Forty years, countless cuts and a lifetime of stories: Kanab’s beloved barber/stylist Kristine Barton retires
- Matt Brown
- 13 hours ago
- 3 min read
KANAB — After nearly four decades of serving the Kanab community with scissors in hand and conversation flowing, longtime hairstylist and barber Kristi Barton is announcing her retirement from full-time cosmetology work. A retirement party is planned for clients and friends to drop by and wish her well on Thursday, May 28, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., at her barbershop located at 30 N. Main Street in Kanab.
Kristi began her cosmetology journey in September 1986 at Evans Hairstyling College in Cedar City, where Dale and Karma Evans became not only instructors and mentors, but cherished role models while she attended school away from home. Though she often returned home on weekends to spend time with her family and her boyfriend - now husband - Tom Barton, she dedicated herself fully to the program’s rigorous 2,000-hour requirement, completing cosmetology school in just one year and one week.
In 1987, Kristi started her career at Creative Cuts in Kanab under the employment of Susan Hammond, whom she remembers as both a wonderful employer and dear friend. She worked there until 1992, when the birth of her second son led her to step away from salon work to focus on motherhood. That break from hairstyling lasted only about six months.
“People kept calling and asking me to do their hair,” Kristi said with a laugh. “I said no for a while, but finally agreed to do one person’s hair. Then, like the old Fabergé Organics commercial, they told two people, and they told two people, and so on and so on.”
Before long, Kristi was running a thriving salon business from her home. When the Barton family built their “forever home,” they designed the laundry room to double as a salon, where Kristi faithfully served clients for the next 28 years.
In 2019, she decided to simplify her work and focus solely on cutting hair. She approached her brother, Matt Brown, with the idea of opening a small barbershop somewhere in town. Instead, Matt proposed transforming part of the family’s former bookstore and office supply building into a barber shop.
“All he asked me was, ‘What’s your favorite color?’” Kristi recalled. “I said blue, and he created the shop I work in today - a shop I truly love.”
Kristi’s officially opened its doors on July 31, 2020, quickly becoming a welcoming place filled with laughter, stories and fast haircuts.
“If you ask my family, I can talk to anyone,” Kristi said. “And if you ask me, I can cut hair as fast as I talk.”
More than the hairstyles themselves, Kristi says it has always been the people who made her career meaningful.
“The people whose hair I do are the reason I have loved my job so much,” she said.
Her decision to retire comes after ongoing issues with her hands. Last year, she underwent surgery for a ruptured tendon in her right thumb and now feels similar problems beginning in her left hand.
“I’ve decided I’m going to quit while I’m ahead,” she said.
Retirement, however, does not mean slowing down completely. Kristi looks forward to spending more time with her husband, children and grandchildren, as well as enjoying opportunities to travel. She has also begun substitute teaching at the cosmetology school in Kanab, where she hopes to pass along her decades of experience to a new generation of cosmetologists.
As she closes this chapter, Kristi says her heart is full of gratitude.
“I just want to thank the community of Kanab for supporting me and accepting me for so many years,” she said. “I love this community, and I have seriously loved my job. I am so thankful to my parents who supported me wholeheartedly in my career choice, and my brother Matt for helping me make my barbershop dream a reality. Finally, I want to thank my husband and children for supporting me in my career and dreams; I could not have done this without them. They are my reason for pretty much everything!”
