The Headmasters Barbershop ‘Barbs’ Help Hold On To “Good Ole Days”

When the Sheriff entered the barber shop early that morning, he found the place in full throated laughter. As he scanned the room he saw the familiar faces of some his friends and fellow townspeople. He shook hands with the accountant, the mechanic, and the Mayor, and he smiled and waved a good morning to the barber, busy giving a quick trim to one of the Sheriff’s own deputies. The gang was eager to catch the Sheriff up on why they were all laughing hysterically when he arrived, and it came as no surprise to him to find out that his young, naïve deputy sitting in the barber’s chair was the brunt of yet another embarrassing joke.

It seems that one of the heftier neighbors in town had lost some of his weight and in fact had dropped twenty pounds, leaving him at a svelte 300 pounds. The boys at the shop had arranged for the young deputy to ‘accidentally’ overhear a conversation in which the man’s good fortune could be attributed to a new break-through form of dieting. “No, really guys, I heard Doc Brown telling Mrs. Harris that Tiny got his results from being on that new Miller Lite Diet. The more Miller Lite he drinks, the more weight he loses.” As the barber recounted the story for the Sheriff, the people in the shop again broke into uncontrolled laughter, much to the chagrin of the deputy, who now realized he was the target of yet another group ruse.

This could be another rerun of an Andy Griffith episude. Of course the Sheriff is Andy, the accountant is Howard, the mechanic must be Goober, and it all must take place at Floyd’s Barber Shop on Main Street in Mayberry. In fact, this is a scene much like those that play out daily and in real life at Headmasters, our very own version of Floyd’s Barber Shop on Burnside Avenue in Gonzales. In our town and in towns across America, the barber shop continues to be one of the best places for people to gather for a laugh or to learn about neighbors’ views on current events. It provides many with a real sense of belonging and unconditional acceptance. Mostly, it’s just a good place for a lot of laughs.

Headmasters has seen a lot of history. It opened in 1963 with Johnny Berthelot, now Mayor Berthelot, Gerald Braud, who recently retired after 47 years in the barber business, and the current ‘star of the show’ Terrell Bourgeois. Now 64 years young, Terrell has been cutting hair for 45 years and to this day seems to love every minute of it. He first opened his shop in the old Gonzales Motel where the owner had remodeled two rooms to make a space suitable for their shop. He and Johnny held court there daily and watched many of the people in Ascension Parish grow up to raise families of their own and send their kids to Headmasters for their own haircuts. At that time a haircut cost $1.50 and Terrell cut the hair of such famous people as ‘Buckskin Bill’ Black and John Ferguson, the beloved ‘voice of the Tigers’ radio announcer. His longest running customer is Mr. Joe Guidry whose hair Terrell has cut for over forty years. Terrell has been married to the former Adrianne Fife for most of that time and the couple will celebrate their 45th anniversary on August 24th of this year.
Through the years there have been changes in the line-up for the Headmasters team. In June of 1984, Denise Robbins took the place of Johnny Berthelot when he was elected Mayor of Gonzales. Denise has worked with Terrell for 24 years and has also worked at Ourso Funeral Home for the past 25 years. A year after Denise came on board, another young lady, Dolores Pylate joined in 1985 after having worked as an instructor at Larry’s Beauty School. The fourth member of the ‘family’ is Cody Braud, the great nephew of long time partner Gerald Braud. Cody has been on the team for seven years much to the delight of Terrell and the others.

The conversation at Headmasters is as varied and entertaining as the individuals who frequent there. In one visit to Headmasters many topics were discussed. An avid sports fan described how much passion young men have for competition as he described the previous weekend’s game where a kid, so distraught over striking out that the boy fell to his knees right there in the batters box, tears streaming from his eyes. The young man quickly learned that it was only strike two. Rejuvenated, the batter refocused and promptly lined a run scoring single into right field and his team was jubilant. Ahh, the joy of sport.

Another gentleman lamented how he was being forced to change his vacation plans due to high gas prices. “A gallon of gas was $1.29 when George Bush took office,” he said. “I think we should always have a Democratic Congress when we have a Republican president.” That debate was still raging at the end of the day. Several men discussed the great job they felt the baseball coaches at Dutchtown, E.A., and St. Amant had done with this year’s players. There was much concern and surprise shown about the massive sink hole that had swallowed up cars and machinery in a small west Texas town and the deplorable condition of roads in Ascension Parish. How much development for housing was good for the parish, how much would it rain during this year’s Jambalaya Festival, who would make it out to Alex Box for the last regular season series for the Tigers, can we expect to win the SEC in football without Perrilloux, how much salt per pound is needed when boiling pasta? potatoes? shrimp? crawfish?

Many of the answers to the world’s problems are pondered daily at Headmasters in Gonzales. Many of the city’s pioneer citizens can be seen and heard from there as well, people like Mr. Carroll Daigle. In 1972 he opened Fairwood Food Center. He was the first to offer self-serve gasoline amid the stringent objections from the area’s service station owners. Mr. Daigle sold gas for 19c a gallon. Visiting the shop that same day were Margie and Troy Porter. The Porters moved to
Gonzales from Brownsfield, TX in 1957. Mr. Porter worked for 37 years at Wyandott, which is now BASF, and they would never think of leaving Ascension Parish.

In July of 1985, Terrell and partners built the center on Burnside that is the home of Headmasters today. Many things have changed in Gonzales in the many years he has been in business. Terrell told us, “In 1963, I bought a Ford Fairlane for $2100. In 1968 I bought an 1850 square foot house and paid $21,500. I built another home just the same size in 2004 and that cost $205,000. 
That’s a lot of inflation.”