Column: The old barber takes his leave after 67 years in Fayetteville

Gene Ivey was his meticulous barbering self on this final day of what has been a long career of grooming the heads of countless customers in a 67-year career. 

Those shears, clippers, straight razors, combs, brushes and hair dryers have been the tools of his trade from Haymount Hill to downtown’s Russell Street to Highland Village along Raeford Road. But on this Dec. 28 Saturday, Ivey would be taking his leave.

“I’ve done a lot of ‘em,” Ivey, 93, was saying about how many haircuts he has done for countless clients. “I’ve got some who started with me when they were little boys.”

Devins “Rabbit” Harrison, who has been in Ivey’s barber chair since leaving the Army in 1971, was there for a final trim. Harrison says Ivey has been his barber since Ivey’s days at the Modern Barber Shop on Russell Street. 

So was lawyer Williford McCauley. 

“I knew it was his last day,” McCauley said. “And he gave my boys their first haircuts. We’ve got three generations that Gene has cut our hair.”

McCauley stepped away from the barber chair.

“Give me a hug,” he told Ivey. “I love you.”

Just like women bond with their hairdressers, so do men develop bonds with their barbers over the years. It’s where you share stories of everything from a daughter’s wedding to the birth of a grandchild to the loss of a loved one or wherever the conversation might lead.

Gene Ivey has been cutting hair for what seems a lifetime and listening to the stories his customers tell while sharing some of his own. He was at The Hill Barber Shop in Haymount for three years, beginning in 1957; at the Modern Barber Shop downtown for 47 years; and at Highland Barber Shop for the past 17 years. 

“He was always punctual,” Highland Barber Shop co-owner Frank Williams said, “and showed up on time.”

A Sampson County native, Ivey grew up on the family farm working in the fields and sawmill before attending the Durham Institute of Barbering after his U.S. Navy hitch.

“I decided to get out of the 98-degree weather,” he said of early life on the farm, “and get some air-conditioning.”

The rest, you might say, is history. 

A man to admire

Tim Dunn was in Gene Ivey’s chair on Dec. 27, and Nathan Feldmeyer would be among those who came for a haircut on Ivey’s final day of barbering. 

“It was an honor,” the 21-year-old UNC-Chapel Hill student said.

Dunn says Ivey cut his late father’s hair, his hair and his sons’ hair.

“Mr. Gene has a unique talent for cutting short hair, which I needed due to my continued service in the Marines,” said Dunn, a retired colonel with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and executive director for the Marine Corps Reserve Association. “I would tell him if I needed a Marine ‘high and tight’ when I was heading on active or reserve duty or just needed a trim and not so tight, and he adjusted perfectly every time.

“Mr. Gene’s work ethic, dedication to his God, family, profession and community is what I sincerely admired the most. He was just not a barber; he was a principled man of character who took pride in his work, his family, his community and himself. He was always the first to arrive at his barber shop and the last to leave. If you needed to get a haircut early and get on with your workday, you could rely on Gene to be there every day by 0730 or 0745 at the latest, although the shop didn’t officially open until 0800. 

“Although, Mr. Gene was not a big talker, when a subject came up in conversation in which he was keenly interested in or had substantial experience in, he could provide phenomenal insight with wonderful recollections of days gone by,” Dunn said. “We will not see the likes of a Mr. Gene Ivey around here anymore, I’m afraid, and his haircuts were still only $16 when he put away his scissors and razor, which was noteworthy, especially when he told me he started cutting for $1.25 a head.”

The last haircut

Closing time at the old barber shop was near. 

There would be one more head of hair to cut and shampoo. 

“I wanted to be the last one,” nephew Lee Warren said. 

Ivey pondered his long career as he relaxed in his barber chair awaiting Warren’s arrival.

“I’ve cut his hair all of his life,” said Ivey, who was voted Fayetteville’s “Best Barber” by The Fayetteville Observer in 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998, and shared the title in 1999. “He said he wanted to be my last haircut.”

Warren arrived with his aunt, Grace Ivey, who is Gene Ivey’s wife.

“My first haircut from him was 1957,” said Warren, the retired Cumberland County Register of Deeds. “I started with him when he started. I was about 5 years old. It’s a little bit emotional. It was important to be here for the last haircut.”

Ivey says his grown children have been urging him to retire. 

Grace Ivey says retirement was for her husband to decide. 

“I want him to do what he wants to do,” she said. “The children wanted him to retire, but I wanted him to do what he wants to do. He’s done this many a time.”

Epilogue

The last haircut was behind him. 

Gene Ivey leaves his profession as the most enduring barber in this community. 

“I hate to leave my customers,” Gene Ivey said. “Some, I won’t never see again, and that bothers me. They’ve been good to me, and I appreciate them.”

Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.

We’re in our third year of CityView Today, and so many of you have been with us from day one in our efforts to bring the news of the city, county, community and Cape Fear region each day. We’re here with a purpose — to deliver the news that matters to you.