BUSINESS: Dan’s Barber Stop

Good barbers do two things well:
cut hair and tell good stories. Dan Altmiller, owner of Dan’s Barber Stop in
Edmond, excels at both. And he’s been doing it for almost three decades.

“I wasn’t exactly doing real
well in school. My grades weren’t looking too hot.” Hot grades or not, Dan
Altmiller is a smart guy. The longtime Edmond resident talks about his college
days at Oklahoma Christian as a pre-med student. When he felt he’d reached the
end of that road he started walking down another and enrolled in cosmetology school.

It was 1984. Altmiller had good
timing. Big hair needs big care. This time around, he found the curriculum more
to his liking and graduated at the top of his class. He worked in the salon
industry for a while before starting his own barber shop. Altmiller decided to
forego the word “shop” in his store’s name and opted instead for “stop.” The
name, he says, was inspired by the second love of his life, cars and
motorcycles.

Altmiller’s clientele spans the
gamut from kids to longtime customers now in their nineties. At any age,
customers appreciate the consistent excellence of Altmiller and crew and can
always expect to enjoy a chuckle or two in the jovial shop. With a level of
customer loyalty once common back in the day of the corner barber shop, Dan’s
brings the best of a bygone era to life, in both cuts and camaraderie.

Ask him about the time a client
had a heart attack in the chair. It’s a good story and—spoiler alert—it ends
with the client’s wife explaining that her husband loved the shop so much he
couldn’t have picked a better place to move on. Ask him about the homeless man
who came to his shop for years—the guy who couldn’t always pay the bill but
always got a great haircut.

Altmiller’s business cards
proudly announce that he serves the good, the bad and the ugly. In all three
cases, they leave looking better than when they showed up. All three have a
good time, too. If they come in around Christmas, they’ll find the Stop’s
employees dressed as elves. Altmiller will be dressed as Santa. Or the Grinch.
It depends, he says, on how well he’s behaved that year.

“We just try to enjoy life to
the fullest here,” says Altmiller. “We really do.”

Dan’s Barber Stop is located at 611 S. Broadway
in Edmond. Call 340-6654 for appointments and hours.