 "Photo: Lisle Alderton")
 "Photo: Lisle Alderton")
Strolling down Moro Street in Aggieville, college students see the usual shopping-district sights, bars and boutiques. One business stands out from the rest with its vintage barber pole and 50s-style sign reading, “Campus Hairstyling.”
“This little shop had been a sporting goods store before we turned it into a barber shop, so we decided to use some of the elements that were already there to give it a timeless look,” said Doug DuMonbern, the shop’s designer. “It has the look of an old drug store or soda fountain.”
Though the shop’s retro style is reflected in multiple fixtures of the building, it is particularly evident in the shop’s owner, Roger Allerheiligen.
“Even though there’s not that many barbers left, I think it’s a great profession,” Allerheiligen said. “There’s definitely still a demand for barbering. It’s a totally different kind of shop.”
Allerheiligen is the only barber in Manhattan who performs straight-edge shaves, which take 30 minutes, he said. He also saves the hair from babies’ first haircuts and gives it to the parents in a labeled bag. These are practices he learned in barber school and does not plan on changing.
Allerheiligen recently celebrated his 45th year of barbering, but he said he wasn’t always interested in doing hair for a living.
“When I first went to barber school, I was scared of the razors,” he said. “I’d never cut a hair in my life. I just got out of high school and thought barbering might be a good thing to do, so I started going to school.”
Throughout his 26 years of owning Campus Hairstyling, Allerheiligen has taken various classes to learn new haircutting methods. However, he said many of the old haircuts he learned in school are still popular or have cycled back into style.
“Flat-tops were something he learned back in school, and now we have college students come in and ask for them,” said Phyllis Allerheiligen, Roger’s high-school sweetheart, wife and secretary.
“He’s cutting third-generation styles, but the young people — especially college students — are still coming back,” she said.
In addition to his old-fashioned hairstyles, Roger is known for his welcoming personality.
“I try to listen to the customer and find out what he wants. I try to do what you want, not what I think you should have,” he said. “That’s what I think my strong point is — service to customer and listening.”
DuMonbern, a long-time customer, said Roger Allerheiligen’s dedicated service was apparent from the first visit.
“If in a few days, you don’t like the haircut or something shows up you don’t like, all you’ve got to do is stop in and he’ll take care of it,” DuMonbern said. “He really personalizes what he does and takes interest in your appearance and what your attitude about your appearance is.”
He emphasized that Roger Allerheiligen’s welcoming personality is not simply a business persona — rather, it is evident both in and out of the shop.
“I never was very good at making friends during a lot of my life, so at one point I decided I needed to invest in the people that had been kind and generous and thoughtful to me,” said DuMonbern, who now has weekly coffees with Roger. “So, we decided to get together and just visit for a while on a different level — just about personal things or whatever was going on in our lives.”
Phyllis said she has seen Roger’s friendliness not only in and out of the shop but over the years of his life — from high school until now. Roger remembers everything from customers’ names to their favorite hobbies.
“He tries to find something unique about each customer,” she said. “He takes his job very seriously, but he pays a lot of attention to the people who come in. He has people who drive back from Kansas City just to get haircuts. I don’t know whether it’s the conversation or the haircuts, but they keep coming back.”
Despite all the great feedback Roger Allerheiligen receives, he said it is personal enjoyment that keeps him going.
“It’s a very satisfying profession,” he said. “I’m able to send people out and feel like I’ve done my best.”
