Dana Weber retires as Village Barber, Karen Lennox-Moore to take over
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
They say that Blyth never loses a barber without gaining a barber! That age-old phrase couldn’t be more true than the case of The Village Barber on Queen Street, which is about to change hands for the first time since Dana Weber first opened her doors 21 years ago. That first day was an exciting one for more than the usual reasons. “I started in the middle of a blackout, in August, so I opened my door with no lights on!” Weber recalled.
Her recent decision to hang up her clippers has come following complications from an injury she sustained during a fall. “I’m having major surgery where I could be off for at least three months, and there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to do what I do after the fact,” Weber explained. Once she decided it was time to sell, it didn’t take long to find a buyer: hairdresser Karen Lennox-Moore. “It’s happened so quickly!” Weber exclaimed. “It feels good - scary, but good, and exciting all at once!”
For Lennox-Moore, the decision to make a play for Blyth’s beloved barbershop was as simple as deciding to answer when opportunity, quite literally, knocked. “Well, I was making supper, and I got a knock on the door, and I went out, and it was my neighbour, Irene,” she explained. Irene filled Lennox-Moore in on the latest word on the street - Weber was selling The Village Barber. “She gave me Dana’s number. And I called, and it happened from there.” Lennox-Moore knows she has some big shoes to fill, and she hopes she’s up for the job. “It’s exciting, but I’m nervous, too!”
Both Weber and Lennox-Moore entered into the barbering life shortly after high school. Weber has no regrets about the decision. “I decided to do this, and almost 30 years later, here I am!” she declared. “There are families that I’ve cut four generations of their hair. I’m going to miss the people, for sure. But I’m excited for a change.”
Lennox-Moore found her calling as a hairdresser in a similar fashion. “I came out of high school not really knowing what I wanted to do, and I had a friend that worked at a hairdressing shop, so I did some volunteer work there, and I really loved it, so then I went from there to hairdressing school, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
That’s not all these two barbers passing each other in the shop have in common - they both agree that boys these days are really into mullets, and that hockey and baseball players are likely to blame. Both Weber and Lennox-Moore will take a twist on the classic Caesar cut over the mullet any day, and neither one wants to see their chosen profession taken over by heartless robots in a cold and distant future, because they both know that a great barbershop is about so much more than a good haircut - it’s about customer service. “Well, obviously, you have to give them a good haircut,” Weber pointed out. “But it’s about the conversations, and the connections you make, definitely... I’m just glad there’s someone to come in, and look after everyone.”
They also want all the shop regulars to rest assured - it’s still going to be the same Village Barber you know and love, right down to the timed ticket system. While the shop will be closed for the next few weeks, Lennox-Moore plans to reopen on Nov. 19.