Savannah Evanoff|Northwest Florida Daily News
SHALIMAR — Efrain Morales doesn’t separate family from business; his business is family.
The Shalimar barber digs sculpting a skin fade, dying spiky hair red like his own current color — it will change in a few months — and helping local military members maintain their fresh cuts, but meeting people is his true passion. He can carry on a conversation with a straight razor in hand.
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“I get to speak with the people,” Morales said. “I like it here especially — you meet people from all over the world. I have people from Africa, Jamaica, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia — I have clients from everywhere.”
Morales treats his clients like family. And why shouldn’t he?
He is Uncle E.
Morales opened Uncle E Barbershop in September. Family — never an afterthought — is at the core of his brick and mortar, too, a rectangular space tucked in a shopping center along Eglin Parkway. Inside is a room dedicated to the nail business of his wife, Ketlix Fonseca, and a studio for his sonJeriel, 17, a videographer and photographer.
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He has two other children, Efrain (named after him), 22, and Diaris, 12.
His shop has a Christmas tree — one his wife put up the day after Halloween, he said with a laugh. And Jeriel can be seen walking around in a sweatshirt with his father's face on it. Acartoon depiction of Uncle E’s face is the shop's logo.
While Morales’ immediate family all lives in Northwest Florida, he earned the nickname Uncle E from a different crowd, while studying cosmetology at Fortis Institute in Pensacola. He was 38 at the time.
“There were a lot of young girls and my name was really hard to pronounce, so they started to call me Uncle E,” Morales said. “It was nice. It was really cool. I met a bunch of people.”
Morales cut hair long before that, though. He’s been at it since he was a teenager.
He started shortening his grandfather’s hair with clippers at 13. José Hoyos, a retired Marine, preferred it short.
Then, Morales’ friends in school recruited him to do theirs.
“I started doing guys at my house in Puerto Rico in middle school,” Morales said. “I started charging $3 — it was more than 20 years ago.”
After graduating high school, he dedicated 1,200 hours — 18 months, give or take — to barbering school in Puerto Rico. It was admittedly easier than cosmetology schoolbecause it was in Spanish.
“It’s not hard, but you have to take anatomy, physiology — all of that,” Morales said. “You have to know the muscles of the face.”
Morales opened his first barber shop, Best Cuts Salon, in 1998 in Puerto Rico — something similar to what he has in Shalimar. He sold it, though, in lieu of a place special to him and his family:Northwest Florida. He moved to Fort Walton Beach about seven years ago.
“It’s so peaceful,” Morales said. “We have the beach closer. I like to kayak.”
Morales cut hair at a different shop in Fort Walton Beach, but decided to open his own when he found the ideal space.
“Shalimar is so peaceful,” Morales said. “There’s no other barbershop here. And it’s closer to the base.”
The hardest part was finding employees. He worked alone for three months until he found an additional barber and a stylist.
Brandon Porter, the only other barber at the shop, said he admires the family atmosphere.
“I love how strong his family is,” Porter said. “I really enjoy him and his family.”
Clientele wasn’t a challenge though. They are part of his family.
Morales has kept some of his clients for more than five years. He has watched their children grow up — as any uncle would.
“I have a lot of memories,” Morales said. “This guy, I met him when I started doing haircuts here. He moved to Miami. I keep in touch with himbecause we created a friendship. We used to go eat together, ‘Let’s go to the beach today, go kayak’ — things like that.”
The quality of the cut plays a role, too.
“I hear it with people, they get really bad haircuts and then when they try a good one, they stick with you,” Morales said.
