Image via Unsplash.com- Ales Dusa

The Farmer Who Sued A Barber For A Fortune Because He Lost His Beard

More than a century ago in New York City, a legal battle erupted over a midsunderstanding during a hair cut

Andrew Martin
3 min readSep 29, 2024

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Men who sport beards are often very fastidious about their whiskers. Their facial hair has to be just right, and anything that disrupts that delicate balance — well, better watch out. More than a century ago, a farmer who slept through his appointment with his barber awoke to find his carefully cultivated facial hair gone, which resulted in a massive lawsuit.

In 1907, George Palmer, a farmer from Sullivan County, New York suffered one of the greatest shocks of his life. He visited John Reisler’s (also reported alternately as Keisler) barber shop to get a trim. He fell asleep during the visit and awoke to find the luxurious beard he had spent 20 years growing was completely gone.

The trouble started when Palmer visited New York City and stopped by the Herald Square shop to get a shave and have his beard lightly trimmed. Drowsy, he drifted in and out of sleep, but when he finally came to, he discovered he was bare faced,

It was determined that his un-hairing was due to a misunderstanding. The barber was talking away and cracked a joke that elicited a “cut it short” from his…

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Andrew Martin

Dabbler in soccer, history, investing & writing. Master’s degree in baseball history. Passionate about history, diversity, culture, sports, film and investing .