Dapper Dan's Hair Cuts
Freshen yourself up for another jolly day on Main Street with a trim and a shave in the relaxing hideaway of Dapper Dan's Hair Cuts, a classic 1900s barber shop!
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A Unique Experience
How many theme parks can offer you an early 20th Century-style shave and hair cut during your day out? But this is no "theme park" - this is Main Street, U.S.A., a living and breathing slice of small-town America in the booming early 1900s. Smiles and neatly-trimmed hair cuts are all the rage!
Dapper Dan's Hair Cuts offers shaves and hair cuts on most days each week - ask at the barber shop itself or at City Hall for further imformation or to book. You'll enjoy personal treatment and a moment of pure relaxation amidst the hustle and bustle on the busy streets outside - not to mention plenty of time to take in the incredible details and hidden touches filling every inch of the dark wooden walls.
Fun Facts & Footnotes
Disneyland Park in Paris and Magic Kingdom in Florida are the only two "magic kingdom-style" parks to feature a barber shop.
Most pre-opening materials for the park state the name of the shop as 'Harmony Barber Shop', the name of the original version at Magic Kingdom. It is believed, however, that Paris' version was named 'Dapper Dan's Hair Cuts' right from 12th April 1992.
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The Dapper Dans' History
Walt Disney and his early Imagineers wanted Main Street U.S.A. to be an optimistic and lively introduction to their "Disneyland" - a land not too far from reality, yet still a perfect bridge to the fantasy which lies beyond. Realism and pure joy were the key, and the American tradition of Barbershop harmony quartets seemed a perfect way to bring that to life. In 1957, Disneyland's head of entertainment, Tommy Walker, made a call to park talent supervisor Chuck Corson requesting a Barbershop Quartet for Main Street. Chuck called upon old friends from his previous work as Stage Manager for the Fred Waring Chorale and the original Dapper Dans were found - John Borneman (tenor), Roger Axworthy (lead), T.J. Marker (bass) and Ted Nichols (baritone).
It was this original quartet who established the 'Dapper Dans tradition' over their many years at Disneyland, a tradition which has continued right up to today with countless new stars and talented singers over the years of entertainment. They regularly perform on their unique, custom 4-seater Schwinn bicycle specially ordered for the group by Walt Disney in 1962. A reproduction of this bicycle can be seen in Paris near the Kitty Hawn Bicycle Shop façade opposite Discovery Arcade.
And the barber shop itself? This tradition didn't actually begin until 1971 and the opening of Magic Kingdom at the new Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The park's Main Street features a 'Harmony Barber Shop' with light and bright decor, very different to the older and more substantial dark woods of Dapper Dan's Hair Cuts in Paris. A new quartet of Dapper Dans brought their voices to the Magic Kingdom, and more recently a fourth group performs at Hong Kong Disneyland. Though Disneyland Park in Paris featured a harmony quartet for many of its early years, under the name of 'The Main Street Quartet', they were ultimately lost to financial constraints in the mid-to-late 1990s.
The Dapper Dan's Hair Cuts shop itself has faced closure on several occasions, but so far saved each time to allow more generations get a unique feel for the days of yesteryear.
