Her story
She booked her first customers under a man's name.
In 1969, Judy Lucero and her sister Bobbie were the only women in their class at Barbers' College, and the first two women in New Mexico to graduate. Men weren't used to a woman at the chair, so the sisters took gender-neutral names to get them booked. Judy became Georgie. The surprise wore off; the customers kept coming back.
56 years latershe's still at it, around twenty cuts a day, with her grandson Brandon Holmes at the next chair. Some of her regulars have sat with her for fifty years. Gene Hackman was one of them.
“I say all my customers are famous.”
- 1969
Barbers' College
Georgie and her sister Bobbie become the first two women to graduate from Barbers’ College in New Mexico, the only women in their class.
- 1970
First chair
She starts cutting near the Plaza. To get men into the chair, the sisters book under gender-neutral names. The customers keep coming back anyway.
- 1975
Her own shop
Georgie opens her own shop. Half a century later she’s still behind the chair at 823 Columbia.
- 2005
35 years
The shop marks its 35th anniversary. “I style, you smile!” is still on the sign.
- 2021
Georgie Lucero Day
Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber proclaims October 2, 2021 “Georgie Lucero Day” for the City’s first and longest continuing woman barber.
- Today
Still going strong
Around twenty cuts a day, six days a week, alongside her grandson Brandon Holmes, also a barber.
