The Barber Shoppe owner Brenda Gordon remembers a time when her father’s barber shop looked like a scene straight from “Mad Men,” the 1960s upperclass New York drama on AMC.

“There were ‘Playboy’ magazines and that kind of ‘low key’ porn on the walls,” Gordon recalls. “I came in and said ‘No, no, the ‘Playboys’ got to go.’”

Now, after 50 years of changes – mostly good – Gordon believes her father would be proud of the family-owned business he started in the 1960s.

Bill Bitz, who died last year at 86, started the first Kirkland-area barbershop in 1962. Bitz Barber Shop was located in a tiny portable in the Houghton area before he sold and moved it, to become one of the first businesses in the original Juanita Village in June 1964.

Bitz and his brother Joe operated the barbershop near the “PX Sooper Market,” near the northwest corner.

Gordon recalls “Juanita was not much of anything,” at first.

Then in 1977, Gordon graduated from Folks Barber College in Renton after taking top honors in the American Master Barbers Association Western Competition. She soon went to work at Bitz Barber Shop by incorporating her knowledge of how to style long hair.

“Men just wore the basic crew cut, flat top, we used to do shaves,” Gordon said. “Then long hair came and my dad survived through that. That was the time I graduated from barber school in the 70s. I filled that long hair void.”

She said the generation switch of men preferring longer hair to shaves was just one of many changes the barbershop has gone through.

Staying strong through the various recessions, Gordon made the “gentlemen’s club” atmosphere more women and kid friendly by throwing away risqué magazines and banning smoking.

“It was like ‘Mad Men,’ smoking right in front of the client, the ashtray on the counter, burnt marks on the counter, ash trays in the barber chairs and dad in his vest and bow ties,” she said.

In 1993, Bitz semi-retired and handed over the business to Gordon, who worked with him side by side for more than 20 years. Bitz officially left the shop in 1997 after he fell from a tree in a tree-trimming accident.

The Juanita Village revamp in the early 2000s was symbolic for Bitz Barber Shop.

“We watched that building get destroyed when they built the new Juanita Village,” Gordon said. “We opened it and closed it.”

Once again, the barber shop business were the first ones in Juanita Village but they had moved to the southwest corner from the northwest.

And with the move in August 2002 came the name change: The Barber Shoppe.

“It gave me a chance to expand and for me to make it my own,” she said. “I did love that because if I didn’t, I’d still feel in the shadows of the old barbershop. It gave me a chance to be who I was.”

Gordon’s barbershop is now housed with antique barber chairs from the early 1900’s and a handcrafted cherrywood backbar to create that “old time nostalgic theme.”

Gordon said the revamp has been a positive change for all of the Juanita Village businesses by creating foot traffic in a happy and beautiful place.

“We have been told by people walking by and our customers, that our barbershop is the cleanest and [most] beautiful shop they have ever been in,” she said. “When children walk by with their parents, we hand out lollipops and dog treats for the dogs.”

The Barber Shoppe is open seven days a week and includes the experience of a true gentlemen’s barbershop, according to Gordon, which includes neck shaving, straight razor shaves with a hot towel and lather. But this barbershop also caters to women and children, with two cosmetologists on staff among three experienced barbers.

Gordon said she signed her family-owned business under another five-year lease but because she doesn’t have children, it will have to be bought somewhere along the line.

“Maybe when I’m 60, I might adopt somebody,” she laughs.

But until then, she hopes the business continues to be a traditional place for men to go meet and “get out of the chore list” during a time when “it’s a different world now.”

For more information, visit www.thebarbershoppe.com.

Barber Khalid doing a shave at The Barber Shoppe. Khalid got his experience from working in the military base barber shops to high-end men’s shaving salons. His expertise is the hot towel hot lather straight razor shave and gentlemen’s haircuts. CONTRIBUTED