A history of hair

The Beatles not only changed music, but they forever changed hairstyles across the United States and even here in Louisiana.
Doucet’s Family Hair Care owner Larry Doucet said, “The interesting thing I think is, when we started, it was pretty much traditional haircuts, nothing too different, and then in the early ‘60s, this guy who owned a franchise of mens’s hair shops developed an advanced technique of cutting hair with a razor. It was really successful, and it was going really good until the ‘70s came upon us.
“That changed everything with the long hairstyles. The Beatles started this thing with the long hair, and it changed everything.”
Doucet began cutting hair at his father Delta Doucet’s barber shop, which was located almost directly across from his own current location at 152 E Main St., in 1962 after finishing barber school in Beaumont, Texas.
With a career spanning more than five decades, Doucet has seen half a century of customers from the same families.
“(I enjoy) Seeing all these generations, seeing kids grow up, seeing early customers’ grandkids,” he said. “In a small town, this closeness that you get, that’s the thing. We’ve seen them come and grow and some of them come back and visit. A small town — it’s a special thing.”
Doucet, 73, recalled the pace of life in town when he first started cutting hair.
“Back then, everything was done on the weekend,” he said. “There were three theaters and the drive in. People came to town on Saturdays. We would stay open all day. A lot of people were walking through town.”
The Doucets eventually moved their business to the old Ace Hardware building on Main Street. Doucet’s father later retired, and the younger Doucet and fellow barber and business partner Norman Lafleur built the current location in 1976. Doucet’s son, Jared “Jay” also completed barber school, and he has worked in the business off and on over the years.
“Norman and I have 106 years of combined experience — I’ve been cutting hair for 54 years, and he has cut hair for 52 years,” Doucet added.
Both barbers survived the Beatle-hair-mania, but Doucet said all shops weren’t so lucky.
“In the 1970s, a lot of shops went out of business because of the long hair,” he said. “We were the first shop in Ville Platte to do any kind of men’s hairstyling. We did hair straightening and a bunch other men’s styling services.
“You can imagine what it was like, in the ‘60s, straightening a man’s hair or putting a man under a hair dryer. It was kind of a revolutionary, unique. That’s why we built the shop like we did. We had the waiting room and the back room was where the dryers were back then.”
While straightening a man’s hair or putting a man under a hair dryer have since come and gone in Doucet’s fifty-plus years in the business, shaving and beard care have returned to the barber scene in larger cities.
“We offered shaving when I started at my dad’s place,” Doucet said. “My dad was very, very good at that. By the time we (he and Lafluer) started, the shaving thing was fading out.
“In the 1960s, the blades (on early razors) weren’t that great, so a lot of men would go to the barber shop to get a shave. Stainless steel blades changed things. Most of those who went through barber school when I did had to learn it, but we did not get enough practice and it kind of eventually just faded out. Some shops still offer it in big cities, but it’s not being taught in school anymore.”
Doucet added, “It’s an art in itself to get a straight razor sharp enough to shave a beard.”
Offering women’s services has also come back in style at the shop.
“We offered women’s services in the late 1970s, doing cuts, but we had so many male customers,” Doucet said.
In addition to leading local men’s hairstyling trends, Doucet said his shop was also the first barber shop in Ville Platte to have female barbers.
“Our first one started in 1977 or 1978, and her name was Lana Fontenot,” he said. “We’ve had a bunch of girls since. There are not too many guys going to barber school.”
Doucet said his longest female employee was was Tiji Hunley Cherry, and she worked at shop for 10 years. Doucet currently employs four to five hair stylists, both male and female. Haircuts have gone from $1 to $13.
Men’s hairstyles have also moved in a different, or in Doucet’s case, many, directions.
“Mens and boys cuts now are all over the place,” Doucet said. “We are doing some longer hair now, but a lot of cuts are still traditional short hair. A lot of young working guys, they want something that is very simple, so it’s still considered kind of a short haircut. They want ease. They don’t want to have to spend a lot of time on their hair so we do a whole lot of these, something they can wash and go.
“Some kids are still doing fades, but with men and boys, it’s pretty broad.”
The long-time barber didn’t even want guess how many heads of hair he has cut in his career.
“An astronomical amount,” Doucet said. “It’s hard to say. Way back then, with short haircuts, we cut 60 heads a day. We don’t do that anymore. I have four or five hair stylists now and we are still cutting that many heads, but it’s spread out.”
In a look around the shop one can see some of the past. Built-in ash trays are located in the arm of each of Doucet’s barber chairs, but some of his customers will never remember a time when smoking was allowed in businesses and other public places. Doucet also has a collage of items including old barber’s tools and Hadacol bottles in shadow boxes on the business’s walls.
“Hadacol was a tonic in the late 40s and early 50s, sold by a guy from Abbeville named Dudley LeBlanc,” Doucet said. “It was a vitamin tonic with a good percentage of alcohol, so people that would take it would kind of get a buzz. He (LeBlanc) had a radio show, and he was really popular with the elderly.
“Hadacol was nationwide, so he made a good bit of money with it.”
Doucet said Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays are the busiest at the shop, but not nearly as hectic as business was a few generations ago.
“Sometimes we have people waiting when we open at 7 a.m., five or six people sometimes,” he said. “We used to open at 6 a.m. Those ere some long days. Ville Platte was so different back then. We cut more heads on a Saturday than you did all week. Everybody came to town on the weekend.”