Cuttin' Up: Wit and Wisdom From Black Barber Shops

by Craig Marberry

In Crowns and The Spirit of Harlem, journalist Craig Marberry took oral history to a new level. Here, in Cuttin’ Up, he presents more pitch-perfect portraits so good you’ll feel like you’re eavesdropping. Cuttin’ Up celebrates the laid-back fellowship of men in a barber shop, the place, as Marberry writes, “where we go to be among ourselves, to be ourselves, to unmask.”

Crisscrossing the country from Detroit to Orlando, Brooklyn to Houston, Marberry listened in on conversations that covered everything from reminiscences about the first haircut---a sometimes comic rite of passage---to spirited exchanges about women, to serious lessons in black history and current events. His collection of the wit and wisdom of patrons and barbers---including the small but scrappy subset of women barbers and the father of a very famous celebrity---brings together an irresistible and often touching chorus of voices.

Marberry has created a book that sings with the handsome beauty of the oral tradition that is the cornerstone of the black barber shop experience.

A portion of the proceeds from this book support the Maya Angelou Research Center on Minority Health at Wake Forest University.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[RA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice collection of quotes, interviews & opinions by/about barbers & customers in a variety of Black Barber Shops throughout the country. The kind of oral history that gives us the sense of the lives of different and same people as we are.

[Ice · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats (a collaboration with photographer Michael Cunningham) shifts his focus from hats to hair with this celebration of the black barber shop, "one of the nation's earliest black businesses [and:]... as much a think tank as it is a comedy showcase." Over the course of 18 months,

Marberry traveled around the country to document that particular "barber shop atmosphere." In Detroit, a policeman waxes poetic about a good "Razor Line" haircut; in Nashville, Oprah Winfrey's barber father, Vernon, jokes: "Somebody asked me if Oprah is my only child. I said, 'The only one so far.' " Along with the cutting quips and clipping tips, each barber and patron offers a little slice of life; topics include black history, celebrity clients, raids on unlicensed barbers, robberies, murders and the attitudes of female barbers: "It's tough for a woman in a barber shop. They say it's the black man's country club." Sixty b&w photos show the faces behind the commentary, but only some locations are identified; shop names aren't supplied, and curiously, shop exteriors aren't shown. And though Marberry is a fine writer, he gives only four pages of his own words.

Marberry, author of Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats 2000), explores another black cultural phenomenon--the barbershop. The shops are an institution of fellowship in which black men commune, where there are unwritten social rules of tradition, where conversations can entertain and enlighten. World issues are interwoven with more localized and mundane concerns, including job woes and troubled relationships.

Marberry visited black barbershops across the U.S and observed numerous exchanges between barbers and their customers that reflect a forum for teaching in an informal context. Marberry reflects on some of the traditions of black barbers, the fact that black barbers used to cut white men's hair but could not do so in the same shops where they cut black men's hair. The black barbershop, like the church, was--and is--a central outlet for news and connections. Marberry touches on black barbers' involvement in the civil rights movement, as businessmen operating central news stations in the blac

[Jordon Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

My grandfather was a barber. This book sat on a shelf in his shop over 10 years. I picked it up and thumbed through it 4 years ago on this very day (Confirmed via instagram archive) and put it back on the shelf. 2 years ago around this same time when helping my grandfather move out of his barbershop (he retired after 60+ years in 2020 for obvious reasons) my father handed me this book and I was too sad to read it but I kept it. 4 days ago on a whim I picked it up and started reading it because I remembered I never actually read it.

This is such a happy read. With stories from barbers who cut Michael Jackson’s hair to stories from barbers who crossed paths with Emmett Till before he was killed. Even Oprah Winfrey’s father who I didn’t know was a barber is quoted here. A gem. This book is a gem.

[Vikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an oral history on black barbershops. It was very good.