Diane Reeves has done her share of mohawks over the past 32 years.
But most of Reeves' customers ask for business-style haircuts when they sit down in Haircutters, a fixture in the Reynolds Building in downtown Winston-Salem.
Her barbershop operates out of the basement of the landmark building at the corner of Main and Fourth streets. Her customers have included Reynolds American employees, bankers, doctors and lawyers, many of whom have patronized the shop for 30 years.
Today, Reeves will give her last haircut in the Reynolds Building. The shop is the last tenant in the building, which Reynolds plans to vacate in 2010.
When the Reynolds Building opened in 1929, various businesses occupied space there. According to a Reynolds fact sheet on the building, The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. used about 50 percent of the space. Originally, the lobby had a drugstore, bank, telegraph office, railway-ticket office and stockbroker. The company also leased space to a dentist, newsstand, barbershop, restaurant and law firms.
Reeves is moving her shop nearby -- to the Winston Towers building at 301 N. Main St. She will reopen there on Monday. Her customers will have to take an elevator since she'll be on the 14th floor in Suite 1401.
"I'll have windows for the first time in 32 years," Reeves said.
She said that the new location is close enough so that existing customers won't have to walk too far, and that some of her older customers won't have deal with steps anymore.
"It will be easier for them because they can park in the deck under the building and just take the elevator and come up," she said.
Still, Reeves said, she is going to miss the Reynolds Building. She said that it has been a good location for customers, and because her landlord's maintenance department always handled repairs or whatever she needed done for the shop.
"I'm going to miss coming into this grand old building," she said. "There's just not another building in Winston-Salem that looks like this. It's a beautiful building with the granite and the marble and brass."
Maura Payne, a Reynolds spokeswoman, said last week that company officials are talking to real-estate consultants for ideas on how the property might best be used in the future.
Reeves said that at least three other owners ran a barbershop in the building before she opened Haircutters.
It was Jimmy Voncannon who gave her a job in his barbershop in 1977, not long after she completed barber school. She worked alongside Voncannon and two other barbers. There was also a manicurist and shoeshiner in the shop.
This made for tight quarters at times, she said, with three people often working on a customer at once.
"It took me a while to get used to it because the manicurist would sit on one side of the chair and the shoeshine guy was right in front of you, so you were working around them," Reeves said.
Reeves bought the business in 1992 from Voncannon, who retired after operating a shop in the building for 25 years. At the time, the business was known as Reynolds Building Barber Shop; it was later renamed Reynolds Haircutters. Reeves is now the sole employee in the shop.
Customers, the majority of whom are men, said they plan to follow Reeves to her new location.
Randy Tompson, who works in public affairs for Reynolds American, has been a customer for more than 30 years.
"I came because it was close, and they've always offered good value down here and a very high-quality hair cut," he said. He joked that when it rains , he is especially going to miss having a barbershop in the Reynolds Building.
"I'll have to go outside the building," he said.
Tompson said that the move is a good opportunity for Reeves, whom he considers a friend, because the population in the Reynolds Building and the newer Plaza Building, which is connected to it, have declined recently.
Reeves estimated that in the early 1980s, she averaged 18 to 20 appointments a day, compared with 15 a day now.
"It varies from day to day," she said. "There are a lot of people I've lost because of having to move and losing their jobs," she said.
"Of course, being there 32 years, you've had some customers die, too."
■ Fran Daniel can be reached at 727-7366 or at fdaniel@wsjournal.com.
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