You know that feeling when you first try on a brand new, expensive pair of shoes? “A fresh haircut is better than that feeling,” Robert Morton, owner of Legacy Barbering, says. “Because with a really nice haircut, it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing. You still feel fresh.”

Legacy Barbering on East 13th Avenue is a post-retro neon punk situation. Purple walls, a honeycomb neon ceiling, and a black-and-white checkerboard floor serve as the visage, with a background score of old-timey barber shop jazz music. 

Perhaps the most significant feature of this hair-cutting province is the number of Ducks jerseys and footballs adorning the walls, sporting signatures from football players such as Terrence Ferguson, Marcus “Big Mark” Harper II, Jeffrey Bassa and the late tight end Spencer Webb. Every season, Morton donates a team-signed football to a local school or he’ll raffle it off to his clients. Collecting signatures from these athletes is easy; he cuts their hair.

Morton is a barber, and has been all of his life. Formerly incarcerated, he is now an official primary Ducks barber for UO athletes, students and coaches. On top of that, he opened his own shop, Legacy Barbering, one year ago this last January. On May 5, Morton celebrated the grand opening of his second shop, Legacy Downtown, in the building where his professional career began.

Morton has been cutting hair since he was a preteen in San Bernardino, California.

He says that, growing up, his friends and family “didn’t really have a lot of money, so we couldn’t afford to go to the barber shop and get fresh,” he says. “So we learned how to cut each other’s hair.” Morton says he found that his skills tended to be better than the majority of his peers.

He was brought up in an area which, in his words, “did not come with a lot of opportunities.” This resulted in his incarceration over multiple points in his young life. During his longest stint, he took on the role of prison barber. “I cut everybody’s hair,” he says. Over three and a half years, he mastered a broad range of styles for “any and all types of hair,” he says. “I got good at it.”

Looking to change his life after he got out, he moved to Oregon where he had some family. He had also worked as a plumber since he was a teenager, but when he relocated to the Pacific Northwest, his license wasn’t honored. He was faced with a choice: either go back to plumber school or carve a new path. “I’m not going to do it again,” he says. From when he cut his dad’s hair in San Bernardino, Morton had always been passionate about making people look sharp. 

Also, quite significantly, “People don’t want to see a plumber. Nobody wants to hear what a plumber has to say. ‘Your pipes are broken. It’s going to cost $5,000.’ It’s terrible.” But when it comes to cutting hair, Morton says, “I like to make people feel good. I don’t see it as a job. I see it as an art.”

So he put down his plunger and picked up his scissors once again. After graduating from Northwest College School of Beauty in Springfield, he began working his first hair cutting job at Anderson’s Barbershop — one of the oldest barber shops in Eugene.

After working at Anderson’s for almost two years, he set up his spinny chair at Analog Barber, where he met one of his most important clients ever.

“Spencer Webb came in at 17-years-old. He wasn’t even on the team yet. He came [to Eugene] for tryouts that day, and he got a haircut with me. He was this really nervous, very awkward 17-year-old,” Morton says. “I became his barber until the day he passed.”

Webb was a UO football tight end who died in 2022 due to a head injury after diving off of a cliff at Triangle Lake. He was 22.

Webb frequently promoted Morton on social media and brought many of his athlete friends by Morton’s chair at Analog, opening doors and trying for a long time to get him to be the official Ducks barber. Though Morton was reluctant for years, “When he finally passed, I made it a point to get in there,” Morton says. He accepted the position, and the 2023 football season was his first in the UO Football Complex.

Jakob Russin, Webb’s roommate, says he brought the two together. “I met Robert years ago,” Russin says. “I’ve brought him many people who are close to me, including Spence.” Russin says that to him and Webb, Morton is more than just a barber. “He played a very significant role in Spence’s and my life, and I will always treasure the time we spent together with Rob before Spence passed away.”

“He was like a little brother to me,” Morton says. “I went through some hard times with that kid.”  Morton says that the week before Webb died, the athlete spent copious amounts of time with him.

“He was looking for a change, and he was trying to hang out somewhere different.” Morton says Webb hung out with him in the shop for four hours a day for three days straight.

Morton remains an important figure in athletes’ lives. Starting guard “Big Mark” Harper II says that “Robert isn’t just my barber. He acts as a motivator, a mentor, and someone to look up to in Eugene,” Harper says. “I keep coming back to him because every time I sit in his chair he tells me about how he plans to expand his ‘Legacy.’ His vision motivates me to keep going.”

After opening Legacy Barbering in 2024, Morton recently bought the Anderson’s Barber shop building to open his second location, “Legacy Downtown,” where he now cuts full time.

“I’ve been with him through three shops,” Russin says. “His cuts are phenomenal, we always have amazing conversations, and I’ll continue going to him for haircuts until he decides to stop cutting hair.” 

Russin continues, “I think Spencer would be incredibly proud of Rob’s shop and Legacy Downtown. I always look up at [Webb’s] jersey and gloves on the wall when I go to get a haircut from Rob, and I know he is there with us.”

Legacy Barbering is open 10 am to 4 pm Sunday and Monday and 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Saturday at 561 East 13th Avenue. For more information or to book appointments, visit LegacyBarbering.com or call 541-654-8969. Legacy Downtown is open 10 am to 5 pm Monday through Thursday located at 745 Willamette Street. For more information or to book appointments visit LegacyDowntown.com or call 541-731-2298. Walk-ins accepted at both locations.