Around Kosciusko County, the Conley family has been associated with barbershops for decades. With Ethyn Bradley’s first official day Thursday at Conley Barbershop, 2200 Winona Ave., Lakeview Shopping Center, four members of the Conley family from three generations are now cutting hair in one location. Herman Conley, 84, had a barbershop in Etna Green for 36 years, starting on Dec. 14, 1953. He then moved to Tucson, Ariz., to work seven days a week at Davis-Monothan Air Force Base. He was in Arizona for about 15 years. “I realized early on that farming and agriculture was a total disaster,” he said of why he got into cutting hair for a living. Herman said barbering was an occupation with a future. During his 50-plus years in the barbershop business, Herman said he’s done all kinds of hair styles and cut hair for five generations of families. He said he’s learned to “pay attention” from his experiences. Herman’s younger brother, John Conley Sr., started in the barbershop business because of Herman, John Sr.’s daughter Jennifer Bradley said. John Sr., 67, was born in 1948 in Warsaw and opened Conley Barbershop in the shopping center Jan. 19, 1968. He said he bought it from Jack Hammond, North Manchester, who started it in 1960. There were three barbers at the time. “They’ve gone from long hair to short hair to everything in between,” John Sr. said of the hairstyles that have come and gone in his almost 50 years of barbering. John Conley Jr., 38, wanted to be a naval aviator, but he was color blind so the Navy wouldn’t let him in. Having grown up in his dad’s barbershop, John Jr. decided to join the family business and never looked back. “My first day legally was Dec. 27, 1997,” he said, adding that his first customer was Bill Burr. John Jr. said he learned to cut hair by watching his dad mostly. “It’s one of those jobs you can go to school for all you want, but you learn by doing,” he said. He has three small children, but said he won’t push any of them into the family business. “Obviously, I want them to be their own boss, do their own thing, as long as they get to write their own rules,” John Jr. said. His youngest boy is 6 years old, and John Jr. said he’s already talking about being a barber. “My daughter may be the first Conley girl to man the clippers,” he said. Ethyn Bradley, 19, is the son of Jennifer Bradley, the daughter of John Sr. and sister of John Jr., making him the third generation of the family cutting hair for a living. Asked why he decided to go into the family business, he replied, “Pre-calculus, second semester. I realized college wasn’t for me.” He learned how to cut hair from Katrina Kenny, his instructor at barber school in Indianapolis. “I learned what I needed to learn,” he said. Ethyn said he loves cutting hair, and unless something changes, being a barber will be his lifelong career. He prefers to give customers newer haircuts as well as fades and tapers. As for owning his own shop some day, he said, “I plan to stay here for a long time.”
