UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio — Howard Warner, an 80-year-old Newark native, in addition to a steady hand and a good eye, to be a good barber, one must like people and have a good work ethic.
Well, Warner has done just that. After serving in the Army 82nd Airborne Division, he came back home and opened Howard’s Barber Shop on Lane Avenue in Upper Arlington where he spent the next four decades.
“I was near campus, and I had the football coaches, the basketball, the baseball coaches, lot of the professors and people from Battelle. And I learned so much from those people just listening to them and their stories,” Warner said.
Warner, also the son of a barber, is in rare company. He’s one of only 76 people from across the globe to be inducted to the National Barber Hall of Fame and Museum in Canal Winchester.
“I was very excited. I was surprised. I was director of the state barber board at that time. The love of it never leaves you, that’s for sure. It’s in my blood. I work hard at trying to help promote barbering all the time and help the young people coming through,” Warner said.
The 5,000 square-foot building has six rooms of artifacts, a treasure trove of razors, shaving mugs, dozens of barber poles and barber chairs, some dating back to the Civil War.
Mike Ippoliti, a long-time museum curator and historian, knows the story behind each item including that iconic barber pole.
“You could go to the barbershop, have your appendix out, teeth pulled, and hair cut all in one fell swoop. But they use to do a lot of bloodletting. They thought the blood carried the bad stuff so they would blood let people. And we have blood bowls and utensils that they use to use to do this. The barber pole, the white stands for bandage, the red blood, and the blue veins,” Ippoliti said.
And while Warner never had to perform surgery or pull teeth, he still loves what he does and continues to volunteer, cutting hair at the Bing Cancer Center.
He will continue to promote the museum and seek out future Barber Hall of Fame inductees across the globe.
Warner said barbering is about so much more than just a 15-minute haircut.
“Your clients and your customer, you become a part of their families. And you attend weddings and baptismal’s and bar mitzvahs etc. You’re looked up to in the community,” Warner said.
For more information about the Hall of Fame or to donate to the non-profit museum, click here.
