The above photo features Huffman's Barbershop late one night at Irving Park Plaza. All was quiet and the shop was shiny clean, waiting for customers the next day. The iconic Huffman's was featured in 2012 in Our State Magazine, where the author Michael Graff writes that Pet Huffman, the man who started the shop, survived as a Japanese prisoner of war for four years during World War II. Huffman's is a traditional barber shop, focusing on haircuts for men. In previous centuries, barbers treated diseases, practiced blood letting, and performed other services that are under the guise of medical doctors today.
National chains, the ones that cut hair for men and women and make appointments online, are gaining in popularity. However, when you want to know what is going on in a community, need advice about life, hope to establish a long term relationship with someone who will be there as your hair thins as you age, nothing beats a good old-fashioned barber. Huffman's, on the western edge of Old Irving Park, is one of those places that has been around for decades. Let's hope it is there for at least a few more. If those walls could talk....
It reminds me of a couple of barbershops here. Though I haven't been in one in years.
Posted by: William Kendall | Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 05:20 PM