1930s Barber Chair Gives Glimpse Into The Past

"Shave and a haircut, two bits."

That was then, this is now.

. See the old barber chair, complete with a cushioned headrest and a razor-honing strop, that was used by barber Dan DeGraff. Later, his nephew Forrest DeGraff used it in his home barbershop at 221 Burton St., Grayslake.

Dan DeGraff began barbering in Grayslake in 1926, and he used the chair from 1930 through 1942. After a stint in Zion, according to his nephew Forrest DeGraff, he returned to Grayslake in the late 50s and continued to use the barber chair for a couple of years until his retirement. He lived behind the shop at about 211 Center St., with his wife, his nephew said.

When Dan DeGraff retired, Forrest DeGraff used the chair in his home barbershop at 221 Burton St., Grayslake. DeGraff operated the home barbershop from 1964 through 1976. He had graduated in 1955 from the Moller Barber College on North Clark Street in Chicago. 

At the time, he was a full-time employee of the Lake County Highway Department, now known as the Lake County Department of Transportation. DeGraff donated the barber chair to the Grayslake Historical Society. It has been on display for many years in both the old and new museum.

After graduating from the Chicago Barber College, DeGraff clipped hair and shaved faces in Antioch for a few months before working for George Lincoln's barbershop in Wauconda, where he worked for about five years before opening his business in his home.

It was a busy part-time job, DeGraff said. He was open Friday nights and Saturdays by appointment only. Barbershops have not changed that much as customers then gathered and talked about politics, sports and local gossip, DeGraff said.

"We told jokes and laughed," he said. "It was just like sitting around in the firehouse or the grocery."

Historically, barbers also were dentists and surgeons performing tooth extractions, enemas, bloodletting and wound surgeries. Many people will remember the draped patrons, the shaving foam and the old-fashioned straight razors. Most of these have been replaced by hair saloons with both male and female barbers who now cut and style hair. But many of them still have outside the shop a barber pole, sometimes revolving, that is painted red, white and sometimes blue. The candy-cane striped barber pole outside the shop advertises the services inside.

There are several interpretations for the colors of the barber pole. One is that red represents blood and white, the bandages. Another says red and blue stood for arterial and venous blood respectively. A third suggests that the spiral pattern represents a white bandage wrapped around a bloody arm.

The is open from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and during downtown community events.

— Submitted by the Grayslake Historical Society