At the Matador at Champs Men’s Hair Styling, the walls tell a story.
Photos of the Augusta National grace the waiting room, and paintings of vintage cars are on another wall. Across from Georgia Ansley’s barber chair are photographs of lightning storms taken by photographers or photojournalists she made connections with over the years.
Those individuals are part of a long list of professional customers who have included Augusta’s prominent lawyers, judges, bankers, and politicians among others. Many of them have been coming to the barbershop for 40 years or more.
The Matador at Champs Men’s Hair Styling on 1062 Chafee Ave. is more than a barber shop. It’s been an Augusta institution for more than five decades. Ansley has been a master barber for more than 40 years. A longtime friend and colleague of the original owner Louis “Champ” Newsome, she obtained the business after he died in July 2020.
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Among its many faithful, longtime customers is Talmadge Lewis of the Lewis Family, better known as “The First Family of Gospel Bluegrass.” He came in for a trim on Aug. 4 and although he didn’t comment, he smiled for photos.
Ansley also cut Phil Harison’s hair. Harison was the starter at the first tee for the Masters Tournament for many years before his death in 2008; she also cut golfer and broadcaster Ken Venturi’s hair.
Peggy Warren and Champ, who had their initial training at the Daniel Field Barbershop, started The Matador, the forerunner of Champ’s, in 1970 in the First National Bank Annex on the corner of Reynolds and Eighth Streets.
“They were the first barbershop to make appointments,” Ansley said.
Ansley said that in 1973, Newsome started a barbershop at The Thunderbird Inn at 919 15th St., and Warren stayed behind. The Thunderbird location was eventually razed and replaced with Medical College of Georgia property.
In 1987, Champ moved from what was The Thunderbird Inn location to Champ’s on Chaffee St., the current building.
Meanwhile, Ansley started working at The Matador in 1976 on Reynolds and Eighth Street. Around 1988, she took over the place and became its sole owner when Warren retired.
She was still at The Matador location before needing to move out of necessity.
“They tore the bottom part of SunTrust (First National Bank’s replacement) down in a couple of months,” Ansley said.
This is when she had to move, and something fortunate happened.
“Champ’s daughter came up to me and said her father would like me to work at the shop,” Ansley said.
Melissa Newsome, Champ’s daughter, then sold, to Ansley, Champ’s barbershop’s last location on 1062 Chaffee Ave.
Ansley named it The Matador at Champs in honor of the people and places with which it had connections.
Champ was a member of the American Legion and Augusta Elks Lodge. He was said to have contributed to the Boy Scouts of America, the Richmond County Recreation Department and Wounded Warriors. He served in the Navy where he learned his barbering skills, and many professionals commented on the advice he gave them and the friendship he extended to them on various online obituary pages.
Ansley said he was a big hunter and fisherman and that most of his life he was single.
“He used to have rods and reels up on display at the shop,” she said.
Like the butterfly in stained glass in a room with a second barber chair and shampoo station at The Matador at Champ’s, the place has gone through a metamorphosis, but some things remain the same.
“I’ve incorporated as much of Champ in the shop as possible by including pictures of him in their old photos that they originally had on the walls. I took the original Champs mirror (one that has a barber-pole and his logo painted on it) and hung it by the door, so it still has the feeling of Champs fortunately,” said stylist Lynne Creswell, who came on board approximately four years ago, and has been helping Ansley manage the business.
The Matador at Champ’s Men’s Hairstyling is open by appointment only.
For more information, call (706) 724-0419.
Ron Baxley Jr. is a correspondent for The Augusta Press.
