Barber retires after 38 years

After 38 years in business, Steve Beem is retiring. He will cut
hair at the Plaza Barber Shop for the last time on Saturday,
September 11—a date he delayed for two weeks after his initial
announcement, just so he could see each of his customers one more
time.
“The best part has been the daily contact with the most
interesting people,” Beem said. “From 1972 to 1990 I did walk-ins,
and I found that my chairs were filled all the time. It was hard to
be one-on-one with so many people talking. So I started doing
appointments in 1990, and that’s why I now know so much more about
my customers than I did in those days.”
Beem is good with names. When he runs into any one of his
500-odd customers at a Healdsburg High football or basketball game,
he greets them like an old friend.
In fact, many of his early customers have become old friends—and
some of his current customers received their first-ever haircut at
his shop decades ago. On his wall hangs a photo of Scott Chapman,
and Scott’s son John. Both are pictured as toddlers, and both
received their first haircuts at Plaza Barber Shop.
“I love working with kids,” Beem said. “From the beginning, they
were my future customers.”
The children he worked with, it seems, loved visiting him,
too.
“Steve has been such a special part of our Healdsburg life,”
said mother Tasha Vanden Heuvel, whose seven year old son Jack is
one of Beem’s clients, and a big fan of “Barber Steve.”
“For three or four years, it has been our tradition to go get my
son Jack’s hair cut with his cousin, Sebby, who’s six. We all love
having Steve as a friend. Every time we walked past the barbershop,
on our way into town, he always waved to us with a big smile as he
was cutting some gentleman’s hair, making our boys feel like they
were his favorite clients ever. We’ll miss him so much. We already
do!”
For nearly four decades, Beem’s barbershop community has been a
fixture and gathering place on the ever-evolving face of Center
Street. Beem noted that plenty had changed since he first took over
the Plaza Barber Shop from his predecessor, Jim Book.
“When I opened up, there were hardware stores and bars on the
plaza, stores for local people. There was a butcher shop across the
street, a magazine store, a stationery store. There was a beauty
shop right next door to me here… Dick Nelson had his record store a
couple doors down. I’m talking about records, 45s and 78s. Wow, I’m
getting old,” Beem said.
But inside the shop, little has changed since he first started
snipping. And to his customers, Beem doesn’t seem old, but
timeless.
“I still have pretty much the original furniture that I
inherited from the former barber,” Beem said. “The waiting chairs
are new. I’m on my third floor, from wear and tear… But it’s pretty
much the same.”
The community Beem created has also been consistent—a friendly
atmosphere of boys and guys talking about sports, cars, and
life.
“I do have two women that come in here to get men’s haircuts,
and I have a special time for them, usually early in the morning.
The rest is guys and boys. And it’s amazing over the years what
some of they’ll confide in me that they won’t confide in their
wives or moms or dads. So I’ve learned a little bit of that stuff.
But it’s mostly talk about sports or cars, which is another hobby
of mine. And fishing.”
Beem noted that he seemed to attract like-minded fishermen, car
hobbyists, and sports fans. “Niners, Giants, and Raiders second.
Course, there’s college—I love college and high school sports,
too.”
While the Plaza Barber Shop business will continue to operate
under a new barber, customers say they will miss Beem.
“I don’t want him to retire. I haven’t retired, he can’t
retire!” joked longtime customer and friend Jim Fagan, who has
known Steve for 30 years.
“Not only is Steve a very accomplished and professional barber,
he’s also a great guy. Probably one of the nicest guys in town,”
said customer Kent Mitchell, who has been a customer for 30 plus
years.
“He is one of the nicest, most unassuming people I know,” noted
decade-long customer Jim Crabtree. When people say, ‘this is what
Healdsburg is about,’ I think they are talking about Steve and
people like him who have become a part of our culture.”
Doctor Dave Anderson agreed. “Steve’s contribution to Healdsburg
and the community has not just been his haircuts, but his warm,
smiling, engaging and caring nature,” Anderson noted. “I will miss
seeing him from his antique barber chair every 6 weeks (my wife
wishes it had been every 4 weeks).”
Steve will miss his customers too, but has plenty on tap to keep
him busy in retirement.
“My plan is to fish a lot up at Lake Sonoma. I have a nice
little fishing boat, and I also bowl in a couple of leagues,” Beem
said, and gestured to a series of bowling trophies high up on a
shelf in the barber shop. “My wife says I’m not allowed to bring
those back home!”
There is, however, one thing that might bring Beem out of
retirement.
“I told Mike McGuire that when he becomes governor of this
state, even if I’m old and decrepit, I’m gonna give him his
inaugural haircut,” Beem said.
And at least a few other customers aren’t letting him off the
hook—if not for a haircut, then just for a good old-fashioned
conversation.
“I’m sure in the after life, after Steve and his lovely bride
Nancy retire and go off and do all the things they want to do,
we’ll have plenty of time to get together and have a few laughs
over a glass of wine or beer at his place or ours,” Fagan said.
He added, “He tells me that the gentleman who’s replacing him is
excellent, and he’ll do a good job. I find it difficult to believe
that anyone could do as good a job as Steve did, but that’s just
me.”