Loving Hands at Home vs. the Legendary Montecito Barbers

To Cut or not to Cut… that is the Question! Standing with elementary school scissors in hand facing the mirror, I stopped to think: Do I start cutting now or might a storied professional be a better choice? If I’m suggesting this was the first time for that question, I’d be lying. Years of disastrous ‘Loving Hands’ haircuts jettisoned me to Montecito Barbers for repairs… and the Sanchez family: Bob Sanchez along with co-owner Jess Martinez, Bob’s son Matt and his grandson Tim. Three generations in the No. 1 barber’s chair at Montecito Barbers… just that belongs in the Guinness Book, doesn’t it?

After calling for a sit-down (…not in the barber’s chair!), Tim Sanchez told stories of Santa Barbara’s barbershop history, his father and grandfather, those who came before, and his connections to the Santa Barbara and Montecito communities. His modesty, self-effacing humor and family pride are the page upon which his story is written.

The Sanchez family traces its barbering tradition back six generations, with Bob, Matt and sons Josh and Tim representing the generations connected directly to Montecito Barbers. “The entire barbering community began on Figueroa Street downtown at the present site of Willie’s Barbers,” explained Sanchez. “At the time, many who worked at Willie’s continued for decades as barbers in Santa Barbara.” The history was so complicated that he had to draw me a picture, a genogram of interconnections.

More specifically however, the story of Montecito Barbers actually began with Jess Martinez, who’d also worked at Willie’s, but moved to the Upper Village in Montecito in 1964 as owner of his own barbershop. Bob Sanchez occupied a chair there, an arrangement that eventually led to a business partnership between the two men as co-owners. In 1966 they moved the business to its current location at the Montecito Country Mart, thus creating what would become a multi-generational business that, in 2026, is celebrating its 60th year at the same location. Think about that!

It took a few years for the next member of the Sanchez clan to join the business. In 1991 Bob’s son, Matt Sanchez, arrived. By the time I knew Matt, shortly after he’d purchased the shop from his father and Jess, he was already a huge presence in Santa Barbara as an advocate for troubled teens. “My dad was my hero,” announced Tim. “He could stand up and speak to Santa Barbara’s city leaders, chair community meetings, create partnerships and convince large crowds and troubled kids about options to gang violence… from his heart.” What made young gang members and the entire community listen was his personal history. 

A former Eastside gang leader who’d spent four years behind bars and battled drugs, Matt chose to devote the rest of his life to providing at-risk teens an alternative to the gang life he’d left behind. He created the Hoods in the Woods and All for One Mentoring programs offering experiences such as wilderness trips, often together with rival neighborhoods, out-of-area activities, community service projects combined with leadership, employment, and life skills. Matt began his advocacy journey in 1992, one year after he joined Jess Martinez and his father, Bob, at Montecito Barbers.

In describing his own experience, Tim remembers that in high school his buddies proclaimed that he was going to be a barber like the rest of his family. “Told ‘em that wasn’t going to happen, not ever – absolutely no way! – while I was cutting hair in the bathroom with Walmart clippers,” he laughed. Apparently he continued his non-barbering gig at SBCC, eventually giving in to the non-valid proclamation by finding his way to barber school in San Diego at 20 years old. Tim’s entry into the family business had a rough start, however. On July 2, 2010, the barbershop burned down and the crew had to move to adjacent quarters, now the kitchen of the Merci eatery. “Eleven days later I got my shiny new barber’s license and started my first day in a cramped area behind the burned-out shop with my dad, grandpa, Jess and my brother Josh!” After 13 months they returned to the remodeled shop, where years of memories and stories are chronicled inside his head, some of which he shared with me.

“The atmosphere was always casual and customers became friends, often like family,” Tim recalled. “My grandpa and dad always told the same jokes over and over… grandpa getting away with forgetting the punch lines and dad finishing them off… roaring with laughter at his own jokes – had the entire place in hysterics!” Grandfather Bob was a large presence in Tim’s life. “When I was little, grandpa used to warn that telling lies would give me kidney problems – that, along with stories of the past and other homegrown bits of wisdom,” he chuckled. “Being with people I’d known all my life, the shop became family for me too.”

Sadly, on August 8, 2012, Sanchez’s father died, leaving a huge vacuum in the family and the entire Santa Barbara community. By the end of Matt Sanchez’s life, he’d spent 20 years helping young people avoid the path he’d taken. As testament to his influence, the Granada Theatre was packed for his memorial service. Sitting next to a friend, a city councilperson at the time, and Salud Carbajal, I saw only a snapshot of the dignitaries who filled the theater that day.

After Matt’s passing, his son inherited his father’s chair. As Master Barber, Sanchez has his stamp on all aspects of the barbershop, collecting community awards along the way. “We’re all buddies here in the shop and have tons of fun every day,” he exclaimed. “For me, ‘work’ means a really good time!” Might that have something to do with the fact that the three barbers in neighboring chairs are his best friends from elementary to high school, Steven Hoggarth and Devon Hildebrand, plus longtime buddy James Fay? Might be that barbering is highly infectious, or that his friends became their own high school predictions in keeping with the Sanchez family. “Our main purpose, of course, is to cut hair, but making friends along the way with our customers creates a community network and a welcoming place to be,” concluded Sanchez. “If it’s just to chat, for referrals, or help when needed, in the Sanchez family tradition, this place has an open door.”