The Man, the Myth, the Master Barber

Snippets of memory from a lifetime cutting hair with Ernie Perez

Story by Cindy Aguirre-Herrera Photos by Larami Serrano Photography

If you ask 95-year-old Ernie “The Barber” Perez of Seguin about his 71-year-old profession of being a master barber, he’d probably walk you through every “snippet” and memory of that career. For Ernie, his years of razor cuts and fades have sealed him in his fate and earned him the recognition he deserves today.

Two years after retiring as a barber in February 2020, Ernie celebrated his 95th birthday, saying if it weren’t for health reasons, he’d still be cutting hair and working tirelessly at Ernie’s Barbershop located at 415 E. Aviation Blvd in Universal City.

“I retired because of my health,” Ernie said. “Otherwise, I’d be a barber right now. I love my job and I love my customers and I’ll never forget about them.”

In fact, up until his retirement, he was still making that daily 22-mile commute from Seguin to University City alone.

Ernie, a WWII veteran, has experienced more than a career. He has lived out a legacy – one that if you ask folks about, they too will say that he was destined to be a barber. Soon after 1948, he was honorably discharged from the Army Air Corps (now known as the U.S. Air Force) at Randolph Air Force Base. Ernie then went on to earn his license on a GI Bill from Louie’s Barbershop School in San Antonio.

From there, he spent time cutting hair at various locations until landing his chair at Ben’s Barbershop Shop in Universal City– a place where the respect for his craft began. While golf opportunities usually kept the owner away from the business, Perez assumed many of the duties and helped build the business’ reputation in the military town. He was undoubtedly the heart of the operation, and the name “Ben’s Barbershop” was often referred to as “Ernie’s Barbershop” by the locals and faithful customers.

While his commitment to that shop owner was strong, his personal moral compass proved even stronger. Ernie says it wasn’t until he witnessed another barber taking money from the till that he knew it was time to leave and start a new chapter. He says after his boss did not support the employee’s firing, he knew that it was no longer a home for his profession.

“I said, let me tell you what, if you don’t let me run this barbershop the way it’s supposed to be (run), you find somebody else to run it because I don’t want to run the barbershop like that,” Ernie said. “He said, no wait for me and I’ll find somebody to run the barbershop. I said, I’m going to tell you what, I’m not going to give you no time but if I find a place that I can rent, I’m going to go and you better find yourself somebody to run the barbershop before I quit you.”

As fate would have it, Ernie says, soon after that; he was handed the best gift he could ever receive – trust, loyalty, and true friendship.

“I had two customers that had a liquor store,” Ernie said. “They were both retired colonels and so I stopped by there one afternoon to pick up a bottle of liquor and one of the first things one of the girls said was ‘Ernie, why don’t you bring us a haircut? ‘I said, colonel one of these days -- you build me a barbershop right here next to you and you’ll have a barbershop right next to you. He said, ‘you really mean that?’ and I said ‘yeah!’ He said how big a place do you want? I said, okay I want this place by 16 feet wide, the length of this building. He said, we can’t do that because I don’t have enough room. Well how about 50 feet? I said that’s good enough. So, he said, we’ll make it for you, and I said when you get it ready, you let me know. And that was it. I didn’t think nothing of it. Well about two weeks later, I had carpenters, electricians and plumbers and everybody telling them how I wanted the barbershop.”

All these years later, Ernie still gets emotional thinking about his clients’ partnership and respect for him.

“I stopped by there, and I said colonel, you are going to build that barbershop?,” Ernie said. “He said, you said you want it. Don’t you want the barbershop? I said yes, sir. I said what about the lease and what about the rent? He said you don’t worry about that. We will talk about it later. So being a colonel, I took their word for it. So, one day, they said Ernest, the barbershop is ready. So, I told the boss, ‘Well buddy, I am moving out. I told you that I was moving out.’”

Ernie, who dabbled in other jobs, always enjoyed being a barber because it was a good way to provide for his young family and ensure their needs.

Son Ruben Perez says even after securing his own shop, his father found himself working after hours taking care of Seguin residents – residents who waited patiently at his Perez Barbershop located at his home at 728 Jones St. His father continued that operation from 1955 to 1983.

“One memory which is seared in my memory of my dad as a barber is seeing him arrive from his barbershop in Universal City after cutting hair all day, arriving home in Seguin, eating dinner, and going next door to continue to cut hair,” Ruben said. “I remember him cutting hair at night in the Seguin barbershop, always listening to the Astros during baseball season on the radio.”

What initially was only security quickly turned into a passion and knack for making customers feel proud of their hair. Years of experience enabled him to visualize the cut on a client’s head as soon as they walked into the shop. 15

“I could tell you a lot of stories about that,” Ernie said. “For example, I had a major that walked into my barbershop one day, he said, ‘are you Ernie? Yes, sir.’ I was sent over here by some customers of yours and I’ve been having trouble with my hair for I don’t know how long. When I came to Randolph, I had more trouble with my hair. ‘The minute I saw his hair, his part was way, way over here, close to the ear.’ I said let me tell you, I can see your problem right now but if I do what I’m supposed to do to your hair, I said, you are not going to like it. It’s going to take about a month or maybe two months before you get used to it. He says, ‘I’ll tell you what, you give me the haircut that you think it’s going to be good, and I don’t care my hair will grow back again so cut my hair the way you want to.”

He says that trust in him quickly turned into one totally satisfied customer.

“I started cutting his hair, and he thought I was scalping him,” Ernie said. “I turned him around, and he said, ‘oh boy! I like this haircut!’ and I said, ‘I’m glad you do.’ “He said, I love my haircut!”

For Ernie, happy customers are always the goal, but it’s even better in his eyes when the wife comes in to say thank you because he might just have saved a marriage.

“Later that day, the wife of the man who had gotten a cut came in,” Ernie chuckled. “She said “I love that haircut! Do you want to do me a favor? Don’t let anybody cut his hair. I don’t want anyone to cut his hair but you.”

Even after their time away, Ernie has never forgotten a customer and appreciates the loyalty that they each extended to him.

“When he (customer) was shipped off to California, he came back and he called me and said ‘Ernest, the best thing that ever happened to me is when I came to Randolph because I’ve had trouble with my hair all my life and then I came here and you gave me a haircut that I’ll never forget,’” Ernie said. “He said what will I do when I go to another barber? He said, ‘do you want to move to California?’”

Ernie never imaged a world where customers would turn into friends. Instead, he says he’s lucky for a career that gifted him many friends.

“I started cutting his hair (a customer) around 1954, and ever since he came to Randolph, he was my customer,” he said. “He married another Colonel. They were both colonels and ever since I met him, on my first birthday, he brought me a bottle of booze for me. That was a good customer. Family adds that even if this colonel was in another part of the world “Ernie the Barber” would be remembered on his birthday with a shipped bottle of bourbon.”

His son Ruben says throughout his career, his father has also had the privilege of welcoming several interesting people into his chair….some of which were well-known celebrities.

“Norman Wood Charlton III nicknamed ‘The Sheriff ’ played for several Major League Teams, including the Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles, Atlanta Braves and Tampa Bay Rays,” Ruben said. “He was known as being a member of the infamous ‘Nasty Boys’ relief pitching corps for the 1990 Cincinnati Reds team which won the World Series. Randy Myers and Rob Dibble were the two members my dad knew. He knew him as Norm. I recall that Norm would leave baseball tickets for my dad’s family at the ‘will call’ window at the Astrodome and we would watch the Reds plat the Astros.”

Meanwhile, when you ask Ernie about the celebrities he has come across, the names on his list are always worth the mention.

“One of them was a retired general and he tested airplanes for Russia, and he tested airplanes for the Unite States, and he had some good stories,” Ernie said. “I had three more generals that they were retired general, and I had another one that was a commander, and I had another one that he spent plenty of time in the United States, always traveling and hunting. He went to Alaska fishing. He went to Dakota. You see this feather (pointing to his cap)? It came from a pheasant that he killed.”

Ernie says he’ll never forget that respect was not only given in his barbershop but was well-received by his clients.

“Let me tell you what, I’m not educated,” he said. “My education came from those men – from people that I know that they knew what they were talking about and something that I hate to say but a lot of people told me, hey Ernest, you know you have no business cutting hair. They said your IQ is tremendous. They said, you should have been an engineer. That’s what you should have been.”

In looking back at his career, Perez says he doesn’t have any regrets and simply does not remember too many who walked out his door unsatisfied. While he admits that he might not have always provided the perfect cut, he never lets it define the success that he has had over the last 70 years.

“I don’t know if it was the way I treated them or what, but I’ll tell you something, Ernie said. “75 percent of the people that come to see you, don’t worry about the other 25 – 10 are not going to like you, and I don’t care what you do to them and the other ones, well they don’t care after you get a haircut. The way they used to treat me, I believed that what they were saying, they really meant.”

Ernie says providing haircuts in the military town was what he believes helped fuel his passion year after year – again explaining that he never wanted to put down the scissors. In fact, this May, was Eddie’s last opportunity to renew his license – a feat that he has sorely surrendered.

Nonetheless, being able to service the men and women of the military over the decades is what Eddie feels he was destined for. He says every one of his customers, especially those serving in the military, deserves the best and the best is what he hopes to have delivered. •