| Bill
Cherry's Galveston Memories |
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There
is a historic site in Dallas
that isn’t noted on Google, and I couldn’t find any mention of the
man who built from scratch what became an iconic and copied men’s
barber shop.
Before you pass
judgment, please hear me out.
He was Jack
Pitts and his fancy men’s hair salon was named Jack’s of Dallas.
It was on Preston Road near Northwest Highway.
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The unmarked
historic site of the famous Jack
Photo
courtesy Bill
Cherry
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Prior
to Jack's of Dallas, for years and years, white men’s hairdos were
reduced to about five styles: white walls, tapered, DAs, crew, and
butch cuts.
Men like Bill Haley of Bill Haley and the Comets had slight adaptations
– Haley had a hair squiggle that hung down on his forehead – but
in the main, you went into the barber shop and picked white wall,
tapered, DA, crew or butch.
And you hoped the barber hadn't made too big of a mess before he
massaged Wild Root Cream Oil (Charlie) on the top to plaster it
down with the hopes of hiding his mistakes from you.
As far as parts go, the barber never remembered where it went. He
picked a place he liked the best.
Of course every
haircut was finished with brushing your neck with Jeris talc so
that small pieces of the cut hair would go down the backside of
your shirt collar and would cause you to itch for the remainder
of the day.
My hair was both course and thick – I had lots of it.
And nothing much made the top ever look orderly.
When I was in the 7th grade, I became sure it wasn’t because I was
5’5” and weighed 120 lbs. that kept me from being a strong competitor
against the football players for the pretty girls’ attention.
It was definitely the unruly hair.
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So I went to
a crew cut, held standing straight up and level across the top with
a product heretofore used by black men called Royal Crown Hair Dressing.
There were two more: Murray's Pomade and Peach Hair Dressing.
All of the stuff smelled, so I tried covering it up with extra blasts
of Old Spice cologne.
I noticed no one got too close to me. But what was I to do?
Then a hair miracle happened in 1964!
Jack’s
of Dallas appeared on the scene, and with it came the razor cut and
the finished product styled and held in place with a new product called
Dep.
No one’s hair would dare move after a dose of Dep jell, cooked in
place with a hot bonnet hair dryer, and then that hold further guaranteed
afterwards by five long spray can spritzes of lacquer.
Jack Pitts became my hero. I was able to have a regular haircut, and
it would stay in place, and I could look like a grown man. |
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Bill Cherry with
Jack's of Dallas "doo" in 1967 |
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Never mind it
cost $7 plus tip a week when regular barbers were getting $1.50.
He transformed me into the man I had dreamed I could be --- if only
I could wear a regular hair style.
Boys and men by the droves fought for appointments with Jack. Norris
of Houston brought the
same concept there.
While better hair products have come, and my hair has gotten less
course and thinner, nevertheless, without Jack Pitts and his Jack’s
of Dallas, I would have been a hairstyle outcast for at least the
first forty years of my life.
So I am lobbying the City of Dallas
to install a historical marker on the site of Jack’s of Dallas,
8307 Preston Road.
It’s the right thing to do.
Copyright William S. Cherry. All rights reserved
Bill Cherry's Galveston
Memories March
10 , 2012 column
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Related
Topics:
People
Columns
Texas
Bill
Cherry, a Dallas Realtor and free lance writer was a longtime
columnist for "The Galveston County Daily News." His book, Bill
Cherry's Galveston Memories, has sold thousands |
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