Ellis Trabant’s business is just 28 steps from his back door
By Bernie Schmitt
His shop is small, and neatly tucked away in the middle of a quiet neighborhood alley.
If not for a sign advertising his barber shop, one might never know that Ellis Trabant has been cutting hair, trimming beards, and giving shaves at his Parkinson Street address for the last 24 years.
Ellis has been a barber since 1962, practicing his craft for many years in Bicknell and Bruceville. Ultimately, he settled into a shop that is only a few steps away from his back door. He has 57 years in the business, developing a reliable customer base throughout the area.
He has loyal, local customers, of course, but there are men from Mt. Carmel, Princeton, Lawrenceville, Bridgeport, and one who comes all the way from Rockville. He offers quality and professionalism as he has done since starting in 1962.
“It’s been a good business, and a good life,” he says. “I can’t complain. I enjoyed it; I still do.”
Ellis’ Barber Shop features only one barber chair, and one barber. He isn’t open on Saturdays, and he’s only open the first full three weeks of every month. His loyal customers know this; the rookies have to learn.
His backyard barber shop, which sports a number of parking spaces just off the alley, was developed by dividing the garage. They bought it and their home after Trabant had knee surgery and was limiting his activity to only what was necessary.
“You have to look at the calendar,” he said. “You just can’t pop in. Sometimes when I get a new customer it takes them a while to learn.”
Trabant goes to work at noon and usually closes at 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday (on the first three full weeks of a month). He sometimes stays open later, if he knows someone is working and can’t be there by closing time. He’s known for taking care of his customers.
“But if they aren’t working and just come in late, well, that’s another story,” he says.
Setting up shop
His backyard barber shop, which sports a number of parking spaces just off the alley, was developed by dividing the garage. They bought it and their home after Trabant had knee surgery and was limiting his activity to only what was necessary.
“I had to get the neighbors to okay it, and they were all fine with it,” he said. “It’s worked out great for me. It takes me only 28 steps to get to work.”
He had customers who liked his work, then developed more as he built his business at the present location.
His customers may like the large mirrors that surround his barber’s chair on four sides, but maybe not the bright fluorescent lights above. But Trabant says these are for him. They are as much a part of his tools as are his hair clippers and trimmers.
“I like to see what I’m doing,” he said.
He said the mirrors allow him to see all that he’s doing, as well as how one’s hair looks at various angles and distances. He takes pride in the quality of his work. Details such as these are important to him.
He grew up in the country, on a small farm behind Mariah Creek Church. His family moved at one point to land his great-grandfather, who had come here from Germany, just down the road. He was there until graduating high school. It was then he talked to his dad about becoming a barber.
“I had busted my knee and leg when I was 13,” he said, “so I had a bad knee. I thought it might be good to have my own business, and this seemed like something I could do.”
He learned to cut hair and earned his barber’s license graduating from Barber School in Indianapolis. He came back to Knox County, working as a barber in others’ shops. He misses the old days, he said, when older gentlemen would tell humorous stories, some of them tall tales, while waiting their turn for the barber chair.
Making improvements
“Frank Chambers had a shop I worked in,” he said. “It had an old coal stove and a 45-watt bare bulb to light the place.”
Trabant said he bought some lights and an exhaust fan, and eventually talked Chambers into replacing the coal-burning stove with an oil stove. Not long after he bought an air conditioner for the place, too.
“I kind of worked him around to it,” he chuckled. “Back then (in 1962) we were charging 75 cents a head. After I got there I talked him into charging a dollar.”
There were times, over the years, when Trabant would cut hair on Saturdays from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. He also provided men with shaves, too, a service few modern barbers offer. But a guy can get that at Ellis’ Barber Shop.
“I’m probably the only guy who still offers shaves,” he said.
Not used to being interviewed, Trabant says that while cutting a person’s hair he’s kind of like a bartender as he talks with his customer about their lives.
“I try to remember when they tell me about planning a vacation, or what was going on a work, or whatever,” he said. “Then I ask about it or try to start a conversation about the things in their lives.”
Outside of work, Trabant and his wife Ina used to go line-dancing, but age and his knee ended that after awhile. His wife said he needed a hobby.
She used to paint sweatshirts and do other crafts, and they would both go to craft shows together. It was his friend, the late Tom Brink, who suggested wood carving.
Wood carving
He started by learning how to carve walking canes, taking twisted tree limbs and modifying them into walking sticks and canes. He made them for right- and left-handed people, and he was selling them at craft shows.
“But it got to be too much work,” he said.
After a couple of wood-carving seminars, buying good tools, and plenty of practice, he began creating other carvings of animals and of people. He started with cowboys and has expanded into other characters. He has done a few of baseball pitchers. He even has one of former President Barack Obama.
He used to sell these, too, at craft shows. But people didn’t necessarily want to pay for the craftsmanship of an item. He put $20 to $30 into the wood, the paint, and the time to make a carving, and one person only offered him $30 for it. He refused.
“Now I just give them to grandkids,” he said.
Several years ago he and Ina sold their large RV in which they had traveled throughout the country, “from coast to coast,” he said. After Hurricane Katrina, they sold it in New Orleans and with the money they bought a vintage, 1937 Chevy pick-up.
Car shows
The truck was further restored (it had dings in the fender and other issues), and painted (an expensive venture), then taken to local and regional car shows. He has a number of trophies displayed in his shop (and others gathering dust in the garage), as well as plaques from various participations and competitions.
“What I really like getting are dash plaques,” he said.
He has a collection of these items (small, refrigerator-magnet-sized) displayed in his shop. It is a record of every car show in which he has participated. It is something to do that conjures up a bit of nostalgia and of times gone by. Plus, it’s fun.
It’s likely to get Ellis thinking about the early days of his career as a professional barber, and his hairstyle — one of the most popular styles of the era — that got him featured in a trade magazine, The Journeyman Barber.
“It was that hairstyle that got me in that,” he says with a smile.
These days Ellis takes his time cutting and trimming people’s hair, as his has grown thin and gray, though still stylish. He talks with customers about their lives, or the weather, or as we did in June, about Fourth of July fireworks.
It’s a job that works well for him.
“It’s been good,” he said.