, looking across De Anza.
The first showed an orchard, which appeared to stretch back until it disappeared into the hills and clouds above east San Jose. The second was a picture of the old mill that used to be at the corner of De Anza and Stevens Creek, and you could see the heavy equipment that was starting the demolition.
Talk to the head
If I'm lucky, both Fernando Sr. and Rudy will continue to cut my hair for many more years and I won't lose the friendship that has slowly built up over the past 14 years. I guess I could invite them over to my house, and probably will someday, but I know that I'm more comfortable talking with Rudy when he is standing behind me and I can hear the click of his scissors over my head.
Fernando's has been a wonderful place all these years. When you walk in today you will see it almost exactly the way it has always been for me: the row of chairs along the wall with the pictures above them, the 49ers clock above the cash register, the cabinets at the end of the room, Rudy's barber station with pictures of his wife's birds, and Fernando's station with his license -- including a picture of a somewhat younger Fernando -- taped to the mirror.
You might want to have your hair cut there before it is gone in a few days. They take drop-ins, but it's best to call and make an appointment. Some people say Junior is the best, but I've never had a bad haircut from any of the barbers there.