Visit the Home of the Infamous Elvis G. I. Haircut in Arkansas

Elvis is now King of the Box Office!  After its much-anticipated release, the new movie “Elvis” did not disappoint fans of the legendary singer. Actor Austin Butler did a superb job of taking on an iconic role and making you feel as if Elvis was still alive today.

As most of you know, I have always been a huge Elvis fan and went to see the movie, what I didn’t know that is at the beginning of the movie when the narration starts that Texarkana would flash up on the screen as a location where Col.Tom Parker played by Tom Hanks was during that time. There was even some dialogue that mentions Texarkana in that scene. I thought that was pretty cool!

I don’t want to give away too much if you haven’t seen the movie but at one point they touched on his stint in the U.S. Army and Fort Chaffee in Fort Smith, Arkansas where he got that infamous haircut known as the Elvis G.I. buzzcut on March 25, 1958. With that being said, the barrack-style building has been fully restored to look the way it did back then when Elvis walked into the building.

It is now the Fort Chaffee Barbershop Museum and it allows fans of the King of Rock n’ Roll to get a feel for the history that took place during that time in Elvis’ life. There’s even a cardboard cutout in front of the barber chair that Elvis sat in where visitors can get a lasting photo. The museum also serves as to what Fort Chaffee meant to the state of Arkansas then and now.

Visitors to the Fort Chaffee Barbershop Museum will enjoy rare photographs of Elvis, collector items, and other memorabilia from that era.

As a matter of fact, every year in March around the 25, the town celebrates Elvis Haircut Days where fans can get their very own Elvis haircut. In 1958, the buzz cut was named the “The haircut heard around the world.”

The museum is located in the Camp Chaffee Tank Destroyer Battalion District and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. Check out this great article published in 2016 in Arkansas Living Magazine about the infamous haircut.

So, there you go, if you are looking for something to do this summer see the movie “Elvis”  then load up the family and take a road trip to Fort Smith to see the Fort Chaffee Barbershop Museum.

Please check out their website or Facebook page.

Be sure and check out the all-new Elvis Presley Streaming Channel now available.

Finally, Here's a pic of me standing in front of Sun Studio in Memphis a few years ago.