COSTA MESA : Barber’s Return Is Shear Pleasure

In his 35 years as a barber in the city, Amador Corona says he has cut as many heads of hair as there are “hairs on a dog.”

So it was no surprise that he was missed when cancer forced him to take a nearly yearlong hiatus from his shop. Earlier this month, he returned to work.

“I’m delighted,” said Harold Beibin, a client of Corona’s for the past 20 years. “Who else is going to cut my hair?”

Corona, 64, owns a traditional barbershop on 18th Street with his wife, Ethel, who is also a barber. He has been giving haircuts there since 1970, and for more than a decade before that, he worked at another shop in town.

In January, his lymphoma forced him to stop working, and until three weeks ago he had been too weak to return.

“The week before Father’s Day, doctors told my wife to make the (funeral) arrangements,” Corona said. “I was bleeding internally and I was getting transfusions, but here I am, thank God.”

In August, as a tribute and to encourage him in his fight against cancer, the City Council granted Ethel Corona’s request for permission to place a seven-inch brass star with Amador Corona’s name on it in the sidewalk in front of the shop.

“If somebody has been here for that long and as an active contributing member of the community, it’s nice to recognize them,” said Mayor Sandra L. Genis, who also gave him a certificate of recognition. “While they’re there, you take them for granted. It’s the people who work day to day that are the stars.”

Amador Corona is back at the shop eight hours a day. “Right now, I feel great,” he said. The cancer has been in remission for two months and he is gaining weight, but no one knows how long his improved health will continue.

“It’s hard to tell,” he said.

Now that he is back at the shop though, his customers are spreading the word.

“I’ve never stopped coming here,” said Beibin, who had Ethel Corona cut his hair during the past 11 months and recommends the shop to friends. “It’s comfortable, friendly and you hear the latest jokes. You leave here looking good and feeling better than when you came in.”