Richard Deaner and Fred Busby opened the doors of Town & Campus as a barbershop in 1966 at 14 Carlisle Street in downtown Gettysburg. Richard had been cutting hair in downTOWN Gettysburg and Fred cut hair at Gettysburg College CAMPUS—hence the name.

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T&C started out as a three-chair shop offering a full-service barbershop including regular haircuts, flattops, face shaves, facials, neck shaves, tonic rubs, and shampooing. Over the years, there were many different barbers and partners. Fred left the barbershop in 1970, but Richard continued on. In 1980, Richard's son, Greg, started cutting hair. Five years later he became a partner in the business.

 

In 1985, T&C hired their first full-time female beautician and incorporated a more female-friendly atmosphere. In 1987, the salon relocated right next door to 8-10 Carlisle Street and increased the chair capacity to four chairs. During this time T&C offered all the barbering services as well as many beauty services including perming, coloring, highlighting, ladies haircutting, shampoo and sets, as well as simple manicures.

 

With the move and expansion, they also created a receptionist position utilizing the charismatic charm of Doris Deaner — Greg's mom and Richards’ wife. This position is filled today by two part-time receptionists to cover 60+ hours per week.

 

In 1991, the name was changed to Town & Campus Hair Care to attract female clientele while being careful not to offend the men. It was a difficult time to have both groups in the salon at the same time. Conversations with the men had to be cleaned up so as to not offend the women and the women couldn’t gossip with the men close by. T&C had a good staff that made both groups happy and it continued to grow.

 

In 1992, Town & Campus expanded again, opening a doorway back to the old barbershop to incorporate a two-room salon. On one side, there was a waiting area and shampoo area, the other side was an eight-chair cutting and working area. Town & Campus Barbershop was slowly evolving into a hair salon which was the current trend of most progressive hair cutting establishments.

 

In 1998, Richard decided to semi-retire and Greg took control of the business. He immediately incorporated and promoted senior stylist Kathy Smith to salon manager. Under the dual guidance, T&C continued to grow until February 2001 when the restaurant, The Pub, next door caught fire and burned down the salon. After the building was condemned and there was no place to cut hair the staff went to work in other hair salons in the area. Other salons graciously invited our staff into their salons to continue cutting hair so as not to lose their clientele.

 

After three months we opened a temporary salon at 9 Chambersburg Street working out of that salon until our current building was completed in June 2002. With the construction of the new building, there were countless possibilities as to where to take the business. We decided to expand our service offerings to include tanning and massage therapy as well as pedicures and eventually spray tanning.