Glencoe, Ont. barber retires after 75 years and 250,000 haircuts

A barber in Glencoe, Ont. is retiring Tuesday after a remarkable run of 75 years.

Some quick math suggests Don Webster, 92, has cut the hair of over 250,000 people since 1947.

“It makes me tired just thinking about it,” Webster tells CTV London with a smirk.

In reality, Webster has been anything but tired of being a barber in Glencoe. He began cutting hair with his father, who started Webster’s Barbershop in 1927.

In 1955 it moved to its current shop on Main Street. At the time, the Webster’s updated the decor but kept the original cash register. And 95 years on, it and the rest of the shop have not been altered.

Cash register at Don Webster's barbershop in Glencoe, Ont. on March 29, 2022. (Sean Irvine/CTV London)

“An old friend of mine used to say, ‘Don’t change anything in here. I like it just the way it is,” Webster says proudly.

But one thing has changed slightly. The price of a haircut in 1947 was 50 cents.

Today, it is $10. But the price increase only came about recently after customers, like Terry Alexander, told him $8 was far too low.

“I said, “You should raise your prices, and he said, ‘People would not be happy in town’, and I said that’s crazy.”

As Webster gives one of his last haircuts to his great-grandson, he reflects on some of his high-profile clients, including politicians.

He acknowledges a few secrets and scandals have spilled in the vintage barber chairs, but they’ve never left his shop.

“You listen and laugh, and you keep it with you,” he says.

Webster has seen plenty of changes in hairstyles over the years. He still loves the flattop haircuts of the 1950s, which, he says, were good for business.

His toughest years were the late 1960s when he says “the hippies” stopped getting haircuts.

Even today, there are some heads of hair he can’t wrap his own head around. “I don’t want to do some of the styles I see today.”

But now, he can pick and choose. He says he still has a plan to give the odd cut. “I’ll take a chair home and set it up in the woodshed or someplace.”

Learning he still plans to work a bit is not surprising to his daughter, Margie Webster. “He likes to have things to do all the time.”

She and her sister have operated the flower shop next door for 42 years. They are retiring with their dad Tuesday.

Don Webster cuts the hair of his great-grandson Preston, one of the last he’ll do at his shop of 75 years on March 29, 2022. (Sean Irvine/CTV London)

And so as Webster gives his last trim at his iconic location, his great-grandson is honoured to be there. Especially, as it comes at the tail end of a career lasting three-quarters of a century.

“Oh my gosh, that’s so many of my lifetimes,” Preston exclaimed to a CTV camera.

When CTV asked why he didn’t call it quits in 1994, when he turned 65, he simply left us with, “It was the furthest thing from my mind.”