Doug Neer has been practicing the craft of cutting hair in the Covington and Maple Valley area for more than 40 years. He has survived many ups and downs, but the shop keeps going and the hair keeps falling.

Neer was located in Covington for the better part of his shop’s existence when he lost his lease arrangement and moved to Maple Valley in the former Cedar River Auto Parts store.

Now, after about two years at that site, Neer has returned to the Covington area, 27924 152nd Ave. S.E., in the Shady Park complex. Doug’s Barber Shop has been in its new location for about four weeks now.

The 66-year-old Neer, who lives on the west shore of Lake Sawyer, began his barber shop career at the age of 11 while living in Yakima.

“I got in an argument with my stepdad over a shirt,” Neer said.

Neer wanted a shirt he’d found in a local store, but his stepfather wouldn’t buy it and suggested the youngster get a job. He went to Carl Rizzo’s barber shop and began shinning shoes for 25 cents.

He said on Saturdays he would get a “whole pocketful of money” from tips, enough to buy the shirt.

Neer said he began learning the craft of cutting hair from Rizzo.

“I watched Carl for so long,” Neer said. “He was a magnificent barber.”

Neer got his break because, “Carl thought I was no good at shining shoes, so he thought maybe I could cut hair.”

He was 13 years old when he switched from shoe shiner to barber but he wasn’t old enough to go to barber school. He began learning his life’s work cutting hair for his family on the back porch of their home.

A month before his 16th birthday he entered barber school.

According to Neer, in those days barber schools were located in the more economically depressed parts of a town. In Yakima that was near the railroad. The schools gave haircuts for very low cost or free, with the latter price offered by the newer students, Neer explained.

Neer went to barber school each day after class at Davis High in Yakima and on Saturdays. Students in barber school were expected to complete six months and 1,000 hours before they could test for a license.

After completing school he took the state test. The test included a shave, haircut and facial according to Neer.

He received his barber’s license in 1960, but his life soon take an unexpected turn. He was involved in a car accident in 1965 that severely damaged his right hand, and he lost a finger.

“I thought would never cut hair again,” Neer said.

For two years he was out of barbering, but he completed the work for his high-school diploma. After surgery on his hand he was able to return to the barber shop.

He began cutting hair in the Covington area in 1967 and bought the shop in 1974.

When Neer cuts hair, he is animated, pausing occasionally to talk with his hands between snips. He is in early each morning to help set up then heads out to run errands before returning shortly after 10 a.m. to get down to work.

His customers sit in a red leather barber’s chair and Neer will ask them if anything is new this week.

On a recent Tuesday morning he was cutting Jim Williamson’s hair, who has been a customer since 1969.

Neer is full of local history and stories about the old days when there was just a gas station and Johnny’s grocery store in Covington on Kent-Kangley Road.

Ask him about the price of a hair cut back in the late 1960s and he recalls working in a non-union shop where they charged $1.25. When Williamson first became a customer he was paying around $4 a cut.

Today Neer and three other barbers work in the shop that bears his first name — his son Eric Neer, Rick Boyker and Dennis Wickstrom.