Local News: Hair Stylist Goes ‘Short’ for Customer With Cancer

Hair Stylist Goes ‘Short’ for Customer With Cancer
By Alan Nieschwietz (Staff Reporter)

From the Brenham Banner-Press

He used to have hair down to the middle of his back, but now he’s sporting a buzz cut that would make a drill sergeant proud.

And normally, that’s not news, but when it’s Tony Palacios, a longtime hair stylist at Salon Straight Ahead who apparently has more than a few fans, the newspaper office tends to get a few phone calls.

In and of itself, just changing a hairstyle wouldn’t be such a big deal, but what made people take notice is that Palacios decided to shave his hair off and donate it to Locks of Love as a gesture of support for a friend of his who is going through treatment for cancer.

“I started growing my hair out at the age of 40-something, and I’m 55 now,” he said, but strangely enough, commented that the drastic change in appearance didn’t really bother him.

“It wasn’t odd because I did it for a good cause,” he said.

“I’m 55 years old, and I’ve never been sick a day in my life,” he said. “It’s a way of sharing the blessing of health.”

Way back when, when he began to skip a haircut or two, he said he didn’t really make a conscious decision to go for that look, that it just happened sort of naturally.

But now, looking back on it, he said “it’s almost like God was making me grow my hair for a reason.”

He said that he what he did was something of a takeoff on the qualities of Samson, the hero from the Bible who derived his strength from his hair, only “now that I’ve shaved it off, I’ve got more strength.”

There’s a certain amount of irony in the fact that the haircut he now has is probably his least favorite, but is also probably one of the ones he performs the most.

“There’s no style to them,” he said, “I’ve done more clipper cuts in Brenham than anywhere else, it’s as if people just don’t want to comb their hair.”

He said if he wants to, growing his hair back out won’t be a problem, and added that this is actually his second time to donate hair, the last being about eight years ago.

“There’s no baldness in my family. My father had a full head of hair and my mother had gorgeous hair,” he said.

Although the foot and a half of hair he cut off isn’t going directly to his friend, whom he declined to name to respect her privacy — Locks of Love uses the hair it receives to make low-cost or free wigs for people with illnesses — it is going to someone who will need it.

This donation isn’t the first time Palacios has been involved with charities. On the wall of his salon he has several plaques he was awarded for his work with various cancer-related charities, a disease that has impacted both his friends and family.

Even though he didn’t want to say his friend’s name, he was specific in mentioning that she worked with law enforcement personnel in the area and that they would know her, and he said he wanted to challenge them to shave their hair off as well as a show a support for her.

So how long has Palacios been cutting hair?

“Since this morning,” he said with a straight face — the customer whose hair he was cutting obviously got the joke because he cracked a grin — “no, I’ve been licensed about 30 years.”

Being a trained as a hair stylist was apparently the thing to do in his family because he also had three sisters and two brothers go to cosmetology school, but he said none of the sisters went on to get their license and now there is only just one brother in the business.

Palacios said he didn’t actually start out wanting to be a hair stylist, but that after his first choice didn’t pan out, it was an option that was strongly suggested by his parents.

“I went to the university (University of Texas-Pan American) and didn’t do well, so they said ‘go learn to cut hair,’” he said.

His work as stylist, which has taken him from his hometown of Harlingen, to Corpus Christi and then on to Houston before arriving here, hasn’t been his only line of work.

He spent a period of time as a bookmaker, at his brother’s shop in Houston, and went on to design and make a pair of boots in honor of the Texas Sesquicentennial that were based on the Texas flag and present them to then vice president George Bush who accepted the gift for President Ronald Reagan.

He said that he’s even dabbled as an inventor, with one patent to his credit and another one that’s going through the process.

“I invented a bib lap-top tray for children (for children to use in the car), I never got it on the market, but I did get the patent,” he said.

As far as outside interests go, Palacios says “I love my Corvettes,” of which he has two, an ‘82 model and a 1978 silver anniversary edition.

He said he got hooked on that model when he was a kid.

“I was hitchhiking back in college and I got picked up by a Corvette, and from then on, I fell in love with them,” he said.

He added that as much as he likes them, their for sale.

“I’ve had both of them for about seven years, but it’s gets expensive trying to fix them,” he said.

Palacios said that being a good hair stylist is as much about being able to listen and talk with customers as it is about cutting hair.

“You listen and share things,” he said, “and I’m a good listener.”

Published on Monday, June 30, 2008