Bearcats look down on Gary Greeley as he sets aside a razor and begins work with scissors, his snips efficient and his conversation unbroken.

Talk turns to this cool July morning, but it could be about the spottiness of area corn crops or the prospects of the Northwest Missouri State football team, which plays within public-address earshot of the barber shop.

The subject matters little, but the relationships count. Customers come through the door, past the barber pole revolving in red, white and blue, for a consistency of service and a few words to take with them into a day.

Mr. Greeley, in his 38th year of business in Maryville, obliges.

The hand-lettered sign tacked to a wall states the haircut price as $10. On the opposite wall, a posted maxim: "Big God, Little Problem." Sports memorabilia adorns the shop, overwhelmingly green from the high school Spoofhounds and the university's Bearcats. One poster, celebrating a Northwest national championship, reads, "It has a nice ring to it."

In an age of Internet promotion and viral marketing, Mr. Greeley's establishment relies on pre-digital techniques: Open the door, and treat well all who come through it.

"I try to make them a satisfied customer," he says. "I've got some that have almost been here since Day 1."

That involves a knack for shop talk and a capacity for good humor. One customer's wife phoned ahead with a message for Mr. Greeley to relay: bring home some milk, which became a running joke with the man. Another customer enters with a repeated request. "Make me beautiful," he says.

"I'll never be able to make you beautiful," the barber replies, "but I can make you handsome."

Except for a childhood health concern, Mr. Greeley might have stayed on the farm. He grew up near Elmo, a town in Nodaway County, hauling hay and working around grain bins while suffering from asthma. Dust directed a life choice.

He befriended Bill Farrens, a barber in Elmo. Gary thought this livelihood suited him.

"I cut his hair when he was a young man, and he questioned me about it," Mr. Farren recalls. "I thought it was a good business at the time. Still do."

Gary headed to a Kansas City barber college in 1971 and, after six months, began an apprenticeship with Mr. Farren. He eventually found a spot in the Maryville shop of a Stub Gill.

Building a barbering business proves tough in a small community. Men have loyalty to those who cut their hair, and a newcomer struggles to get a clientele. Mr. Gill proved a generous boss.

"There were times at the end of the week when I wasn't taking much home, and he would actually take money out of his pocket and give it to me," Mr. Greeley remembers.

When his mentor died, Mr. Greeley bought the business. Through the years, some bad luck (a fire, a building collapse) forced him to new locations. In 1995, he bought a building on Fourth Street, a former dentist's office between the town square and the university. With dormitory residents in walking distances, his business always picks up during the academic year.

He offers no guess at the number of haircuts given in nearly four decades of work. His son Spencer, age 11, suggests help. "I'm good at math," the boy says.

Spencer and his younger sister Abbie are regulars at the shop during summer vacation, at moments entertaining people in the waiting area and then heading out to the parking lot to ride bicycles. The artwork of their older brother Tyler, a pastel rendering of a 1971 Chevrolet Cheyenne Super the family displays at car shows, hangs on one wall.

The family devotion seems evident. Gary's wife and the children's mother, Rebecca, died after a long illness in 2005.

"He stood strong and raised his kids," says Mr. Farren, now pastor of a church in Blockton, Iowa. "When an individual walks through a situation like Gary did with his wife, and is able to stand and continue in their faith, that faith is really solid."

Mr. Greeley says the years of barbering went in a flash. "It's a long time looking ahead, but it's very short looking back," he says.

Hairstyles change with the times, but the business of cutting stays largely the same. The relationships matter, Gary Greeley believes. Customers who come through his door find out as much.

Ken Newton can be reached at kenn@npgco.com.