Murphy – Samantha Cook knew her vocation by age 3 while hanging out inside her family’s barbershop.
“I would go to work with my dad and grandfather instead of day care. When there were no customers in the shop, I would tell my grandfather it is time for his haircut,” Cook said. “Dad then handed me the clippers and taught me how to use them correctly.”
She was always proud of her work – not knowing that when she finished, her dad would shave Paw Paw so “he would not have to go out looking like he had the mange.”
Cook added, “I would cut Paw Paw’s hair a few days a week, so he was bald for the remainder of his life.”
As much as she loved cutting hair, Cook said the family atmosphere kept her in the career for more than 15 years.
“My favorite thing was working with dad,” she said. “I love working with family because you are surrounded by people you can trust.”
Cook is an anomaly in the barbershop business, a traditionally male territory. But not for her family.
“My grandmother, also a barber, gave me inspiration,” Cook said. “She would tell me that a woman can barber just as good, if not better than a man if trained properly.”
However, not everyone agreed with her grandmother.
“There were some difficult times earlier in my career, where men did not want to sit in my chair, “ Cook said, “but I also understood they have had some bad experiences with beauticians who cannot use the clipper correctly.”
Cook was not among them. Trained by her grandmother and father, she became an expert in her field.
“Dad taught me that a head of hair is a canvas,” she said. “We use a clipper, where artists use a brush. I have the required skills for me to be successful in a man’s work environment.”
She said some of her customers are still surprised when they admire her work after a cut.
“Women are not known for their barbering skills, but to see the surprise and a big smile on a customer’s face when I am finished is priceless,” Cook said.
Perhaps because the barbershop represents familiarity and family, Cook prefers it to working in a salon.
“But also,” she added, “there is no drama!”
Perhaps there is no drama in a barbershop, but there is no shortage of gossip.
“Barbershops provide what we like to call ‘unedited news.’ ” This is according to Cook’s father, Darrin “Hollywood” Wright, and he ought to know.
Wright spent 42 years of his life working as a barber along side his mother and father. It was fate that placed him in that career.
Like his daughter, it happened early in his life, when he followed his parents into the profession at age 16. His younger brother followed shortly after.
When Wright opened Hollywood Barbershop in Murphy, it wasn’t long before Cook joined him, continuing the family tradition. The father-daughter duo cut hair together for 13 years, until Hollywood retired this year. But retirement doesn’t fully suit him.
“Everyday is a Saturday,” he said, “although there have been requests for me to cut hair in Georgia. So it could be just semi-retirement. At 57 years of age, I can still do a few heads without calling it work.” Wright’s penchant to keep busy is what prompted him to become a law enforcement officer in the 1980s. The family hair-cutting business was thriving; they had three shops open at the time.
“Law enforcement was something I did when I wanted to and not intended as a career,” Wright said.
While he enjoyed serving his community as an officer, he felt better suited in service at the barbershop. “Observing what law enforcement has become,” he added, “I made the right career choice.”
One of Wright’s deepest pleasures was watching his daughter grow into the business.
“My daughter is the third generation of barbers in my family,” he said. “Working with Samantha and watching her develop into the successful barber she has become is very rewarding.”
Although he sometimes found it challenging to not step in when he saw her making mistakes.
“Watching her make mistakes and learn life’s lessons, without interfering too much, was difficult,” he said.
Working with his daughter wasn’t the only thing that kept Wright happy in his career.
“I like talking with my customers and the challenge that comes with cutting hair,” he said, adding jokingly, “Barbers do not gossip like beauticians do. Well, barbers do gossip, but we sit around and talk truth,” he said with a laugh. “We just can’t prove it.”
Out of the 20,000 barbers in the United States, Cook represents part of the 25 percent who are women. This makes Murphy’s Mountain Barbershop, where Cook works alongside Billie Cook and Angie Dockery, an anomaly.
However, to Cook it’s just family business as usual.