FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- Barber Jabar Nichols brings the latest fades and line cuts to Flagstaff.

Line ups, mustache trims, extreme Mohawks, razor lines, short brushes, bald fades, spike fronts - Nichols offers them all at Kuttz Barbershop.

Nichols has been holding forth at his shop for about 1 1/2 years, providing the latest cuts to his mostly male clientele, including the short fades popularized by black celebrities like Will Smith and Jamie Foxx.

Nichols' shop is surrounded by a chain-link fence. He lives next door in a little bungalow.

Two friends, Chris Skrelunas, 17, and Joseph Gabaldon, 17, came in for cuts. They are both juniors and baseball players at Coconino High School.

Skrelunas, a Coconino High School shortstop and pitcher, has been coming to Kuttz for about a year.

"I don't know any other place that cuts hair the way I like it," he said. "It keeps your head cool."

He likes the low maintenance cut. "I don't have to do anything," he said about his hair-grooming regime.

Ten minutes later, Skrelunas had a fade cut, short on the sides and blending to longer on top. He opted for a straight, rather than rounded, line cut on the neck.

"The girls love it; it's clean," Nichols said about the fade cut.

A price board says, "All kuttz $12," but students pay "10 bucks," Nichols said.

"I get a lot of students; I charge them cheap, as long as you go to school," he said. "Going to school's harder than working," Nichols said.

Nichols, 30, was born in Flagstaff and played football at Flagstaff High School.

His mother Antoinette is a local cosmetologist, and he got his first lessons by watching her.

Nichols takes Sunday and Monday off to pursue his passion for disc golf.

Friday and Saturday are his busiest work days and walk-ins are best.

"I don't do appointments; I want it to be fair for everybody," he said.

Gabaldon was next up in the barber chair. He's been getting a fade every two weeks for a year.

"My hair grows fast," he said. "I take a shower, and just leave it."

Nichols used a T-outliner to do a pointed cut on Gabaldon's sideburns.

Clippers are critical tools, especially the No. 1 (1/16-inch), No. 2 (1/8-inch) and No. 3 (3/8-inch) clippers.

"They come in here and say, 'Give me a No. 1 and a No. 2," he said. "I don't know why more people don't do it."

Nichols got the idea to be a barber several years ago when he read a magazine article about how barbers are retiring in Flagstaff.

He went down to Phoenix and got a license in 10 months, graduating in December 2005.

Inside the shop, Nichols' barber tools are simple. He uses four clippers and two scissors, sheers and jagged thinners. For safe shaves, he puts disposable blades in his straight razors.

"Barbers used to be doctors and dentists in the 1800s," he said. "They had to learn about the human body."

The barber pole is red and white, for blood and bandages, Nichols explained.

A work table has conditioning spray, blade wash, shave cream, horsehair dusters for brushing off cut hair, King talc, styling gel and the ubiquitous disinfecting Barbicide.

Nichols would like to go back to Phoenix to get an instructor's license.

"There is no barber school up here," he said.

He'd like the secondary room to be a barber school, so students could watch him work in the main salon.

The last customer of the morning was Andrew Berry, 28, a civil engineering student at NAU. He found the Kuttz location four months ago.

Berry comes every week, alternating a shave with a hair trim.

"I don't need a cut," he said. "I just need a line up, to get refreshed - what the barber does to make everything look straight."

Berry said some barbers are too timid to cut line ups because they don't want to mess up your original hairline, he said.

"Finding a good barber is a luxury," he said. "Once you find a good barber, you should hold onto them."

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Information from: Arizona Daily Sun, http://www.azdailysun.com/

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