For its 100th anniversary in L.A., Oakley’s Barbershop in Westwood of course couldn’t turn back the clock – but stepping into the storefront, it didn’t necessarily need to do so.
Festooned upon its walls are myriad historic photos of the barbershop and those who cut hair in its chairs. Some date back to the operation’s 1898 origins in Springville, Utah. Many more showcase the operation’s evolution from when it entered downtown Los Angeles in 1925 and made the move to what is now Westwood Village by 1929.
The shop’s prices were certainly dialed back for its 100th anniversary celebration, when one could get a cut for 50 cents in 1925.
When Bert Oakley, a third-generation barber, moved from Salt Lake City to L.A. and used his $450 life savings to open a two-seat barbershop, the family business had already survived the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920. Oakley’s Barbershop, now under the ownership of Clinton Schudy, survived its second pandemic after Covid-19 hit in 2020.
“I feel very lucky that we’ve been around this long,” Schudy said. “I know that a lot of places closed during the pandemic and didn’t reopen. We’re fortunate that we actually made it and we’re still here.”
Oakley’s two-seater barber shop was originally positioned across from UCLA’s original campus on Vermont Avenue.
When the university moved to its present location and the Janss Investment Corp. began planning Westwood Village, Oakley too relocated. This time, it moved to a 10-chair storefront on Broxton Avenue, with the benefit of six months of free rent. He then brought brother James Oakley into the operation by 1930.
In 1947, the brothers upgraded by moving to a two-story location nearby – still on Broxton Avenue – that sported 26 chairs used by 31 employees. It was billed at the time as the largest barbershop west of Chicago and hailed by Time Magazine as “the world’s swankiest tonsorial parlor,” according to a proclamation by the City of Los Angeles. James Oakley’s son, Larry, joined the operation after serving as a Merchant Marine in World War II.
Larry Oakley eventually opened a second Oakley’s location in 1957 on Gayley Avenue. That location, the sole left in the business, remains in operation to this day as the oldest barbershop in L.A.
Larry Oakley continued to run the operation until his death in 2008. Schudy, who began cutting hair at Oakley’s in 1990 and became its manager in 2000, acquired ownership of the business following Larry’s death.
Over the years, Oakley’s has amassed a dedicated clientele.
The so-called “Barbershop to the Stars” once cut hair for Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Shirley Temple and Howard Hughes. More contemporary, filmmaker J.J. Abrams, actor Jennifer Garner and stuntman Vince Deadrick Jr. have gotten coiffed at Oakley’s in recent years.
More meaningfully, Schudy remembers when he first cut one 48-year-old client’s hair – when he was 13. Another longtime client first walked into Oakley’s when he was a sophomore at UCLA. Last year, Schudy cut that man’s oldest son ahead of his own college graduation.
That personal touch, Schudy said, is what’s going to keep barbershops like Oakley’s around for another hundred years.
“I think people always want to feel like they have connection and they have some place to go and see people. Because it’s not just a service, per se – it’s actually part it’s a social experience – I think those will always live the test of time,” he said. “I think you may change how you do certain things or you may have improved equipment, but I still say that people really enjoy and want to experience the social interaction of a barbershop.”
Zane Hill
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