You get into one of Farmer's funky antique barber chairs to get sheared, but it puts you in a front row seat for a show. The menagerie of posters, signs, jerseys and bric-a-brac form a backdrop that reflects Farmer's taste and toast to life, and the walls, floors and furniture form the stage on which he and his fellow stylists perform.
No wonder they seem to get a bang out of trimming bangs while they hope their audience - that is, their customers - get a bang for their hair care bucks.
"I suppose the name of the shop is pretty appropriate to my outlook, on what I do here, on life in general," says Farmer, a 32-year-old Boyle Countian. "I like to cut up and have fun, and this place, the looks of it and the way we work, reflects that."
College produced a career
The fun apparently began for Farmer right after he graduated from Boyle County High School in 1990. The son of Ervin and Brenda Farmer went to Cumberland College, then transferred to the University of Kentucky. His brief stay in college did not result in a degree, but it did produce a career.
"When I was at Cumberland, I went to a barbershop in Williamsburg where there were these guys named Lester and Bird. Lester would sing and whistle while using an old straight razor on your face, and it was covered with warm lather," Farmer says. "You'd get a great cut, a shave and a head message for just $4."
When he went to Lexington to attend UK, he found the price for just haircuts double and triple what he paid in Williamsburg and not nearly as good. He and his roommate, fellow Boyle grad Clay Campbell, had an idea.
"We got a pair of clippers and started cutting each other's hair," says Farmer. "We charged $2 a cut, and their tip, if you want to call it that, was sweeping their own hair."
He cut as many classes as he did heads and decided it was time to leave college.
"I had no major and no real interest in college. I decided it was time to take a year off," he says.
That year turned into the rest of his life. Farmer got a job at a Danville car wash. He also continued developing his clipping skills.
"I cut hair on my parents' carport," he says. "Same deal: you pay $2 and sweep up your own hair."
Farmer landed a job at Lowe's, one he worked and enjoyed for several years.
He became a licensed cosmetologist
In his spare time, he responded to his friend Campbell's encouragement and, at age 20, entered Durham Beauty School in Danville. After 1,800 hours of study, an apprenticeship and passing a state test, he became a licensed cosmetologist.
"As a cosmetologist, I have the training to do more than a licensed barber, to handle all facets of hair care, from cuts to permanents to dyes, and then a lot more, like manicuring nails," he says. "But other than a couple of manicures, I've basically stuck to hair."
Farmer had a license. Now he needed a place to use it. His mother came through 10 years ago when she opened Still Cuttin' Up and put her son in charge of it.
Since then, Farmer has been joined by three full-time and three part-time stylists. In the meantime, the client list has grown as fast as the mish-mash of sports memorabilia and other old items that Farmer has used to decorate the place.
The barber chairs are 75 to 100 years old. The walls are decorated with football jerseys and basketball shirts from Danville and Boyle County high schools and the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville, including a UK jersey, worn by former Admiral star Chase Harp.
Farmer has sculpted designs of Danville, Boyle, UK and U of L logos into the scalps of numerous fans of those programs. For the record, the hair sculptor is a U of L fan, a fact that provides constant fodder between the few Card fans and many UK fans, along with the Danville-Boyle rivalry.
Proud of his diverse clientele
The variety of the decor and hair styles is matched by the diversity of the clientele, and Farmer is "very proud" of that fact.
