ASHLEY TERRY
From perms to flat tops to “business in the front, party in the back” mullets, hairstyles have changed drastically over the years — but the one thing that hasn’t gone out of style is the Hukill family barbering legacy.
As a fifth-generation barber, Johnny Hukill has spent the past 47 years carrying on his family’s more than 100-year barbering legacy — and this month, he’s celebrating 40 years of service to the Azle community.
“It’s mind-boggling. Time is so short,” Hukill told The Azle News. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?”
MAKING THE CUT
While Hukill, who owns Hair Designers at 521 N. Stewart St., comes from a long line of North Texas barbers, he didn’t initially envision himself carrying on the family trade.
“I never wanted to be in the hair business at all,” Hukill said. “I grew up in the late ‘60s and ‘70s when long hair was in, and I had a Navy barber dad that wasn’t about to let you have long hair … But then I went to work at General Motors years later and they were always talking about layoffs, so I thought, ‘I need something to fall back on,’ and the rest is history.”
Having a dad as a barber definitely played in Hukill’s favor, especially when it came to mastering a flat top. After attending Irving Barber College, it wasn’t long before he could do just about anything hair-wise — and even nails.
“My dad said my granddad taught him how to do a flat top, and he said he was the best flat topper ever. Dad was good, so I just carried it on,” Hukill said. “With the barber school I went to, we did everything — color, perm and barbering work. There’s not too many of those (colleges) out there now.”
Although the biggest challenge for Hukill was perms — especially in the ‘80s when they were all the rage — his craziest request involved clippers, a mohawk and a whole lot of Dallas Cowboys spirit.
“There was this guy who would come in every year when the Cowboys were in the Super Bowl,” he said. “I basically gave him a mohawk and on one side I’d put a star, the other side I’d put a Buffalo — for Buffalo Bills — and then in the back, in Roman numerals, I’d put what Super Bowl it was.”
The wild part about his request, though, is that instead of shaving the designs into the client’s hair, he had to do the opposite — shave around each design so the remaining hair formed the images.
Although it’s been quite a while since the Cowboys have appeared in the Super Bowl, Hukill said that one customer with the wild requests has since made a return trip for Hukill’s hair art expertise — this time, asking for a Donald Trump caricature.
“I thought he wanted the words ‘Donald Trump.’ No, he wanted a picture of Donald Trump with sunglasses on, the American flag and big yellow hair,” Hukill said, chuckling. “That was crazy.”
MORE THAN CUSTOMERS
While Hukill started his barber career in downtown Fort Worth, four decades in Azle helped solidify his customer base, resulting in Hukill serving some of his clients for decades. In fact, one of his clients, Loyd Hancock, has remained loyal for almost as long as Hukill’s career.
“Loyd, he’s one of my oldest, longest-lasting clients,” Hukill said. “I cut his hair when I was downtown and he lived in Azle and then when I came out here, I’ve been cutting his hair ever since.”
Hancock said at first he started visiting Hukill because of the convenience, since they both worked in the same building. As time went on, however, Hancock said he became a loyal customer, seeing Hukill at least once a month because Hukill always made him “look good.”
“The thing is, if he decides to hang them (his clippers) up, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Hancock said.
Hukill said he has the same fondness for Hancock that he feels for all his longtime customers — even though he only sees many of them for a few minutes at a time.
“With Loyd, I mean, knowing his wife, his family and kids … it’s like your family,” Hukill said. “It’s amazing how much you get to know somebody 15 to 20 minutes a month or every two months, especially when it’s year after year. You just get to know people and their situation; it’s pretty awesome.”
Those relationships, Hukill said, are a big part of what has kept him behind the chair for so long.
“I have met people from all over the world in every kind of walk of life. I've got a lot of clients who were kids when I started cutting their hair, and I'm doing their grandkids’ hair now,” Hukill said. “One family here, the Jeters, I’ve cut the fifth generation in their family. It’s hard for me to kind of wrap my own head around that.”
For some longtime customers, Hukill has provided much more than a good haircut.
M. J. Patrick — who has been a regular customer of Hukill’s for 35 years — said he treated her with the utmost kindness after her kidney transplant two years ago.
“Johnny totally cleaned his store up, made sure nobody else was here, and he took care of my hair — and I'll never forget that,” Patrick said. “Nobody else could make it look like he can … Nobody cuts like Johnny.”
HAIRY ADVENTURES
Although his regular customers may have known where to find him all these years, there was a while that the general public had no idea Hukill’s shop had anything to do with hair.
For about 35 years, Hukill’s shop was called Creative Dimensions Hair Designers, but once the Brookshire’s shopping center was remodeled about four years ago, he decided to drop Creative Dimensions from the name — resulting in a wave of new customers.
“For years I'd have people come in and go, ‘Wow! I didn't know this was a hair salon,’ even though it said Creative Dimensions Hair Designers and we had scissors on the outside. But once I dropped the name, I instantly had new people come in and go, ‘Wow. When did y'all open?’ ‘Uhh, 1986,’” Hukill said, chuckling.
In fact, the new name may be working too well, as one client apparently had no trouble finding her way inside last fall — car and all.
“I still have the skid mark on the floor,” Hukill said, chuckling. “It was a 91-year-old, a real astute lady, and I’ve done her hair for years … She was pulling in and when she turned, she just floored it, hit a curb, jumped and took this whole wall out.”
Hukill said the entire ordeal happened during last year’s Sting Fling and added it was a miracle no one got hurt.
“We had three young boys sitting right here, not 15 minutes before. They had just got finished and left,” he said. “Then we had an elder man walk out the door. He no more than got off the sidewalk when she ran through; it was close.”
Ever the comedian, Hukill tried to make his longtime client feel better after making such an unexpected entrance.
“I actually told her this isn’t a drive-through service. I said, ‘I was going to be with you in just a minute. All you had to do was walk in,’” he said with a laugh.
While a car through the shop was unexpected, Hukill said it still doesn’t top the craziest experience that took place when Hukill was still early in his career: a break-in.
Hukill explained that a client of his had broken into the roof of the former travel agency next door, but when he didn’t find any cash, he proceeded to break into the salon through the return-air opening — busting a water line in the water heater in the process.
“There was a candy machine; he busted it to get the quarters. I’d just emptied it. There probably wasn’t 50 cents in there. Candy went everywhere,” he said. “I walk in here, and the place is flooded from the hot water heater, the candy is melted everywhere, so I had a mess to clean up and had to close the next day to get everything fixed.”
NOT READY TO PART
As if his salon shenanigans haven’t kept him busy enough, Hukill is also a musician and has competed in triathlons for 26 years.
“I get up early and stay up late — that's the only thing I know,” he said. “I don't let the old man in.”
While Hukill doesn’t expect the family barbering tradition to continue with his children or grandchildren, he has no plans to hang up his personalized barber cape anytime soon.
“I’ll be 71 next month … I’m too young to retire,” he said.
For now, Hukill will continue to carry on his family legacy — one haircut at a time.
“How time flies when you’re having all this fun,” he said. “I’ll just keep on keeping on and enjoy the ride.”
