PORTLAND – Men trickle into the Northgate Barber Shop in Portland for a quick haircut and a few wisecracks while they wait.

“The haircut is free, the abuse is 10 bucks,” one clipper-wielding barber says, relaxing during a lull in the flow of customers.

This modern shop with six barber chairs has Clubman talc, Bay Rum aftershave and all the other trappings of a barber shop.

But there’s one thing that distinguishes Northgate from the others. After all, this is the only shop in town where patrons can wager on when one of the barbers will give birth, and how much her baby will weigh.

The busy shop represents a break from tradition as women enter the profession and aging male barbers leave the business, transforming what was once considered to be a distinctly male bastion: the barber shop.

The pool for barber Lorrie Cormier’s baby is the fifth at the barber shop, where owner Judy Larsen employs six women to clip and trim men’s hair.

Larsen graduated from barber school in 1985, in a class full of women. She went to work for another barber, a man. “When I worked for men, people would say, No I’ll wait for a man”‘ when her chair was open, said Larsen.

In 1990, Larsen opened her own shop. She said she didn’t set out to hire only women, but no men responded to her initial recruiting efforts.

Since then, male barbers have approached her for her work, but she hasn’t had the need. Besides, times have changed. “If we had a guy working in here, customers would say, I’ll wait for a woman,”‘ she said.

The trend toward women training as barbers in large numbers began in the late 1970s and early 1980s, said Charles Kirkpatrick, an Arkansas barber who leads the National Association of Barber Boards.

The growing number of women entering the profession has transformed what was once a male-dominated field and has helped to end a decline in the number of barbers nationwide, which dipped to a low of 180,000 in the late 1970s.

Today, there are 220,000 barbers, roughly half of them women.

Barbering is probably attractive to women because many operate independent shops and set their own hours, he said. Barber shops charge less for a haircut than salons, but the volume makes up for it.

Male barbers might not like to hear it, but some customers at the Northgate barber shop said they would rather have a woman cutting their hair than a man.

“I like females working on my hair,” customer Ron Giroux said. “I think women do better haircuts than men.”

Lee Dennison, who has had women cut his hair for 20 years, agreed. “I think a woman knows how a man wants his hair cut,” he said.

Northgate barbers are certified as barbers or as cosmetologists, and Larsen trains new employees so customers get a consistent cut. It takes a certain type of woman to work as a barber, they said.

“I went and worked in a high-end salon,” said barber Julie Drake. “It didn’t suit my personality.”

Men’s haircuts are simpler and quicker to do than women’s, she said. And men don’t ask for the time-consuming and complicated dyeing and perming procedures that women get at salons.

“Women expect more,” Drake said. “I like to go and get facials, get myself pampered, too. I just don’t like to do it.”

Across town, there was no talk of facials at the Senior Citizens Barber Shop, where Norman Millette has been cutting hair for 45 years.

Millette, 66, isn’t opposed to women running barber shops but he said some women who trained as cosmetologists don’t really learn how to do men’s haircuts, which involve electric clippers and straight edge razors.

“Some women are afraid of the clippers,” he said. “Beauticians, they won’t shave around the ears. They never were taught properly.”

Joe Discatio, 89, who was just shooting the breeze, recalled his days as a shoeshine boy in the 1930s.

“I started out shining shoes,” he said. “Once in a while, I’d give a haircut. In those days you didn’t need a license.”

When asked if he would let a woman barber cut his hair, Discatio said, “I don’t trust a woman.”

“He heard about Delilah,” joked customer Charles Monty, noting the biblical story of the woman who destroyed the strength of the mighty warrior Samson when she had his head shaved while he slept.

While he does not have Samson’s strength, barber Bob Mitton, 67, has the kind of stamina typical of older barbers.

He’s been putting in 13-hour days at his barber shop for the last 45 years and said he’s never skipped a whole day’s work.

Mitton said he has no objections to women becoming barbers.

“There’s a lot of women in the barber business,” he said. “I think it’s fine.”

The female barbers at the Northgate said that more than their sex distinguished them from the men.

It also has something to do with attitude. Unlike the men, most of the women work fewer hours so they can have time with their young children. And they’ve even been known to skip a day to attend to a sick child.

“They honestly feel devoted to their customers, like they’ll let them down if they miss a day,” Larsen said. “We work to live, the older guys live to work.”

AP-ES-05-02-04 1230EDT