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Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | life@gainesvilletimes.com
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gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, December 16, 2018
SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Felix Zuniga gives client Kevin Mederos a cut Wednesday, Dec. 12, at the Ivan Dominican Barbershop in Gainesville. Zuniga travels to Atlanta United’s training facility once a week to cut
the players’ and the coach’s hair. He’s the only barber that cuts at the facility and has quickly become a favorite here in Gainesville, too.
Fierce fades
Meet the local barber shaping
the looks of Atlanta United
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
Sitting outside Inman Perk Coffee on the
downtown Gainesville square, Felix Zuniga
scrolled through his Instagram messages, all
the way to the beginning of his conversations
with former Atlanta United forward Yamil
Asad in early 2017.
That’s when Zuniga first went out on
a limb, sending a bit of a fan message to a
Major League Soccer player about cutting
his hair.
As a local barber working at Ivan Domini
can Barbershop, he honestly didn’t expect a
response.
Then one came: a generic “thank you” of
sorts. That response turned into more con
versation on Instagram until the night before
a match, when Asad was at a Marriott hotel
in Atlanta with the rest of the team, in need
of a cut the next morning.
Zuniga didn’t hesitate and agreed to be at
the hotel the next morning, just hours before
the team planned to leave for its 3 p.m.
kickoff.
“I was stoked about seeing all these play
ers in the lobby,” Zuniga said. “I went up
from the lobby to the room with the players
in the elevator, but I kept it cool.”
Zuniga has turned into the go-to barber for
many of the Atlanta United players — he’s
the only one who cuts at the team’s training
ground in Marietta each week and makes
house calls whenever and wherever the
team, which just won the MLS Cup on Dec.
8, needs him.
That day, Asad, forward Hector “Tito” Vil-
lalba and midfielder Miguel Almiron needed
him. So he was there in the hotel bathroom,
giving them a cut before the team played
D.C. United.
He’s had the likes of forward Josef Marti
nez and former head coach Gerardo “Tata”
Martino in the chair, too, each one trusting
him with one of their most prized posses
sions: their hair.
“They really care a lot about how they
look,” Zuniga said.
He said it’s partly about pride and partly
about being on TV. The players want to
make sure their cuts are right and each hair
is in place, even while running around on
the pitch. That’s why every Wednesday dur
ing the season, Zuniga drives to the facility,
armed with a barber’s suitcase full of clip
pers, scissors, a straight razor, blow dryer,
neck strips, hair gels and combs in the back
seat.
He usually grabs a cup of coffee, waits
to be waved back to the shop, sets up and
sits tight until whoever needs a cut walks
through the door.
“The Hispanics, they get it weekly no mat
ter what,” Zuniga said. “Then the other guys,
they get it every two weeks. They don’t get it
every week.”
When he hears the loud music in the
locker room, blaring from Almiron’s large
bluetooth speaker, he knows it’s almost time
to start cutting.
Villalba’s hair is the hardest to deal with.
It’s not thin or thick, it’s coarse and some
thing Zuniga’s not used to. It takes about 35
minutes to cut Villalba — much longer than
most people. And it doesn’t help that Villalba
is the most picky, too.
“He’s really, really precise,” Zuniga said,
laughing. “It has to be a certain length.”
It can be a demanding job, cutting hair for
professional athletes who, as Atlanta United
has risen in the ranks of MLS, have become
fixtures around the state and nation.
“I was the most nervous to cut Miguel’s
because he’s one of the stars of the team,”
Zuniga said. “I mean, Josef Martinez is a
■ Please see BARBER, 4E
Photo courtesy FELIX ZUNIGA I For The Times
Felix Zuniga poses with former Atlanta United head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino on
Feb. 12, in the team’s barber shop at its training ground in Marietta. Zuniga, a barber from
Gainesville, travels each week to cut many of the players’ hair.
This Christmas, surround yourself with people you love
I’m a big fan of Christmas. I
am not a fan of the overblown
commercial hype that seems to
have engulf the celebration of
Christmas.
Perhaps we need a refresher.
Christmas is the day we set aside
to commemorate the birth of
Jesus Christ. Santa Claus and all
that other stuff came along later.
It is not “Buy me a Present”
day. It is not, as some people
incorrectly say, Jesus’ birthday.
Jesus was likely born in the
warmer part of the year, perhaps
spring, because that would be the
time that shepherds would have
sheep grazing in the field.
The whole calendar thing
didn’t get settled for a couple of
hundred years when we adopted
the current calendar. There was
no December at the time of Jesus’
birth.
My point in all of this is that we
should appreciate the simplic
ity of Christmas and its story.
Jesus wasn’t born in a palace, he
was born in a stable. It’s just that
simple.
It was Jesus who said that it is
better to give than receive. We
tend to forget that.
I remember when the Sears
Christmas catalog, the “Wish
Book,” would arrive. I can
remember taking that book and a
crayon and circling about half the
stuff on the many pages of toys.
I wanted the latest Hot Wheels,
HARRIS BLACKWOOD
hblackwood@gmail.com
a Slinky, numerous games, a bike
and some cowboy guns.
I remember getting a thing
called Creepy Crawlers, it had
molds and some kind of goo that
would mold into all sorts of mean
looking bugs after being heated in
a special oven. It was really cool.
Despite my lack of athletic
prowess, I always wanted a foot
ball, a basketball or a baseball.
I was pretty convinced that
Christmas was a strange contest
and the one who gets the most
presents wins. I have learned
otherwise.
I always wanted to buy my
mama and daddy something nice
for Christmas. I succeeded a few
times. I bought my dad some
aftershave lotion. He never used
it. I also bought my mama some
perfume. It was not her scent.
I remember in the last few
years of her life, I asked my
mama what she wanted for Christ
mas. “I just want my children
around me,” she said. I thought
that was her way of saying not to
spend money on her. It was her
way of saying that Christmas was
more about family than anything
else.
My mother was diagnosed with
cancer on Labor Day in 1996. We
thought she might make it a year
and a half and wanted to have a
special Christmas for her. She
died on Dec. 8, just three months
later. That was the worst Christ
mas ever.
Surround yourself with people
you love and care about. If you
are alone, drive down the road to
a nursing home and visit some
one who will also be alone on
■ Please see HARRIS, 4E
