After 72 years, 'king of flat top' retires from cutting hair in Joplin

Jun. 12—Few people in Joplin call Bob Pritchard by given his name. To most, he is simply the "king of the flat top."

No other Southwest Missouri-based barber, customers said, could apply the famed "clippers-over-comb"' technique quite like he could during the 1950s.

Following 72 years and an untold number of "heads of hair in the chair," the World War II veteran has set aside his clippers and combs, and retired from the only job he's known since the age of 19.

"I'll miss it, sure, but my body sure won't," the 94-year-old said Thursday. His son, Skip, now owns and operates the Club Style Shop, located at 121 W. Second St. in Joplin and named after the city's famed Club Theater.

Decades of bending and squatting and stooping has left his back "a mess" — he can't straighten it, and must alternate between sitting and standing to alleviate the pain. And years of gripping a razor and cutting shears have left both hands weak; so much so that he can hardly apply pressure to anything he grips in his fists. Still, he said, he wouldn't trade the various aches and pains for the 70-plus years of service he's given to "thousands" of residents over the decades.

"I can't imagine how many generations I've seen raised in my barbershops over the years," Bob said. "My son-in-law used a calculator once to try to figure up just how many heads I've cut over the years, and we decided it was almost impossible to calculate."

Without those long bangs and shaggy sideburns requiring trimming, however, he wouldn't have been able to do what he loves doing: "I just appreciate all of them, and I know they appreciated me. I've tried to make them look their best over the years, and I've just enjoyed visiting with them all those many years."

It's not like Bob grew up as a boy dreaming about styling hair for a living. It was his father, in fact, who would give him his infrequent haircuts — painful exercises Bob dubbed "shade-tree barber" trims where "he would pull out more than he'd cut away." Back then, cutting hair was a utilitarian chore, he said, akin to patching a torn shirt.

After graduating high school in his native McDonald County, he went to work for Pet Milk Co. in nearby Neosho — one of its largest employers in town at the time — working in the cream separation division. Even after enlisting to fight in World War II, his job at the evaporated milk factory was guaranteed upon his return. He served with the U.S. Navy in 1945 and 1946, spending a year at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands with the boat pool division, hauling supplies from ship to shore.

While assuming his duties at the Pet Milk Company — making 55-and-a-half cents per hour — Bob decided in 1948 to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the G.I. Bill of Rights, which helped millions of returning World War II veterans obtain career job training.

"They had three schools open to us in Kansas City — one was watchmaking, one was shoemaking, and one was barber (styling)," Bob said. "I chose (the Moler Barber College) because I could get right into it. And I guess it was the right move to make, since that was in 1948 and I've just now retired here in 2021."

Back in '48, Bob's application was immediately approved by school officials, despite the fact that he hadn't once cut a single head of hair.

"I asked them why they'd accepted me, and they told me, 'we like to accept the (war) boys who haven't had any experience because we want to train and teach you the proper method to cut hair.'"

Upon graduation, with certification and licensing in hand, he began styling hair in late 1949 in downtown Joplin. Soon, he apprenticed his brother, Clyde, in the barber business. Not long after, the two brothers were standing shoulder-to-shoulder at their respective barber chairs, cutting and trimming and shaving away the days.

Remember, Bob said, what the Moler Barber College was teaching their young recruits back then was revolutionary; a rather seismic shift in the way haircuts were viewed by the masses. No longer were haircuts a necessity, like washing clothes or bathing. As the 1950s dawned, hairstyles in Southwest Missouri had become fashion statements among the young men and women living here, based partly on trends from elsewhere in the country, as well as what they were seeing in movies and on their television sets. And what every young man wanted at that time was the famed flat top. And thanks to their training, both Bob and Clyde could pull off a perfect flat top in no time flat.

"Flat tops became a very important haircut for me," he said. "In fact, that's how I got such a bad back, because for 20 years my hands were always up in the air," Bob said with a chuckle. "We both had quite a following. Really, we had people coming to us from Springfield and Tulsa, from everywhere, to get their hair styled because not a lot of barbers could do a good flat top.

"It was an art to do a flat top; when you did it right, you were a real artist. I would have barbers walk in and sit down and watch me and say, 'boy, I wish I could cut a flat top like you can.' It was a style that helped us make money and a good living. It's not that I enjoyed the flat top all that much, but I could do them, and do them well, and (Clyde and) I made them quite an art, so people were always waiting for one."

There was the flat top, of course, but there was also the textured pompadour (think Johnny Cash), the slick slide (think Cary Grant) and the messy quaff (think Elvis Presley). Later came the Ivy League cut, made so popular by President John F. Kennedy.

Over the years, Bob cut hair in five downtown Joplin locations, with three years spent inside the Jasper County Courthouse, for example, and another seven inside the Connor Hotel.

In 1971, Skip decided to attend the same school Bob had decades before. Upon graduating from Moler Barber College in 1971, Skip took up residence next to Bob, much like Clyde had done before — seeing Skip cut hair "was one of the proudest moments of my life," Bob said.

"A lot of barbers claimed they could cut a head of hair in 10 to 15 minutes, but I never did that," Bob said. "I was more interested with doing the (cut) right for the customers; giving them good service and giving them their money's worth.

"I've always been happiest cutting hair," he added.

Kevin McClintock is features editor for The Joplin Globe.