Six Barbershops That Make the Cut

Alot of fuss has been made recently about the propriety of John Edwards's two $400 Beverly Hills haircuts. But for many guys, the real controversy was the quality of the clip job: Edwards's pricey coif looks more like a decent $20 cut. Maybe he should've just visited the corner barbershop instead?

Abel Gaona, a barber at the Puglisi shop in Foggy Bottom, likes to tell the story of a regular customer who tried a high-end men's salon for a trim. Big mistake.

"I thought maybe his wife or somebody cut it . . . like to practice giving haircuts," recalls Gaona, who had the nervous regular in his chair minutes later. The fix -- a total do do-over -- cost $20, a third of the original sloppy chop.

When it comes to barbers, a good man -- or woman -- is hard to find. Here are six top barbershops for the next time you get a little shaggy.

Sneed's 8th & I

Even if you don't notice the barracks across the street, you know this is a place for Marines as soon as you walk in. The walls are decorated with a large USMC seal, signed portraits of Marine generals and a print of a watercolor depicting leathernecks rappelling from a helicopter.

Owner Robert Sneed, 69, has been giving Marines their high-and-tight cuts for nearly 30 years, first as the manager of the concession inside the barracks and in his own shop since 1986. "They've been good to me," says Sneed, who charges Marines less than half the regular price for their frequent haircuts. "You can't keep up with all the names," he says, "but faces -- I don't forget faces."

Sneed and all the other barbers at his shop do much more than the standard Marine cut -- properly called the "zero taper" -- and now civilians make up about 60 percent of the clientele. Sneed still gets a kick out of giving guys their first flattop: "It'll blow their mind."

749 Eighth St. SE, 202-544-2541. Cut: $15; Marines $7; other military, police, firemen and retired military $12; children $10. Beard trim: $7.

Eaton's Barber Shop

Anyone worried that U Street has lost its authenticity should check out Eaton's Barber Shop. It's a throwback that has been around for 25 years, and it's definitely part of an endangered species.

"Older men come in and ask if I still use a razor," says Leon Tyson, meaning a straight razor for shaves. He does, but now Tyson (everyone calls him Tyson), 76, uses straight razors with disposable blades, and increasingly they're being used to shave young people's heads, not their faces. Barbers who have been trained to do faces are disappearing fast.

Tyson moved here from North Carolina 50 years ago to learn how to barber at a trade school, and he has been cutting hair on and off ever since. After retiring from his job at the Government Printing Office 20 years ago, he decided, "I want to be my own boss one day." Now that he is, the boss seems pretty easy to please. "My stressful days are over," Tyson says.

If a customer walks in the door, Tyson gets right to work. Otherwise, he seems content to relax, listen to the radio and shoot the breeze with pals from the neighborhood.