Outside the L.A. Pittenger Student Center, 60-degree weather is slowly giving in to chilling winds, but inside, Benny Benefiel is doing the same thing he’s done for 50 years.
“Benny the Barber” stands with a pair of scissors in one hand and a comb in the other as he styles a client’s hair. The soundtrack to his steady work is oldies music, softly playing from speakers that only occasionally drowns out the sharp sound of his clippers.
Loose pieces of fallen hair surround Benefiel. He and his customer are on their own little island, talking about everything from family to sports.
Benefiel has lived in Muncie his whole life. He raised his family here and watched the area change as new industries were created and others fell.
For many of those years, he’s worked in the barbershop in the basement Student Center.
But it all ends soon. Benefiel will be retiring on July 1.
Story continues after this video.
Becoming a Barber
Benefiel started barber school two days after he graduated from high school.
He moved to Indianapolis to attend an Indiana barber college. It took him nearly a year to complete barber school. The training was extensive — Benefiel had to learn all the muscles and nerves of the head, as well as how to cut hair.
Afterward, he moved back to Muncie and worked for an older barber, Red Coron, as an apprentice for two and a half years.
After they closed on the first day of work, Coron turned to Benefiel and said, “Do you want to make a living with this trade?”
Benefiel answered with a yes.
“Well, I want you to forget half the things they showed you in barber school, and I’m going to show you how to make a living with this trade,” Coron said.
Coron was a character, Benefiel said, but nevertheless, he took Benefiel under his wing and showed him how to be a barber and how to run a business.
Coron died due to health problems shortly after Benefiel stopped working for him, but Benefiel still uses his advice.
Coming to Ball State
Ball State’s barbershop opened in 1961. Benefiel started working there four years later.
It was July 4. Benefiel was just 21.
He saw an advertisement for the job in the newspaper. It offered him health insurance, paid vacations and sick leave. The benefits looked pretty good to Benefiel.
After a while, the university offered him the opportunity to lease the barbershop, otherwise the shop would have been closed.
As a result of agreeing to the lease, the university let Benefiel have complete and total control over how to run the shop.
“They pretty much just leave me alone and let me run the shop. They let me do what I think is good for this business, and that’s worked out real good,” Benefiel said.
Benefiel has occasionally worked alongside other men, but for the most part, he’s been alone — himself, his instruments and the basement barbershop.
Working with clients
Benefiel said the key to success in the barber business is building a relationship with the customers.
He likes meeting people and getting to know everyone. Many customers have been coming to the barbershop for over 40 years, and Benefiel said he enjoys watching old clients come back with their children.
The students, faculty and members of the Muncie community are all welcome to visit Benefiel for a haircut.
Kelly Clark, a sophomore special education major, works in an office across from Benefiel. She said she sees all sorts of people visit the barbershop.
“I think it’s really special that, because of him, people from the Muncie community feel comfortable coming to Ball State,” she said.
Devin Summan, a junior communications major, has been going to Benefiel for a haircut every month since the beginning of his freshman year.
There are several things he likes about Benefiel and his barbershop: its convenient location, Benefiel’s welcoming demeanor and the methods he uses. Benefiel uses a real razor to get the hair off Summan’s neck and he applies aftershave once he is finished.
“That’s the sign of a true barber,” Summan said.
Summan is particular about his hair, but he’s always been satisfied with Benefiel’s handiwork.
He isn’t the only one. Summan’s dad, Denny Summan, drove a little over an hour from Connersville, Ind., with Devin to visit Benefiel.
Denny has a barber he visits back home, but the experience is “in and out,” he said.
“With [Benefiel], it was like an event,” Denny said.
Denny cannot visit Benefiel whenever he wants, but he’s determined to get one more haircut with the barber before he retires.
Gone fishing
Benefiel has chosen to retire for personal reasons.
When his contract expired this year, he approached Bruce Morgan, the director of Student Center programs, and told him that the Summer 2016 semester might be his last.
A few months ago, his answer became more definite. Benefiel would be moving on from the barbershop.
Morgan has known Benefiel for almost 31 years.
“Everybody’s happy for [Benefiel] to be ready to retire, but everybody hates to see him go,” Morgan said.
But just as quietly as Benefiel carries out his daily duties, the process to find his replacement has begun.
It will be hard to do — Benefiel is one of a kind, Devin said.
Perhaps keeping that in mind, Morgan would like to find a different kind of operator to take over Benefiel’s shop. Morgan is interested in turning it into a salon — a space with different services that could suit the needs of more students.
But Benefiel will be long gone by the time that happens — razors out of his reach and thoughts of hair far from his head. He thinks he’ll spend his retirement fishing — possibly in Georgia.
He is still uncertain about where the next phase of his life is leading him.
“Right now, I feel like I just want to enjoy these next eight and a half months,” he said. “Retirement is kind of the next step, and I’ll look at that when the time comes."
Danielle Grady contributed to this article
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