Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Disney barber cuts hair while making memories
An unassuming storefront at Magic Kingdom mixes long-running tradition and snippets of hair at Walt Disney World. Every day, theme-park visitors and Central Florida residents get trims — and sometimes add glitter — at Harmony Barber Shop.
The three-chair shop, decorated in dark woods with a turn-of-the-century theme, is tucked away around the corner from Main Street USA. It’s been in operation since the park opened in 1971. Barbers perform 350 to 400 services a week there, Disney says.
Kids’ first haircuts are one of the specialties of the house.
Ricky Baez of Orlando took his son Sebastian, then 18 months old, to Harmony for his first cut. He bought the package that includes a mouse-ear hat with the first lock attached to the back. It was a busy time around Thanksgiving, and they ended up waiting three hours for Sebastian’s turn.
“I wanted it just for the novelty,” Baez said. “We happen to live 20 minutes from Disney. It’s a place where a lot of people save up for a long time to go to. … Why not just go to the best place on earth to get your first haircut?”
He came upon Harmony while looking for a restroom near the front of Magic Kingdom, he said. The shop, fronted by the traditional striped pole, is the old fire station building and a side entrance to the Emporium store.
“Until two months before, I never knew that place existed,” he said.
Families have lasting attachments to the barbershop, said Trish Marijanich, a 35-year cast member who’s manager of costuming and cosmetology experience planning and integration. She recalled twin girls who got their hair cut there at age 5, and came back when they turned 20, then 30 and 40 years old.
“These two women told us that it was very important for them that every time they visited Walt Disney World that they came to Harmony Barber Shop because they remembered — or maybe their parents showed them pictures of them — that first haircut,” Marijanich said.
Harmony’s barbers recently handled an unusual request. Britni Lane’s 1-year-old son, Memphis, died last year before his hair was long enough to need a cut. Lane and her family brought his ashes, contained in a memorial bear, to Magic Kingdom for some photographs and remembrances.
The barbers agreed to put the bear in the chair and give him — and by extension, Memphis — a trim and the Lanes a new set of memories.
“It was really sweet. They cried with me,” said Lane, who lives in Davenport, Fla. “They were very good to us.”
Lane had wanted Memphis to have an experience similar to that of one of his brothers, Lincoln, now 3, who had his first cut at Harmony.
“Getting him on the chair in the first place, he was a little apprehensive about it,” Lane said. “I think he actually ended up not wanting to leave the chair because then he had to give the toy back.”
Brian Hyde of Celebration has been going to Harmony for cuts for two years, and now he takes his 2-year-old son, Richard, there, too.
“That’s the only real barbershop he’s ever known,” Hyde said. Earlier cuts were done by his parents.
“It’s a good value,” he said. “We don’t have to battle with him in the kitchen while his mom cuts his hair.”
The Hyde system: Arrive at the park, sign up for a time at Harmony, then go watch the midafternoon Festival of Fantasy parade. Being at Disney helps keep meltdowns at bay, Hyde said.
“He’s at the Magic Kingdom; he’s having a great day,” he said.