Beloved business opened in Highland Park Village in 1936. It closed on Dec. 31
For 90 years, the Village Barbershop delivered old school cuts, free of any fancy frills but with lots of friendly conversation, to customers in Highland Park Village.
Owner Dale Sinclair jokingly referred to the 40-year-old chairs where customers sat for their cuts as ’85 models and remarked that his barbershop was the only place in the town of Highland Park that still had two landlines.
Customers could pay with cash or a check. No payment apps or credit cards were accepted, and clients couldn’t expect “coloring, or any really cosmetology stuff,” Sinclair said.
He estimated that he’d given hundreds of thousands of cuts in his 53 years working as a barber in the Park Cities. He’d spent 45 of those in Highland Park Village, where he gave his first haircuts at the Village Barbershop in January 1981.
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Sinclair gave his final haircuts on New Year’s Eve. The barbershop, as well as the UPS Store next door, both closed in late December so that Highland Park Village could make necessary improvements to their building. The work will take time to complete, and the Village plans to reimagine their space for office occupancy, explained Highland Park Village chief marketing officer Victoria Snee.
Sinclair, who began cutting hair as soon as he graduated from barber school at 19, is now 73 and said in December that he would retire when his shop closed. The people, he said, had been his favorite part of cutting hair. He kept many of their photos on a shelf next to the John Wayne lunchbox he used to carry a turkey sandwich to work each day.
“That’s going to be the hardest thing retiring,” he said. “You go from talking to all these people all day, every day, and then there’s nobody to talk to.”
When People Newspapers visited the shop on Dec. 19, a steady stream of customers kept Sinclair on his feet giving haircuts and posing for photos.
Lance Edwards, who’s been coming to the Village Barbershop for 36 years, arrived with his son, Michael. Sinclair gave Michael his first haircut 28 years ago. The father and son took a photo on the way out, and Michael asked for one more of the Starburst candies that Sinclair used to give him when he was a child.
“We’ve really enjoyed our time here, and Dale’s a great guy,” Lance said. “The more I talk about it, the more sad I feel.”
Customer Scott Muller estimated that he’s been coming to the Village Barbershop for haircuts for at least 15 years.
“It’s like stepping back in time, just like the barbershops when we were kids,” he said. “It’s one thing about the Village that, to me, is still authentic.”
Muller wasn’t certain where he would go for haircuts when the shop closed. “I may have him shave my head today,” he joked, “so I don’t have to worry about it for a while.”
Mike Morrison, the barbershop’s longest serving employee, said that Highland Park Village has changed since he started work in 1976, but the barbershop’s connection to customers hasn’t.
He pulled out a chocolate coin given to him by a 3-year-old customer who wanted to pay for his own haircut. Morrison has kept the “money” for five or six years.
“One of the reasons we hate to leave is we’re one of the few last anchor points for the neighborhood,” he said. “Not everybody buys high end retail all the time. So many of these people know each other, and it makes for a real sense of community.”
