When Jim Audette first started cutting hair, prices were $5.75 for men’s hairstyling, every barber’s booth had a phone to make appointments and he would see some clients every two weeks.

Audette is still surrounded by the familiar sounds of electric razors and the barber pole twirling in the corner of the room, but haircuts often now cost $30 or more, most people make appointments online and he sometimes doesn’t see clients for two or three months.

Jim Audette with his awards from a barber competition in 1967, after winning first place in the men’s hairstyling contest, when he had only been cutting hair for four years. Pictured in the St. Paul Life newspaper, he was declared the “hottest of the bunch” among the Barbers group in the article. (Courtesy of Jim Audette)

Now working at Good Neighbor Barber Shop on Randolph Avenue in St. Paul these days, Audette is in his sixth decade clipping hair. On Feb. 2, he turned 80.

“It’s a hard thing to get out of,” Audette said. “They say that barbers are the only occupation that stay in the same business for their whole life. That’s true, because I know a few pretty old ones.”

The apprentice

Growing up in northwestern Minnesota, Audette noted that the town’s barber seemed to know everybody around. Originally planning on attending the University of Minnesota, the 18-year-old Audette met barber Joe Francis in 1962 when he came into a barber school. Francis took Audette under his wing as an apprentice after Audette gave him a haircut.

Francis founded the Barbers, one of the first barbershop franchises in the country, which had humble beginnings in the Highland Village Shopping Center with a single shop. Francis taught Audette new techniques such as European razor cutting, a trend in the early 1960s, that allowed the shop to raise their prices and bring in new, curious clientele. It involved running a sharp razor along the hairline to make precise cuts.

Audette began competing in barber competitions, some of which took place right in St. Paul as their popularity spread around the country. One Saturday at the St. Paul Hotel, as Audette recalls, he won one of his first competitions, a hairstyling contest.

Barber Jim Audette, who turned 80 last month, gives long-time customer Rick Cunningham a trim at the Good Neighbor Barber Shop on Randolph Ave. in St. Paul on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“They didn’t want to give me the trophy, because I was an apprentice, and it was for master barbers,” Audette said. “Joe Francis made a big deal out of it … (so) they gave it to me anyway, finally.”

Competitions took Audette from St. Paul to Chicago, Texas, New York and Canada. He even became a judge after a while. Some competitions had more than 100 participants, so even placing in the top 50% felt like an accomplishment.

The Handlebar

Audette left the Barbers after nine years to open his own shop, called the Handlebar, at Ford Parkway and Cretin Avenue in St. Paul. Eventually he moved out of that location due to construction, and Audette’s final shop before semi-retirement in 2020 was right where he started — just a few doors down from the old Barbers location in Highland Village.

Audette now works alongside Mike Haeg and Nick Hoshor, the owner of Good Neighbor, using space in his shop after it opened in 2021. Now limiting his schedule to three days a week and no more than four customers a day, Audette no longer is the owner of a shop, but has maintained many of his clients.

“What I’ve always liked is you get people from all walks of life,” Audette said. “That’s what makes this business really interesting — because they’re all interesting.”

Barber Jim Audette, who turned 80 last month, gives long-time customer Rick Cunningham a trim at the Good Neighbor Barber Shop on Randolph Ave. in St. Paul on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Building a reputation via connections and word of mouth, Audette used to tell the barbers he hired that if they could retain one customer that day, they would have a business clientele built in a year. Having been a barber for politicians, university faculty and players on the Minnesota Vikings and Twins, Audette maintained a higher-profile clientele alongside his committed base of some clients who, in some cases, came to him for more than 40 years.

Haircuts over the generations

Some families have sent three or four generations for haircuts by Audette. These connections come with some small perks — cutting hair for car salesmen and restaurant staff have provided fast and friendly service at places sporting loyal customers.

“I did (their hair) no matter where they were, till the day they died,” Audette said. “I think that was probably one of my biggest accomplishments.”

Audette said starting out as a barber isn’t solely about hair cutting skills. A good 15% of the job is social — and barbers have to have the whole package. Audette has worked with some people who are great at cutting hair but not connecting with customers — and some who crack jokes at the barber chair all day but weren’t as skilled with the scissors.

Over the span of his career, the look and feel of the barber shop and trends in hairstyles people ask for have changed from the days when the Handlebar shop boasted individual booths, shoe shiners and manicurists.

Although Audette has clients come in with pictures of what they want, he said picking a haircut is all about collaboration.

“I’ve learned the most from Jim about how to interact with clients,” Hoshor said. “He’s a veteran, and has been doing it longer than anybody that I know.”

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