By Messenger Staff. Photos by John Fleming.
Find the County Line Barber Shop, right there on it, just the DeKalb side of Moreland in the Point Center Building, above Abbadabbas.
Up in Unit 100C, owner Chad McCullough is clipping away at the head of hair of his long-time customer Levi Mlinar, chatting about music and philosophy, giving the 30-year-old a change from long-ish to more of a high-and-tight.
This isn’t your granddad’s barbershop, though it has lots of trappings of it; a little worn, chairs for sitting and talking, and grumbling. It’s more of a mashup of past and present. Style in that metropolitan way is happening, along with tributes to the past with those ancient barber chairs and a Chad-chosen playlist.
He’s an older soul, beyond his 32 years. And when it comes to music it is older soul he loves, along with some more vintage and slightly contemporary country. So listen, then, to that Tom T. Hall cropping up out of the speaker, something this reporter hasn’t heard since junior high.
He gets that mix of past and present you might say, from the years he spent trimming hair at the Trophy Room, the barber shop in Kirkwood. He’s learned a lot from his six years of cutting hair about tending to the customer and building a client base.
Take Levi, for example, who’s happy with the relationship.
“Chad’s been cutting my hair for years,” the Mechanicsville resident said. “When we first met, we just hit it off. I’ve been coming back ever since.”
This new chapter on the country line, started for him in early January. He managed to secure a space down a long hallway, across from his buddy Jessica Marks and her Star Salon. Then, he set about rehabbing it, while simultaneously running the barbershop. The small shop is still undergoing some work, but for the most part, it’s done.
Born in Decatur and raised in Paulding County, he’s happy to be here. It’s a lifelong dream, he says, to live and to work in Candler Park and Little Five Points.
The clientele is young on this day, but he cuts all ages, except the under 13 crowd. “That,” he pauses a moment to get the right words, “is stressful.”
Finishing up with Levi, he hands him a mirror for the first time and asks for the review.
“Nice, heck yeah dude!,” says Levi.
Chad just smiles and nods. He’s heard it before.
Yep, he cuts all ages of hair, belonging to all sorts of people. How does he explain it? At some point he reaches for a Randy Travis line from Deeper Than the Holler, something that sums up how he’s feeling about life, this day and people:
And everyone is different and everyone’s the same
And this is just another way of sayin’ the same thing
Song and poetry, you are liable to hear more of that here than sports or gossip, the omnipresent subjects of this reporter’s experiences as a kid in an Alabama barbershop.
The County Line is refreshing in that way. Parse the lyrics, talk about life’s more meaningful subject. Of course, the tournaments are in full swing, but still….
Pulling in as Levi departs, is Pete Kelly, 38, another long-time customer.
“We love Chad. He does a trusty cut,” he says.
He’s got total confidence in the young barber’s skills. His business acumen, but also in his way with people. Again, Chad listens to the praise, embarrassed, but soaking it in.
Yes, he figures, business is good. He’s booked two weeks out, but wants everyone to know he will get to them, and that the big-time website is on its way and anyone wanting for a trim should go to his booking page in the meantime.
The business is built and now he’s gotta keep it going. But there is confidence there. As Chad says puts it: “You know, if you believe in something strongly enough, there is no way you will not succeed.”
Because, it’s not always been easy. During a tough time, a few months ago, when he was weathering transition, he reached for Obvious Ghosts, a collection of poetry by Coulter Jacobs. He’s explaining this as he reaches for said book, resting on the coffee table at the County Line.
“It was a bad time,” he says as he flips through it. While searching for answers those many months ago, he says he opened the book and there was the poem “Barbershop.”
“‘Barbershop,’” he said, “showed itself to me at the perfect time.”