Ricardo Romero talks about growing up in California at his barbershop on Nov. 7.
Photo by Scott Neuffer.
The day Ricardo Romero became a barber was the day President John F. Kennedy was shot.
“I left at the age of 25 to become a barber,” Romero, now 85, said Nov. 7 at his North Carson Street shop. “It was November of 1963.”
This November, the Topaz Lake resident and veteran of the California Army National Guard is entering his 60th year of being a barber, the last 15 of those in Carson City. For those who know Romero, his Crazy Fox Master Barbershop has just relocated from East William Street to 1802 N. Carson St.
The new space houses two antique barber chairs, one from 1895 and the other from 1910, and an antique cash register. In the adjoining room is a collection of Native American art. Romero’s father has Apache lineage, while his mother comes from the indigenous Zapotec people of Mexico. Her immigration and settlement in California make a saga that Romero relishes telling.
“I grew up in Glendale, Calif., the son of a pioneer family who got into the restaurant business,” he said.
Romero said his mother immigrated to the Golden State in 1910 at the age of 2. Her family picked grapes, and she ended up working for Gladding, McBean. His father “made bombs against the Germans” before going into business with his wife. They opened the first Mexican restaurant in Glendale in 1944, Romero said.
“They sold tacos, rice, and beans,” he said.
Romero would chart his own course soon enough. As a young man, he became a sergeant in the California Army National Guard but was never deployed. He found work repossessing cars. It was attempting to repossess the car of a barber that changed his life.
“He said, ‘Please don’t do that. You can come to my barbershop to pick it up,’” Romero recalled. “It was in Beverly Hills, and I walk in and see all these old chairs and 10 barbers, five on each side. All the people sitting were nothing but business guys. The barbers were dressed like old Vegas dealers.”
Romero said at the time, he was sporting a “Fonzie horn haircut.” The man who owed offered to cut Romero’s hair but had to wash it first to get the grease out.
“He sat me in the chair, worked, and when he turned me around, I thought I was Elvis Presley,” Romero said. “It was such a change.”
The following day, Romero quit his job and started barber school. He would revisit that Beverly Hills barbershop, to observe and learn. His first job was cutting hair at the Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel. After a year working there, he cut the hair of Neville Brand, then starring in the television show Laredo.
“I asked him what kind of haircut he wanted, and he said he wanted to be a real tough guy,” Romero said.
That gig paid off. Though he never stopped working as a shop barber, Romero found himself in the makeup crew for Hollywood studios. Goldie Hawn, Billy Crystal, and Richard Pryor were some of the celebrities he worked with over the years.
“If you got a job with them (the studios), you always had to keep the barbershop going,” Romero said.
When he moved to Northern Nevada in 2002, Romero thought it was to retire.
“I would watch the weather and see the jets stream right over this part of Nevada and would think, ‘that’s for me,’” he said. “I’ve never lived anywhere with all the seasons. It’s just as consistent as concrete.”
Buying a house on Topaz Lake and raising a family in the area sounded great, but after a while, Romero missed shop talk.
“I came up here to retire,” he said. “But since the job is so social, I missed it. I needed my own little spot. Here, I know where everything’s at. At home, I have to hunt for it.”
Asked if he ever took up fishing, living so close to Topaz, he said no.
“I go fishing at Lake Walmart,” he said. “I’m a city kid. Those things don’t interest me.”
Romero said most of his Nevada customers have been with him from day one. And catching up with them is his favorite part of the job.
“I don’t run a mill here,” he said. “I book every half hour to make sure I have plenty of time to (talk) with my customers.”
He said he offers mostly business cuts, and “royal” shaves.
“I’ve been told I do a real hell of a shave,” he said.
The barbershop is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Romero is available by appointment only.
“I take my time. I’m a very on-time guy,” he said. “An appointment to me is God.”
Romero recently started taking Saturdays off to spend time with his grandchildren – he has six – but otherwise has no plans to stop working.
“I feel like I can go to 95,” he said. “If I had to do it over again, I’d do it exactly the same. I learned my art, and it carried me all this time.”
Romero’s advice for others starting out?
“Do what makes you happy,” he said.
For information about the Crazy Fox Master Barber, call 775-450-5081.