Mike's Barber Shop has been owned by Mike Hubbard since 2004, the shop is almost always full, and in a rare slow moment, the worn seat of a chair is testament to the shop's busyness over the past 20 years.
Mike's Barber Shop is a steady heartbeat pulsing through the community. People here are attuned if the barber shop skips a beat, although this rarely happens.
The shop first opened in 1966, run by part time preacher and full time barber Doyle Lester. Its original name was Lester's Barber Shop. By the late 1990s, word spread that Doyle wanted to go into full-time preaching. Mike responded quickly. First, he rented a chair. Then, in 2004, he purchased the shop, changing the name to what it is today.
A three-person shop the size of a shoe box, Mike share the space with Kenny Hurst and Ben Parker. The chairs often stay full and the latest family updates, news and jokes fly through the air.
When asked what keeps them coming back, clients speak to two main things: the quality of the haircuts and the jokey environment. This is one of the last old school "walk in only" barbershops in the area.
"We work really hard, you know, we don't close for nothing," Mike says. "It snows, we're here. One of us is always here."
The barber shop is not just Mike's business; it's his community, his family. His mother passed in 2010, his father moved shortly after, and throughout it all the barber shop was his constant pulse.
"I'm an only kid myself, had two girls, and this place helped me raise my kids, helped me get through my divorce," he says. "This place and the people who come through here. The good advice you get and the bad advice you have to filter through."
Mike spends his days at the shop, but his evenings are devoted to his farm and his family. His father is back in town and they spend many evenings together on his property a few minutes from his barber shop. With a few head of cattle and a bunch of dogs, along with a small side lumber construction business, he has his hands full. The work never ends.
Peyton Canada, 4, hates getting his haircut, but dad Cody Canada holds him while Mike tries to carefully give him a quick snip.
A wall of the barber shop shows not just current prices but also favorite music.
Dylan Preston, 22, a student at University of the Cumberlands, has his bangs cut by Ben.
Mike stands behind a rare empty chair at the barber shop. Kenny Hurst, left, cuts the hair of Jerry Wayne Moses, while Ben, far right, gives AJ Croley, 2, a trim.
Doyle Lester (from left), the original owner of Mike's Barber Shop when it was called Lester's Barber Shop, started the place in 1966 and sold it to Mike Hubbard in 2004 so he could become a full time preacher. He still comes in for haircuts regularly.
Mike leaves the barber shop at the end of the day and heads home to start one of his many projects.
Mike works on the farm at the end of a day of barbering. He takes a tractor to feed his cattle.
Mike takes a hay bale to feed his cattle while his dog Marie runs ahead.
Mike stands at the entrance to his basement at the end of his day at the barber shop followed by working on his land building a cattle chute.