Thu, Aug 28 2008
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Published July 18, 2008 12:00 am - Like so many professional boxers, veteran quarterbacks or hard-hitting hockey players, Debbie McWhorter will do her job as long as her body cooperates. McWhorter doesn't box or play football or skate a shift with an NHL team. Mane Man II makes headway By Andrew Knittle Like so many professional boxers, veteran quarterbacks or hard-hitting hockey players, Debbie McWhorter will do her job as long as her body cooperates.
McWhorter doesn't box or play football or skate a shift with an NHL team. She cuts hair. "I don't think it's something a lot of people know, but it's one of the worst professions for your posture," McWhorter said. All the neck craning, bending and standing during the last 30 or so years has caused her problems with her hips, neck and wrists. McWhorter said she has to have shots in the spine as a result of her injuries. Such is the life of a veteran stylist. For the past 20 years, McWhorter has owned Mane Man II, 127 N. Porter Ave., where she's built a business on her talent, consistency and people skills. But unlike most business owners, she said the chance to own a salon practically fell in her lap. "The guy who originally owned Mane Man, he approached me -- he saw something in me," McWhorter said. "The opportunity presented itself and it turned out to be successful." But it wasn't just her peers who saw potential in McWhorter. Even some of her early clients knew she'd be successful as a stylist. Dan Fitzgerald, a retired state worker who's lived in Norman for the past 25 years, has been a client of hers since he moved to the city. "I met her back when she worked at Mane Man on Lindsey and Berry back in 1984," he said. "She knew how to cut my hair right off. She figured out how to make it look good." After going to McWhorter for a few years, Fitzgerald said it didn't come as a shock to him when she opened her own shop in July 1988. "I think she had the personality and drive to stay with it," he said. "She was pretty good with people and she was pretty good at managing, too." Fitzgerald said his stylist does most of the talking when she cuts his hair. Over 25 years, chit-chat becomes a running narrative. "You know, over the years, I kind of watched her kids grow up and I pretty much knew just about everything that happened in her life during that time," he said. During her 29 years as a stylist, McWhorter's career has changed as much as the hairstyles. 
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