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GENERAL INFORMATION

Barbershops PA Stylin' BARBERSHOPS: PA Stylin'

Available online on-demand!
(requires windows media player)
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Premiered October 6 on WQED
What's the proper technique for shaving a customer with a straight razor? What do the red, white and blue stripes of a barber pole symbolize? And what makes a haircut extra crispy? The answer to these and other questions can be found in the new special "Barbershops: PA Stylin'."

Chris Moore and Maxamillion Wells
Left:
Host Chris Moore talks to Maxamillion Wells, owner of Maxamillion's Gentleman's Quarter's on Chestnut
St. in Philadelphia.

This new hour-long documentary is produced by WQED Multimedia, with funding from the Pennsylvania Public Television Network. The special premieres Thursday, October 6 at 8 pm. (It repeats Friday, October 7th at 1am and Sunday, October 9th at 5pm).

Right:
Champ Hall's barbershop
in Lancaster, PA

"Barbershops: PA Stylin'" takes a loving look at the cultural importance of barbershops in the African American community. The special is hosted and narrated by Chris Moore, who also co-hosts WQED's nightly news magazine OnQ, as well as Black Horizons - the nation's longest running minority affairs program. WQED produced the first special "Barbershop" in 2003, focusing on Pittsburgh barbers and their customers. "PA Stylin'" focuses on barbers of color from Pittsburgh to Philly, and many places in between.

Left:
Memorabilia inside Philadelphia's Maxamillion's Gentleman's
Quarter.

As Moore and his crew traveled the state, they found many similarities between the hit Hollywood film "Barbershop" and the vibrancy in real life barbershops. Mainly, that the shops are and always have been places where black men could feel free to discuss anything and everything – without the interference and censorship found in other public forums. Politics, romance, race relations and hair care are discussed with the honesty and humor that keeps generations of men snug in their elevated barber's chairs while the rest of the world visits their stylists.

Chatting with customers
Left:
"PA Stylin'" host Chris Moore (far left) chats with
customers waiting for a trim inside Maxamillion's
Gentleman's Quarters in downtown Philly.

The barbershops featured in "PA Stylin'" are:

Pittsburgh: Willie T's, Fred Tait's, the Natural Choice
Johnstown: Deacon Samuel Hart
Lancaster: Champ Hall's Barber School and Champ Hall's Barbershop
Reading: Charlie Hayne's Barber School
Philadelphia: Maxamillion's Gentleman's Quarters and The Original Pretty Boyz

"More than just a shave and a haircut," said producer Minette Seate, "‘Barbershops: PA Stylin'' is a funny, touching, irreverent and respectful look at the people who are making the world a better place, one haircut at a time."

"Barbershops: PA Stylin'" is made possible by a grant from the Pennsylvania Public Television Network. The network receives funding from the Commonwealth to provide public television for all Pennsylvanians.

statewide airdates:
WLVT [Bethlehem]
Sunday, October 9, 3 p.m.

WHYY [Philly]
Tuesday, October 25, 9 p.m

WQLN [Erie]
Thursday, October 13, 9 p.m.

WITF [Harrisburg]
hopefully sometime in Dec. 2005

WYBE [Also Philly]
Thursday, January 5, 9 p.m.,
Friday, January 6, 4 a.m. and 10 a.m.,
Monday., January 9, 12:30 a.m.