Sydney hairstylist hangs up the scissors after more than a half-century

SYDNEY, N.S. -

It was 1968 when Joan MacKinnon began her career as a hairstylist at Isle Royal Hair Salon in Sydney.

She still remembers the first haircut she gave. It would be impossible to forget.

"My first paying customer would have been my husband Charlie, but he wasn't my husband then," MacKinnon tells CTV Atlantic.

More than 53 years later, and after thousands more haircuts, MacKinnon hung up her scissors for good on Friday. "In the same place. Like, we've only moved from the Isle Royal Hotel to here. I've never worked anywhere else but the Isle Royal Hair Salon," the veteran hairstylist said.

A steady stream of well-wishers visited the salon on Friday. Many of them were customers who have been coming to her for the better part of the past half-century. Others are new clients, but feel like old friends. "Gonna miss her. That's one thing. She's a wonderful lady. A very wonderful lady," says customer Helen Crane.

Co-worker Tracy Harrietha decorated the salon to the nines for MacKinnon's last day. Some of the cards that were on display said it all about how colleagues and customers alike were feeling. "Very emotional. I'll cry. But yeah, very emotional. She's been very good (to us)," says Harrietha, who has worked alongside MacKinnon for the past eight years.

Friday's celebration at the salon took on two meanings. MacKinnon celebrated her birthday earlier this week. She was able to finish her career in storybook fashion, which wouldn't have been possible just weeks earlier. When hair salons in Nova Scotia were closed because of restrictions imposed during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. MacKinnon says the past 15 months was one of the strangest chapters of her career.

"Whether you're at the end of anything, or the beginning of anything, this mask business is crazy, but, nobody has a cold anymore," MacKinnon noted.

Much like the old cash register in the decades-old building, the feeling at the salon is that Joan is an original. What she'll miss most is the customers – many of whom have become friends over the years.

"I could count on one hand the number of people who left me to go somewhere else. But the ones that went to heaven, I couldn't count," MacKinnon says.

As quitting time drew near for the final time, the only thing left to cut was the congratulatory cake. MacKinnon is looking forward to spending more time with her grandchildren in her retirement, but she says she'll cherish the memories made. "I'm going to miss all of that," MacKinnon said.