Bert Russell and his son Dell with customer Furn Charter, one of the first two women to get haircuts at Russell’s Barber Shop.
Courtesy: Dell Russell and History of Leelanau County.
Mary and Albert Freeland, 1946. Notice the wonderfully trimmed beard. Photo thanks to Marsha Buehler and Omena Historical Society
When Albert Freeland cranked up the Victrola to play after dinner music for the enjoyment of the guests at the Freeland Resort, he wanted to look his best. Besides operating the Victrola, Albert was a “genial host and an excellent conversationalist.” The guests would dress up for dinner in their “afternoon dresses”. Albert would get his beard trimmed at Russell’s Barber Shop.
Bert Russell opened his barbershop in Northport in March of 1915 with a big celebration. Featuring a 40-pound box of cheese and crackers and a barrel of whiskey. Bert’s son Dell “practically lived in that barbershop from the age of six or seven on, sweeping floors and running errands.” It was patronized by all the men , Dell remembers, because “nobody shaved themselves back then—they didn’t know how.” “Why , right up until 1966 I still had three customers who never shaved themselves. They never owned a razor of any kind. I remember they wore Kentucky Colonel beards: Mr. Matsey the photographer, Mr. Perkins from Northport Point, and Mr. Freeland from Omena. I worked on all three of them.”
Sometimes men would come in for minor surgery such as boils from ingrown hairs, or dental work. “Shoemaker Bill Steele came in for a shave and was miserable with an abscessed tooth. Little Dell was sent home to get a bottle of cherry brandy and the pliers and “Dad proceeded to pull out a very abscessed tooth.” “None of our ‘clients’ ever suffered from an infection.” Dell, said.
The main house of the Freeland Resort (ca. 1920) – Courtesy of the Omena Historical Society
What about women?
Women wore their hair long, never even having it trimmed. Eventually their ends split, and Dell and his father began treating it. As Dell remembers, their treatment was “to use a heavily wax-coated rod about ten inches long which was heated by setting it on fire. When the wax became hot, the barber would run a heavy comb down through the hair to the ends and wrap that end around the hot wax to singe the split ends.” Dell doesn’t say how the fire was put out.
Then Around 1927 two Northport women were the first to get their hair cut. “That caused a great commotion at home for one” Dell remembers, but others followed, no doubt to avoid the flaming hot wax treatment for split ends.
Courtesy: A History of Leelanau Township and Dell Russell and Omena, A Place In Time, Omena Historical Society