Ready Teddy: Barber, 85, and sidekick Slick Willie barber on
Don't tell Al Gore, but the original "Ted Talks" began with Ted Gifford.
Few Abilenians may known him as Mr. Gifford, but many know Teddy the Barber.
Teddy is the spry, 80-something barber who has been cutting hair and cutting up for 63½ years.
The key to being a good barber? Besides not cutting the customers.
Conversation, he said.
And the Oster Model 10 clipper. It's his go-to tool, something he has shared with Slick Willie.
Who's Slick Willie?
That would be Teddy's sidekick, a youngster named Will Cochran. Will is 22 but partner in Teddy's 10th barbershop venture. River Oaks Barber Shop opened two weeks ago.
"Will and I put a nice place together. We worked our hearts out for months," Teddy said.
That included putting a red sign in the window: "Teddy the Barber IS HERE." That would be enough advertisement.
"This is truly an old-time barbershop," he said.
Teddy quickly will say Willie already has great barbering skills. Will will say he is learning every day from a master of the craft. This partnership is a close tonsorial equivalent of "The Karate Kid."
Teddy, seated in a chair Friday between appointments, said his plan is to put Will in position to take over the shop.
In walked local consignment store owner Steve Brittain. Teddy has been cutting his hair for 40 years, he said. The same cut.
Unlike some of TTB's customers, Brittain has a good head of hair to work with.
"Sometimes they'll change," Teddy said of customers' requests. "But not often.
"Mostly summer cut and winter cut."
Who's this Slick Willie?
Slick Willie is a 2019 homeschooled high school graduate from Anson. It took a few years to get to what he wanted to do - barbering.
There's a funny story for that.
The Cochran boys would go to football games in Hamlin. When it was time for the national anthem, the Hamlin men and boys would doff their caps. They all had the same haircut, he said, laughing. Everyone went to a barber there named Lionel.
That's where Mr. Cochran and his two sons had their hair cut, too.
"We'd go see ol' Lionel," he said. "Everybody loved him."
That struck Willie Cochran the right way. Lionel was a vital part of the community.
Will worked for a few months at The Shed barbecue joint, shoed a few horses and then at ranches in three states. When he got that out of his system, he came back home to get his license.
"I did all kinds of stuff but this was always in the back of my mind," he said.
And there's this: Barbering is not a job that's going away anytime soon. Unless the Bigfoot look comes back, guys will need a haircut.
"When people want a haircut, they want a haircut," he said. "They want it now."
He loves his profession, especially the "old-school way of doing it, which is not super common anymore," Will said.
"The ol' one and a half on the sides," he said. "That's a Teddy special right there."
With the Oster.
"That's all I've ever known," Teddy chimed in.
Will worked for Tx Roots Salon and Spa for a short time, then at Industrious Barbershop and Salon. That's where Teddy tracked him down.
"Some little ol' man was callin.' He said, 'I want you to come over here and work with me,'" Will spun the story. "I said, 'Who is this?' He said, 'Teddy the Barber.' I said, 'I'm comin.' Where do I sign?'"
No introduction was needed.
"He's a legend around here. Everyone knows who Teddy the Barber is," Will said, grinning. "I was honored that he even called me and wanted me to come over and work for him."
They started together at Southwest Park, a barber shop just east of River Oaks.
They've been business partners in a two-man operation since July 18 at the new shop.
Will said he is eager to learn. Sure, he has cut hair before but not "the old-school ways that he does it. And the way he deals with people. He's a champ.
"He's full of bull is the main thing," Will said, laughing. But that's part of the gig.
"You've gotta be, a little bit," Will said. "We have fun."
Their banter more suggests they've known each other for years.
"He's like the son I never had," Teddy said. "I couldn't have put this place together without him."
Said Will, "I knew early on that we'd get along really, really good."
Both barbers had their clientele follow them. Teddy was on the phone Friday with a customer, who was wondering where he'd gone off to. He was given directions to the new shop.
"Right from the start I was building my own clientele," Will said. "The majority of my clients have followed me. Lots of college kids, lots of older gentlemen, lots of dads with young boys."
Besides age and that Teddy is married (to Melinda) and Will is not, a difference in the two barbers is that Teddy only takes appointments. That's still 20-22 cuts a day.
Will takes walk-ins. And if Teddy gets busy, he'll takes one of his partner's customers - if the customer is OK giving up Teddy for one day.
His nickname? Got that at barber school.
"Classmates started calling me Slick Wilie and it stuck," he said. "People like to say it. They laugh at it.
"But if they remember it, I like it even better."
Hair today and likely tomorrow
Giving up Teddy may be hard for some guys. He has been barbering in Abilene for decades.
He was at Southwest Park for nine years, selling it 18 months ago but continuing to barber there.
"I wanted to be my own boss again," he said. Hence the move.
Before he left, he got Will to shadow him for a day. He liked the young man, having already seen him at work.
"That's when I knew he was serious about it," Teddy said.
He asked for his hand as a business partner, and Will said I do.
"Then I introduced him to good barber tools, and he has never looked back," Teddy said.
Teddy is from Birmingham, Alabama. He has a Birmingham Bisons minor league baseball pennant attached to the wall. Next to photos of auto racer Collin Braun, who grew up south of Abilene in Ovalo.
He was in the Navy for six years, between the Korean and Vietnam wars.
While stationed in San Diego, Calif., he went to barber school.
He came to Abilene to take care of his grandparents, and stayed after they died.
Teddy has leaned on three things all these years:
Conversation
Quality work and service
Fair price
That fair price has gone up. He charged two bucks in San Diego. His basic cut today costs $16 to $18.
Barbering, and Will, may keep Teddy young.
"I'm 85 years old, bro," he said, sounding pretty hip.
Teddy comes to work at 5 a.m., reading the newspaper and drinking coffee. The place doesn't open until 8 a.m. but he will have customers come in early.
"I had one at 5:30 this morning," he said.
But right before 5 p.m., the front door is locked. The last one in is the last one out.
Customer Mark Zachary has been coming to Teddy for 33 years.
"You can't beat 30 minutes with Teddy," Zachary said. ""He has to be the hardest-working guy in Abilene. I always leave his shop feeling better than I did when I got there.
"And not just my hair."
It's about the conversation
Will said a barbershop should be a place where everyone believes he can speak freely.
When the shop is empty, they talk. About everything. The last customer, sports, whatever.
Teddy has a framed picture of the 45th president of the United States hung by the front door.
"That occasionally comes up," Will said, smirking.
"That's one thing that is cool about the barber shop," he said. "You come in and feel free to talk about just about anything. It's an escape, especially nowadays. When you're out in public talking, you have to be so careful and word it just right.
"The barber shop is a sacred place where you can come, kick back and shoot the bull. Drink coffee and get a haircut and don't worry about it."
The shop was quiet - Brittain hadn't come in yet - except for the radio.
"Teddy runs the music and the air," Will said. The Boss is singing "Born in the USA" on the classic rock station.
"When I walk away," Teddy the Barber said, "I'll hand it over to Will, and let him rock and roll."
Tracking down Teddy
River Oaks Barber Shop is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays. The storefront faces north is next to El Jefe Hemp Co. and near Merle Norman. Phone is 325-704-2156.
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This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Ready Teddy: Barber, 85, and sidekick Slick Willie, 22, barber on
