Bobby Rutledge does what he's been doing for 55 years -- keeping men of all ages looking good.

Rutledge hits 55th anniversary in business

By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
As of this week, Bobby Rutledge has seen 55 years’ worth of hair styles sit in his barber chair. He can do flattops, he can do spikes. He says the Beatles invasion in the ‘60s probably influenced men’s hair more than any other era since he followed his older brother into the business in 1957.

Rutledge is one of the only, if not the only, businessmen in the city who started working here before there even officially was a city. Among the several certificates hanging on the wall of his small, one-chair barber shop in The Brentwood Building on Wilson Pike Circle is one acknowledging his 50-year membership in what is now called the Brentwood Cool Springs Chamber.

When 5-year-old Ty Collins of Nolensville came in for a trim Wednesday, he told Rutledge he was old when the barber admitted he didn’t remember cutting his hair before. Though Ty’s mom was appalled, Rutledge just smiled and laughed. “You’re right,” he told the towhead seated on an old Coke crate in the barber chair. “I am old.”

But that doesn’t mean he’s not still skilled. He’s cut Ray Osborne’s hair for 50 years. Bobby Morel’s too. But he’s also given life to Rob Collins' spikes. Ty’s dad has been coming to Rutledge for a while.

A native of Spring Hill, Rutledge explained he wasn’t much of a book learner in school which is the main reason he decided to be a barber. “Well, we’ll see,” he answered when asked if any of his grandchildren, whose pictures are prominently displayed in the shop, plan to follow suit. But he sure sounded as though he hoped they would continue their educations in other areas.

Not that barbering has been a bad life.

“I’ve done all right,” he said. “Some days you have some and some days you have more,” he said when asked how many customers he gets a day. He’s headed to Florida in a week and Australia in the fall for a few weeks, so he obviously makes a little profit on the $17 haircuts he gives today. When he started, he charged $1 a cut.

While he has no plans to retire, he does have a reason to take a little time off. He’s a newlywed. He and Maudene Cooper Rutledge married four months ago. He’s been widowed twice; she lost her first husband. Today they have nine grandchildren between them.

Bobby and Maudene weren’t strangers when they met. “I’ve known here since I was 4 years old,” he said. “I used to ride my tricycle to see her.” At the time they were both living in the Flat Creek community.

Though he’s always had a shop in Brentwood, Rutledge is not a resident.  “I lived about 6 months in Brentwood years ago but I’ve lived in Franklin ever since,” he admitted. And then there’s the matter of his shop, which is in the building which used to house Brentwood’s city offices. When the city moved out, “they gave the building to Davidson as far as taxes go. In here you’re in Nashville, when you walk outside the door you’re in Brentwood.”

The shop shares the same address as the popular Mexican restaurant, Mazatlan, and is just north of the Town Center roundabout. Rutledge seems content in his little one-man, one-chair operation. Though at one time he had two other barbers working with him, he said it’s easier being on his own. Today his “menu” of services includes a haircut and beard trim ($20), flat top ($21) and shampoo ($9). He doesn’t give straight edge shaves anymore.

Does he worry about salons or sports-themed or expensive, throw-back operations displacing old-fashioned shops like his? No, he said.

 “I’ve never been anywhere I haven’t been able to find a barber shop,” he said as a matter of fact.

Of Brentwood, Rutledge thinks it’s grown up pretty well since the days he had the city’s only barber shop and Barbara Campbell the town’s only beauty salon.

He plans to keep cutting hair “as long as I can. I enjoy it.”

“I’m working now to play.”

We’ll check back in the winter to see if he finds a barber shop Down Under.