Fredericton barber handing over his clippers and 103-year-old barber shop to the next generation

Bob DeLong’s precision and attention to detail has led to a successful 43 years as a barber, because anything less wouldn’t make the cut.

But the Fredericton man and owner of Fox’s Barber Shop is hanging up his clippers, or rather, handing them over to the next generation.

“This young fellow, he's very enthralled with the nostalgia of the older day barber shop. When he walked in here, he was just in awe of the woodwork,” DeLong said.

That woodwork surrounds the original mirrors and counters the shop had when it first opened 103 years ago.

DeLong has owned it for 32 of those years.

So while the business is continuing, he’s ready to retire.

Bob DeLong sits in his chair at the barber shop. (CTV/Laura Brown) But four decades of cutting hair has led to many stories and styles.

“People today are a little more fancy. I mean, they get designs on the side of their head,” he chuckled. “What we used to call tapered haircuts, they go by 'fade' now.”

He says what he’ll miss the most is the conversations with people from all walks of life. People have shared with him everything from weekend plans to challenges they were facing.

But he wouldn’t call himself a therapist – just a listening ear.

Bob DeLong cuts a clients hair at Fox's Barber Shop. (CTV/Laura Brown)His wife, Cathy, remembers the day he called her about Fox’s. He had been cutting hair at another shop when the shop went up for sale.

“And he said, ‘What do you think, I should go for it?’ I said, ‘Go for it. I'm behind you 100 per cent,’” she recalled.

DeLong has even cut some celebrity hair.

Music and television performer Tommy Hunter has visited the shop a couple times. So has actor and comedian Mary Walsh – who asked DeLong to trim a wig for her.

Bob DeLong and Tommy Hunter pose for a photo on one of Hunter's visits to the shop. (CTV/Laura Brown) And while he didn’t cut his hair, he did get a visit from former Prime Minister Joe Clark, who stopped in during a by-election campaign.

Bob and Cathy say they’ll miss their regular clients the most. Those clients will miss him too, evident by how many stopped in to get a last trim by DeLong after learning of his retirement.

He may make a celebrity appearance himself and come back to help out the new owner, but for now, he’s leaving the ‘fades’ behind ensuring his next chapter of stories isn’t cut too short.

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