Five steps - that's what stood between John Bollinger and getting his haircut at the same place he'd been going for years.
Using a walker during his slow recovery from a broken leg, he said "it wasn't too convenient" to get into the shop.
For a time, his haircuts were done at the same beauty salon used by his wife, Mary.
Then they saw in the bulletin at Immaculate Conception Church that his barber, Mike Tanner, was offering to come to people's homes if they needed it.
Happy to return to a barber's touch, Bollinger now enjoys a monthly cut in his own kitchen.
In 2012, Tanner took over the business operated by Rich and Donna McCarty since 1960. He was a new graduate of the Missouri School of Barbering and Hairstyling in Florissant, using the post-9/11 GI bill as a result of his active-duty service.
Part of that business had been the in-home service for customers no longer able to come to the shop.
"It's fun to get out of the shop and visit with people," Tanner said. "It works out pretty good."
Tanner fills a large tool box with his essentials, including clippers, scissors, straight edge, towels, smocks and a spray bottle - something he forgot at the Bollingers' after his first visit, Mary said.
He does miss the spinning chair and a large mirror to inspect his work, Tanner said. But that's when he calls in the "judge," Mary, to assess John's appearance.
"She says I don't have to look at it," John Bollinger said.
During his visit to the Bollingers, their conversation is similar to what might be heard in the barber shop - politics, jokes, health care, wrongs of the world, and personal experiences.
Both Tanner and Bollinger are veterans, which Mary said she thinks is a good connection for them.
Bollinger served in the Korean War 1951-52 with the U.S. Army.
Tanner first joined the U.S. Marine Corps, then the Missouri National Guard's active-duty program, completing 26 years of service in 2012. His black barber's smock has a small American flag on it.
While a guardsman, Tanner was a customer of McCarty, who encouraged him to pursue barber school after retirement, he recalled.
"I know I would want somebody to take care of me, if I couldn't get around."