New beauty salon offers a touch of the past Grandpa’s barbershop recreated within

SANGERVILLE – Kenneth Rollins has his own time warp where he can walk from the present into the past by moving through two small rooms in his Main Street business.

The Abbot man recently opened a full-service beauty salon called Then and Now, which features an old-fashioned barbershop and a modern-day beauty salon in adjoining rooms.

The “Then” portion of the business is dedicated to Rollins’ namesake, his grandfather Kenneth Albee, who operated a barber shop some 50 years ago in the same location.

Rollins and his wife, Diane, have made every effort to recreate Albee’s barbershop down to the same color detail on the fancy tin walls and ceilings.

Patrons are seated in an original 1903 Koken porcelain, red leather and nickel-plated barber chair found rusting in a cellar of a home. Rollins disassembled the chair and hand-delivered the fancy scroll work to a Canadian firm where the nickel parts were restored. An ornamental parlor stove is nestled in a corner of the room and an antique cash register sits atop an antique cabinet.

“We tried to keep this so when somebody stepped in here it would be very similar to what it was in those early barber days,” Rollins said Monday. The only thing missing is the red and white striped barber pole that once graced the small building and the pool table that used to provide entertainment in the back room.

“So many things have fallen into place,” to make the transition a smooth one, Rollins said. And there have been as many coincidences. When Rollins flipped over his open sign this month, his first customer was his father-in-law, Alvin Adams of Abbot, who was the last person to have a haircut in the building before it was converted into a chain saw repair shop and later into a pizza parlor.

“It looked good,” Adams commented Monday about the hair cut. Like he did for the previous barber, he said he asked Rollins to “take a little off the top and sides.”

Rollins is happy with the support he has received from local people. “Before now, I’ve never had a job that when I get up in the morning I look forward to work, and I really do now,” he said.

Operating a beauty shop wasn’t something Rollins had initially planned to do in life; rather, it was borne out of necessity. He had served small businesses with their insurance needs for the past 12 years, but because the cost of insurance rose so dramatically in recent years, many of his customers could no longer afford to carry the benefit. He realized then that he had to make a career change.

It was the recollections of his grandfather standing in front of a bank of mirrors snipping at heads of hair and the banter that ensued that played a hand in the direction his future took, Rollins said. Standing now at a similar bank of mirrors, Rollins can see the veterans war memorial across the highway where his grandfather and father-in-law are the first two names listed under WWII.

When Rollins made the plunge to become a barber, he found that Maine had no barber schools. To learn the trade he had to go to a school of cosmetology, which initially caused him to briefly reconsider. “That scared me,” the 51-year-old man admitted.

Rollins selected an Augusta school and commuted daily weekdays from Abbot to complete the 1,500-hour course.

As he was nearing completion of his studies, Rollins noticed that the former barbershop in Sangerville was for sale. He inquired and ended up purchasing it. Coincidentally, the man who owned the building, Charles MacArthur, resided in the same house where Kenneth Albee had lived.

In another twist, in his search for barbershop memorabilia, Rollins purchased a train collector’s model of a barbershop and pool hall from an Illinois resident. When the item arrived, Rollins found that the model was made by a Sangerville firm and was fashioned after the Sangerville building.

Just as her husband was getting into his new career, Diane found herself without a job after 19 years of service at Guilford of Maine. Deciding that she could help out in the business, she studied at the Augusta school and learned how to become a nail technician and pedicurist to offer extended services to local customers.

That is where the Now shop fits into the business theme. Diane’s services are provided in a tastefully decorated back room that offers two cushioned booths where patrons can sit and place their feet into state-of-the-art whirlpool pedicure sinks. The amenities include a glass of wine or sparkling cider and a scenic window view of the Piscataquis River.

Rollins is sure that if his grandfather were alive, he would approve of the couple’s efforts.

“It’s meant a lot to me to have this place,” Rollins said.

An open house is planned at the new business from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 4.

The business telephone is 876-4309.