Campus barber John Salido retired and closed up shop in December after four decades of giving haircuts to students, faculty and staff in the basement of Freeborn Hall. He was scheduled to end his run at University Haircutters the same way he started in September 1969 — cutting the hair of Emanuel Epstein.

Epstein, a plant physiologist, had been Salido’s first customer. Now a professor emeritus, Epstein booked his appointment months in advance for the shop’s closing cut.

“It’s the end of an era,” he said on one of his last visits to Salido’s barber chair.

Epstein was fond of telling Salido over the years that his haircuts endangered his marriage. Epstein likes his hair shorter than his wife prefers. Salido was so successful at negotiating a compromise length that he attended the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary.

“I feel really close to a lot of my customers,” Salido said. “I mean, I’ve been cutting their hair for most of my life.” Salido, an Army reservist and an avid fisherman who also taught University Extension classes on stream ecology for fly fishing, planned to move to Hawaii’s Big Island after retiring.

— Mimi Schiffman for UC Davis Magazine