It was all about the people: After nearly 50 years behind the barber chair, Mark Knudtson calling it a career – Austin Daily Herald

For nearly 50 years, Mark Knudtson has been behind the chair of people’s hair cuts and styles. It’s been a job he’s loved since 1976.

But like all things, it’s time to put the sheers down and hang up the customer’s apron because on Saturday, Knudtson is calling it a career.

“This has been a really tough two weeks for me,” Knudtson said Wednesday. “I’m down to just a couple of days now. I’ve had a number of people that I’ve had for 49 years. I really like coming to work every day and talking to people. It’s been terrific. There have been three to four generations of people that I kind of know their whole families.”

Knudtson found his way under the barber pole starting with a brother-in-law, Bob Jones, and joined the Barbers Three in 1976 where he spent eight years. Following that, in 1984, he came over to Midtown Barber Shop, which was owned by John Augustine.

Knudtson would buy Midtown, located at 302 Third Avenue NW, in 1992, keeping the shop open the remainder of his career where people have been coming and catching up on the small talk with a familiar face.

“It’s a people thing. I’ve been talking to people all these years,” Knudtson said. “That’s the whole thing is the social aspect. I have fun with people and there’s a lot of connections to people that come in here that are cousins or uncles or brothers or friends — whatever, so they have relationships.”

In these final days, before he moves to Hutchinson to be closer to his children and grandchildren, Knudtson is finding out that those feelings are a two-way street.

Since announcing his retirement, customers have been telling him many of the same things and showing their appreciation for the work he’s done over the years.

“It’s really weird,” he said. “Sometimes there is some redness in the eyes, that kind of thing. Hugs from people I didn’t really expect hugs from.”

Over the span of nearly five decades, people can always expect some change. It’s often inevitable, but Knudtson maintained that time at Midtown has stood the test of time in some ways. Life outside of the shop moved forward, but within the shop retains the feel of barber shops that have come before.

“Honest to God, it hasn’t changed a whole bunch as far as what I do,” Knudtson said. “Hair styles change a little. They go long and then short and then long again and whatever. Basically, it’s been steady Eddy. Sometimes, if I have some new customers, they will come in and say, ‘geez, this place looks like it’s been around awhile.’ They can tell. It’s got that old look to it.”

It comes back to the societal connection of it all.

“I think mostly it’s the connections to people. That’s mostly what it is,” Knudtson said. “There are people that come in that you feel instantly comfortable with.”

Still, at the end of the day it comes down to a moment in time when it’s the right time.

Knudtson said he’s been thinking about retirement for the last two years and nearly pulled the trigger on it last year, admitting however, that the time just wasn’t right to do so.

This year, though, the time is right because as Knudtson explains, he wants to do things on his timeline.

“I just keep thinking, I’m still really healthy. I want to go up and do stuff with my grandkids,” he said. “They are hockey players. I can still skate, I can still ski and I can still do stuff with them. You just never know. All of a sudden it could change. This way I can retire on my terms.”

Even the last haircut will come with a heritage of commitment. Knudtson said that Dan Urlick will be the last haircut, something Urlick requested in the weeks prior to the last day.

Knudtson went on to say that he’s been cutting the hair of the Urlich family throughout the years and firmly establishes that one reason for why he will miss it as the last days passed by.

“That it’s bitter sweet. That I’m going to miss it,” Knudtson said. “I’m really going to miss talking to some people I’ve known forever; most of my life.”