There’s something all-American about “real” barber shops. They are the stuff of Norman Rockwell paintings.

Renton has one, the Hilands Barber Shop. It’s where co-owners Leland “Russ” and Helen Russell met and fell in love.

Married for 31 years, the Russells still spend their days together in the shop, perfecting a tapered haircut – known as the fade – and other styles on everyone from former Gov. Mike Lowry to TV and now Seahawks personality Tony Ventrella. Jack Sikma, a onetime Seattle Sonics’ star, was a customer.

Lowry sat in Helen’s chair, practicing a speech.

Ventrella comes by once a month for a trim. He discovered the barber shop while driving past the Greater Hilands Shopping Center on Sunset Boulevard Northeast about two years ago.

“That looks like a real barber

shop,” he said, retelling his first impressions of the shop from afar. “I better start going there.”

While the occasional celebrity walks through the door, it’s Renton’s men who have come through those doors for nearly 40 years. Their sons and grandsons have followed them.

The shop caters to men. The women, well, go elsehwere, to a beauty shop. The Russells and Gordon Endicott, who has cut hair with them for 18 years, can spot a beauty-shop haircut on a man a mile away. Give them 10 minutes and they can fix it.

And there are the inevitable barber jokes.

Russ, standing with razor in hand behind 82-year-old Ernie Reed, says he has to charge a finder’s fee for Ernie’s hair, which is somewhat sparce.

But Reed doesn’t mind the good-natured ribbing and keeps coming back.

“It’s the only place I ever go,” he said.

The amount of hair doesn’t dictate the price. It’s $17 for a haircut, $14 for seniors 62 and older and $12 for a buzz cut and kids. Back in the early days, a haircut was $4.50.

Bob Howard has been a customer for 25 years. Despite the barbers, he says, with a hint of mischief, “I still come back.”

Russ, of course, has something sharp in his hands.

“We have a good time,” Russ said.

Ventrella, who reported sports on Seattle-area TV stations for years and now is the digital media host for the Seahawks, knows something about barbering.

He had his own barbershop for about six years in his 20s, at the same time he was getting his career in journalism off the ground. His father was a barber for 50 years.

Ventrella would run across the street, type out a story, then run back to cut some more hair.

“My dad predicted doom because I closed my barber shop,” said Ventrella, who went on to that successful career in TV.

The Hilands Barber Shop feels like a home and a museum at the same time.

There are family pictures, personal touches and cabinets full of the history of barbering. Growing up, son Blake would help clean up the shop. The Russells also have son Leland Jr.

Russ has see a lot in his 35 years cutting hair, including changing men’s styles. The long hair of the 1970s put a lot of barbers out of work, he said.

But, for sure, everyone who comes through the door is treated like a friend.