50 years in the business
By JARED PUTNAM

Local barber Bill Kuykendall cuts the hair of Bill Tyler, who has been a patron of Kuykendall's shop for the past 10 years.

Local barber Bill Kuykendall is the kind of person that has never met a stranger. Having began his trade in early August of 1956, Kuykendall has now passed his 50th anniversary in the business, spending the past 33 years working in Blairsville. But beyond being known by many as "Bill the barber," he has been involved in so many hobbies and side occupations that it led former co-worker Sid Mayhan to eventually begin telling everyone that Kuykendall has "been everything except a dead man and a preacher."

Kuykendall began his career at the age of 19 when Tim Cable built a barber shop in Young Harris, which did not have a barber shop at the time. Having no one to run it, Cable asked Kuykendall if he would like to try his luck at being a barber. He agreed, and despite having had no training of any kind, he cut 12 people's hair the first day.

Asked how he fared with his guinea pig customers, Kuykendall responded, "Well, I wasn't a stylist after the second [haircut]." Still, he continues to serve some of the same customers that he did back then, including Wymer Sampson, who lives in Union County and has been going to Kuykendall for the entirety of his 50-year career. In fact, even when he began in Young Harris, Kuykendall said that 60-70 percent of his customers came from Union County.

The 60s was a busy decade for Kuykendall even away from the barber shop. In the early part of the decade he spent time in the Army as a Canoneer. He later forged a short stint in politics,

serving two terms as the mayor of Young Harris. He even built the Sugar Creek racetrack in Blue Ridge in the latter part of the decade.

In his younger days he not only enjoyed watching fast cars, but even owned one of his own when he bought a brand new '57 Chevy. "I outran everybody in Towns, Union, Murphy, and Blue Ridge," said Kuykendall. We would drag race right in town. It was crazy, I hate to even admit that." Although his racing days ended long ago, his interest in cars has continued. He is now in the process of restoring what was once his father's 1965 Ford pickup, the first four-wheel drive model put out by Ford.

After spending 19 years cutting hair in Young Harris Kuykendall opened up his own shop in Blairsville in 1973, along with three others in Hayesville, Hiawassee, and

Young Harris. Eventually he sold all but the one here in Blairsville.

He also spent three or four years doing underground telephone wire installation, owned a gas station, had his real estate license, and even built houses during the mid-1970s. Kuykendall said that at the time Jimmy Carter was in office and interest rates on loans were 1617 percent. His construction career ended fairly quickly as he could get the homes built but then had a hard time trying to sell them. However, all the other jobs always came second to barbering, which was always his primary occupation.

Never having a shortage of humorous stories, Kuykendall said that the funniest thing that probably ever happened to him occurred in the 1980s as he was traveling with his family to Franklin, N.C.

He spotted a car pulled over on the opposite side of the road, and realizing it was his mail carrier, pulled over to ask him if he needed any help. The man replied no, that he had stopped to help a groundhog that was in the road and he was afraid it was going to get killed.

Kuykendall said ok, rolled his window up and started to drive away. He suddenly felt a pair of thumps as his tires rolled over an object in the road. Looking in the rearview mirror, he saw that he had just run over the groundhog that his mailman was trying to save.

Kuykendall said that one of his most memorable haircuts came when a grandmother brought in her young grandson, who was about 5 years old at the time. Kuykendall said that he had "a terrible time" trying to cut the boy's hair with rounds of screaming that left the perplexed

grandmother unsure of what to do with the boy. Having had about all he could take, the barber offered up a suggestion. "Lady, have you ever thought about busting his [butt]?"

Twenty-three years later that boy grew up and had a son of his own, and this same woman brought in her greatgrandson for a haircut. Hoping this would be as memorable the woman brought a camera and asked Kuykendall to give everyone a laugh by repeating the same advice he had given 23 years earlier.

Asked how the business of cutting hair has changed over the past 50 years, Kuykendall said that today he is still cutting about the same type of haircuts that he did when he started, typically close cut, businessmen type haircuts, and a lot of flat tops for kids. He explained that the time

when the business changed the most was in 1965 with the Beetles. "Some days I might have cut three heads of hair. I nearly starved to death when the Beetles craze came on," he joked.

In addition to his 50th anniversary of barbering, Kuykendall will also be attending his 50th year high school reunion in September, and having been married 48 years, is approaching his 50th wedding anniversary.

Those who know him know that he loves to joke around and tease people, but only likes it if people will dish it out to him as well. He also does not mind providing some self-deprecating humor when an opportunity arises. "I've cut about everybody's hair once," joked Kuykendall, "but there's a lot of them that I didn't cut a second time."