Elvis Presley Haircut – Fort Chaffee in March 1958

Elvis Presley spent three days at Fort Chaffee in March 1958 after he was inducted into the Army. It was there he received that famous haircut. Fred Kinslow of Greenwood was 24 and a barber at Fort Chaffee at the time. He was standing near the singer when the locks came off, but he was left out of the pictures circulated worldwide of Presley getting trimmed. He said the owner of the barbershop franchise at Chaffee, H. L. Sallee, told him he would be the one to cut Presley’s hair

But at the last minute, James ‘Pete’ Peterson, supervisor of the barbers, decided he would do the cutting. Kinslow remembered it was so crowded in the shop with reporters and photographers it was difficult to move around. Presley was mobbed wherever he went on the installation. ‘I don’t know whether he got any sleep with all the cameras on him all the time’, Kinslow said. After three days at Fort Chaffee, Presley was sent to Texas to complete his basic training.

Elvis Haircut Historic Site

On March 25 the Fort Chaffee Barbershop Museum celebrated the 53rd anniversary of its most famous moment: when Elvis Presley joined the Army and had his head shaved. Jimmy Don Peterson, son of the barber who cut Presley’s hair, gave free G.I. buzz cuts to visitors, and the museum unveiled a letter sent by three teenaged girls to President Eisenhower, declaring that they would die if the Army cut off Elvis’s sideburns (it did anyway). “G.I. Haircut Day” attracted a crowd of several hundred people. The first hundred to arrive received a photo of Elvis getting his haircut.