Operating a business where the world passes buy every day gives you a particular perspective, and reminds you that every person who walks through your door, makes the conscious choice to do so. Elizabeth Polson-Reynolds, current owner’s daughter, Kat Alderson, previous owner, Ronda Perrin, current owner, Chantal Polson, current owner’s daughter. Tinkess Photo

RUSSELL – There are some businesses which, when you step through their doors, allow you to feel like you’ve stepped back in time. They offer a sense of authenticity that is so often missing in our day to day lives, but it is something that never completely goes out of style and often comes roaring back to actually be “trendy.”

A barber shop is one such business. Not a stylist, or a salon, but a barber shop, often found with a red, white and blue pole out front. The kind of place where your grandfather and your father frequented, and which you may have taken your own children to, to get a little off the top.

It is that long lasting sense of nostalgia which makes the Barber Shop in Russell celebrating a 30th anniversary not that surprising. It almost begs the question, why would it not still be here?

In 1996, Diane Wolfenden, the shop’s original owner realized that men in Russell needed a traditional barber shop where they could just drop in, no appointment required. She opened The Barber Shop on Concession St. in Russell on July 27, 1996. Because Wolfenden was busy working in Angles Hair Salon, Diane Maloney worked in the Barber Shop. Business was good enough that Kat Alderson began working there and on Sept. 27, 1997, she purchased the business.

The trend of someone starting to work there only to go on and eventually become owner continued with Ronda Perrin, who started work on Valentine’s Day, Feb.14, 1998, eventually buying the business in January 2010.

Helping Ronda to celebrate were her two daughters, Elizabeth Polson-Reynolds and Chantal Polson, as well as Kat Alderson, who hired Ronda back in 1998.

Most small businesses in Canada fail within their first five years, so to not only survive but flourish as The Barber Shop has is quite an accomplishment. And while there is a consistency about a barber shop, there have also been many changes in men’s hairstyles and hair care. Perrin has seen trends come and go, from long to short, and back again. The mullet (business in the front, party in the back) fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your tastes, never seems to go away. “No, there’s actually quite a few of them still around,” said Perrin.

What are some of the biggest changes she has noticed? “Colours are popular, and fancy styles, bigger and better,” said Perrin. “It’s interesting though. Things evolve but always come back to the basics; a lot of stuff’s coming back from the ’60s, the ’80s, and it just evolves, and then it reverts back to the basics again, and it keeps evolving like that.”

The community has undergone many changes as well, and Perrin notices that through the customers who come through her door, but even more so with the ones that no longer do.

“A lot of people have passed away, moved on, there’s new people coming in all the time,” she said.  “It’s always a changing industry. We also find out that the ones that we started with… I may have a couple that were there in the beginning that are still coming, but the majority have either moved away, passed away, or had something happen with family.”

Fortunately, men today are looking for a traditional barbershop. “They don’t like the smells and the colours and all that stuff (that they find in a salon environment) so it’s nice to actually… it lets you chat.”

Maybe that is the attraction, the social aspect of a haircut. You sit in the chair, and you really can’t do anything else but chat. Before you know it, a stranger becomes a friend and the barber shop a place where you feel like you belong, something that you would like to hold onto.

It’s nice to know that in a changing world there are some things that stand the test of time, things that we don’t deem to be disposable or easily replaced. Here’s wishing the Barber Shop another 30 years of being a place that is an important part of the Russell community.

The Barber Shop is closed on Sunday and Monday, but open from 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Walk-ins are welcome, but they will take appointments as well (613-445-1464). You can find them on Facebook as well (@ The Barber Shop).