Barber Sets World Record for Haircuts at a Fast Clip : Santa Clarita: Wynn Walter snipped and styled the heads of 133 people in 24 hours to raise funds for domestic violence victims.

Others have bounced on pogo sticks, married each other dozens of times and even eaten bicycles to make the book. Wynn Walter used his barber’s shears to prove he is a cut above.

The 34-year-old Santa Clarita resident snipped his way into the Guinness Book of Records on Sunday by setting the world’s record for giving the most haircuts in 24 hours. He trimmed, styled--and shaved bare in one case--the heads of 133 men and boys who volunteered to be a part of history.

Walter said he performed the haircut marathon primarily as a fund-raiser and gathered nearly $10,000 in pledges for the Assn. to Aid Victims of Domestic Violence. But, he admitted, he has also been a fan of the Guinness book since childhood.

“Actually, the record I always was interested in breaking was for the world’s biggest sport-caught fish,” he said, adding that the record at the time was a 2,666-pound great white shark.

Walter began his haircutting effort at 12:30 p.m. Saturday inside a giant tent at the Santa Clarita Valley Business Expo. He kept a relatively low profile among the dozens of other booths. Walter’s subjects waited in groups of twos and threes to receive their free haircuts.

His fiancee, Debbie Shreve, kept track of the customers, passed out domestic violence literature from a display table and kept a cellular phone nearby to wake early morning volunteers. Walter’s father, Manny, who cuts hair for $30 a head at the Beverly Hills Hilton, swept hair off the floor and put aprons on the new arrivals.

Walter started with plenty of adrenaline, cutting six or seven heads an hour and trading jokes with those in the chairs. He teased 19-year-old Alan Schwartz that he would turn his shoulder-length do into a crew cut.

“I don’t even want to hear the sound of that razor,” Schwartz retorted. Instead, he opted for a trim and, after a parting handshake from Walter, said the cut was worth twice the $10 the barber would have charged at his old-fashioned Canyon Country shop.

“It’s the American dream,” Schwartz said. “I’m becoming part of the world’s record for free and I’m getting rid of my split ends at the same time.”

Walter took his first break, a brief trip to the restroom, at 6:30 p.m. as the rest of the business expo vendors headed home. After six hours at the chair, though, Walter didn’t have quite the same spring in his clip. Filling several empty slots in the wee hours of the morning was a growing concern.

“There isn’t anybody else whose going to wander by now and sign up,” he said.

But a few pleasant surprises were still in store for Walter. Just before 1 a.m., five members of the Saugus High School varsity football team walked in and signed up for haircuts.

“We were at a party at a friend’s house,” said James Aardahl, 17, an offensive guard. He said his mother, who is president of the board of the domestic violence association, suggested during the afternoon they stop by when they had a chance.

Then there were the security guards.

Four or five of them were wandering around outside the tent, making sure no trespassers vandalized the cars or other items on display at the event. By dawn they were all sporting fresh haircuts.

“I’m going to go in there at about 3 a.m., or whenever they need me,” said Anthony Guatemala, patrolling the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift.

The guards lent their heads to Walter in more ways than one. At 3:20 a.m. the generator powering the lights and barber tools ran out of fuel in the middle of a haircut. Nobody had much experience filling and restarting generators, but 20 minutes later the lights were back on and the snipping resumed.

The temperature dropped into the 50s overnight and Walter’s fingers were ice-cold. His fiancee was shivering inside a heavy coat by the time the sun came up Sunday morning. At 6:30 a.m. the unthinkable happened--a man stood up to leave and nobody was left to take his place.

But within 15 minutes, the chair was occupied. And it stayed full throughout the morning.

“Did you have a good night’s sleep?” Walter asked his new customer.

“Fair, actually,” the man replied.

“Tell me all about it,” the sleepy barber said as he began trimming his 103rd head.

A few minutes later, 8-year-old Charles Spann walked in the door. His mother explained she signed up to have her son’s hair cut at dawn so he would look sharp for church at 8 a.m.

“I don’t like it because it’s freezing cold and I had to wake up when I didn’t want to,” Spann confided in a groggy voice. “I went to bed late last night and I wanted to sleep.”

Walter, fueled only by a few gulps of coffee and some fast food fed to him by his fiancee, slowed to three or four people an hour as the morning progressed. His hands were chafed with scissor marks, and his manner grew increasingly tense.

With an hour to go, he admitted: “I’m ready to quit.”

But at 12:10 p.m. he moved to a podium in front of the tent where hundreds gathered to watch him cut his final customer, Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce President Gary Johnson. What Johnson didn’t know until he took the stage was that his family, friends and co-workers had agreed to donate $400 if Walter shaved Johnson’s head.

“I haven’t had my head shaved since I was in the service 20 years ago, so this feels weird,” a cringing Johnson told the cheering crowd.

Finally, a few minutes before 12:30 p.m. Walter put down his clippers for the last time and sat limply on the edge of the podium, his work completed and record secure. But he vowed to try to break his own record next year--this time perhaps with a team of local barbers.

“Maybe we can get a competition going,” he said.