By CRYSTALR. REID

BismarckTribune

The first thing a new customer will notice in the Deluxe Barber Shop in Mandan is the constant tick-tocking.

The second? That everything in the small shop is retro, down to the wood-paneled walls, avocado green chairs and old, sturdy, black push-button register.

Not retro in an intentionally trendy way, but in the "built to last"way.

Just like owner Allen Wanner.

At 76, Wanner is still ticking away, like the antique clocks covering the walls of his barber shop. That's one of his many hobbies, fixing antique clocks; it's something he does in his spare time, when he's not trimming beards, giving classic, hot lather shaves or cutting hair.

As of Labor Day weekend, Wanner has been a barber in Mandan for 50 years.

And the tools of his trade, the clippers, the black comb, the straight razor and bushy shaving brush and shining, thin scissors, reflect his unassuming attitude about how barbering should be.

"I'm still doing it the same as we did then,"Wanner said, while carefully trimming hair behind the ears of a customer.

But back then, he charged only $1 for a haircut. After 50 years of inflation, through recessions and economic booms, he's boosted his price to $9.

He started barbering in Jamestown, he said, after getting his certificate from a barber's college in Fargo. In Jamestown, he worked in a barber shop that only charged 75 cents for a haircut. But in 1956, he moved to the new Deluxe Barber Shop in Mandan so he could charge the full $1.

The two co-owners needed a full-time barber, and Wanner fit the bill. They opened their shop on Labor Day weekend.

After two years working with the co-owners of the Deluxe Barber Shop, Wanner became a master barber.

Then in 1966, one of the co-owners sold his half of the barber shop to the other owner. In 1967, that owner sold it to Wanner. And he's kept it ever since.

"Back then, Ihad four chairs and three barbers working for me,"Wanner said.

But the long hair of the late '60s and '70s were hard on barbering businesses, and eventually, he had to let someone go.

Even Wanner's son, Mark, grew out his hair, although his father had long valued neat, trim and proper hair, Mark Wanner said.

"He didn't appreciate so much that Iwalked around with long hair for so many years,"Mark Wanner said.

But before the rebellious hair of the '70s, Mark Wanner always had the trim, fresh look his father valued.

"I was one of the best looking kids (in school), because my hair was always cut real prim and proper,"Mark Wanner said.

Allen Wanner now has two chairs in his current location, three if you count the out-of-use one sitting near the door. He moved to his current location, 106 Third Ave. NW in Mandan, around 1984, and many of his customers followed.

In fact, still today, Wanner has clients who he visits at home because they are unable to make it to the shop. And he still has clients who started with him when he made his barbershop debut in 1956.

Pat Schleicher is one of them, and is getting the same haircut he got when he first started going to Wanner 50 years ago.

"Never argue with him,"Schleicher joked, while waiting for his turn in the chair. "He's a barber. Just let it go."

Wanner nodded, brushing away the loose hair from a client in the chair. After brushing off the hair, he uses a hair-vacuum to suck out any excess, loose hair.

"When we first started, we didn't have this,"he said, referring to the hair-vac.

But almost everything else in his shop is something he kept from his early days barbering, right down to the sturdy metal, hand-held massager he uses on his customers after the complete cut and shave.

"Relaxes the patient before he leaves,"Wanner said with a smile. "Then, he pays me."

Wanner is not only about barbering, although Mark Wanner, his son, said barbering and looking trim and neat was a priority in the household.

Allen Wanner also fixes up old stationary engines and antique clocks, sharpens scissors and razors, and fixes small motors. In his spare time, when he's not cutting hair, he said.

In fact, three or four of his motors are in a museum in New Salem, and every year, his motors are featured on a float for the July 4 parade.

Despite being 76, and in the barbering business for more than 50 years, Wanner doesn't see retirement on the near horizon.

"I'll keep it up as long as I still feel good,"he said. "When I feel like it some time, I'll retire. Just like that."