It was big news when Don's Barbershop got a flat-screen TV last Christmas.

That probably wasn't surprising, considering that it's only been three years since the shop got its first telephone. That took 47 years.

The new TV is still a conversation topic among the regular customers.

"He loves golf," Don's regular Bruce Fabbi said. "I think that's why he got it."

"He" would be Chip Swa, the shop's owner. Swa has worked there for 24 years. His late father, Don Swa, cut hair there for 26 years before that. Next week, the shop he opened in 1958 will celebrate half a century of father and son haircuts with two days of 1958 prices. Fifty-year customers are getting trims on the house.

"There's more of them still around than you'd think," Swa said. "I figure that after 50 years, the least I can do is give them a free haircut."

Don Swa retired in 1988, but remained a familiar figure in the shop at 6222 W. Overland Road until his death a decade later.

"It was probably in his mind that I'd take over and keep it going when he suggested that I go to barber school," his son said. "He loved coming in and swapping stories with the customers. B.S. doesn't just stand for barbershop."

In a business long dominated by salons and stylists, Don's is one of a handful of shops in the Valley that recall the heyday of the old-time barbershops - places where customers knew one another's names and families and gathered to discuss anything from politics to fishing holes. The haircut could be almost incidental.

Clyde Watson has been a regular customer at Don's for 40 years.

"Chip's dad used to cut my hair," he said. "Heck, he used to cut my kids' hair. It's friendly and comfortable here. And Chip almost does a good job, so why change?"

The both laughed. Old friends sharing an old joke.

The idea of following in his father's footsteps had to grow on Swa. He drove a truck and worked at a building-materials store before taking his dad's advice and attending the now defunct State Barber College. He says the teachers there taught him modern hair-cutting techniques, as opposed to the clippers-over-comb method his father used. These days, he uses a combination of the two.

"They don't teach the old way anymore, but it works extremely well. I use it a lot."

The shop itself is a mix of new and old, mostly old.

You can call ahead and make an appointment on the new phone, and Swa is happy to give those who ask for them anything from a long shag cut to a lightning bolt carved in a buzz cut. But it's the old-fashioned touches that give the shop its character.

Looking for a jar of Butch Wax? Swa will get it for you. His magazine shelf is lined with traditional barbershop fare - National Geographic, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Motor Trend - and the shop is redolent with the tang of bay-rum after shave. It's one of a few places in town where men can still get a shave with hot lather and a straight razor.

One concession to modern times: no razor straps on the chairs.

"You don't want me shaving you with a blade I've sharpened. Even Dad switched to disposable blades."

The chairs themselves, however, are nearly a century old.

Customers find the familiarity comforting. In a world of relentless change, Don's remains a constant.

"People like the consistency," Swa said. "I'm not knocking the chain shops, but people tell me they go there and get a different person cutting their hair every time. And even if they get the same person, they might get a different haircut.

"My customers don't even have to say anything when they come in. They just sit down and I start cutting. I know how they like their hair. I know they like it a little longer in the winter and shorter in the summer and in between in the spring and fall, and that's what I give them."

Cutting hair, he says, is what he does for work. The rest of running Don's is something else.

"The main thing I get out of doing this is the friendships. The relationships I get from cutting people's hair for 20 years? That's what makes this job worthwhile."

Tim Woodward: 377-6409