CRESTVIEW — Downtown patrons seeking a traditional barbershop have one option after Leon’s Barbershop closes tomorrow.
That would be Mack Brooks’ Barbershop, on the other end of Main Street.
Leon Johns died in February 2013, but his daughter, Nina Roberts, and her partners, Kristen Phillips and Andrew Scoles, continued the business.
But at 5 p.m. Wednesday the doors to a downtown landmark will close permanently after 60 years in business.
“It’s just one of those things,” Roberts said. “Everything has its season.”
One reason for closing is increasing traffic south of town, Roberts said. In the evenings, many customers who got evening trims couldn't make it to her shop before closing.
“That, and every time I turn around, another salon has popped up,” she said.
MOVING THE SHOP
While the closure of one of the city’s few old-time barbershops is bad news for longtime customers, the good news is Roberts and her team will still work in a similar traditional environment.
“We’re going to merge with the Wright Barbershop on Beal Parkway (in Fort Walton Beach),” Roberts said.
There, Ivan McCard operates the barbershop his father ran until his death. “It was his dad’s shop, like this one was my daddy’s shop,” Roberts said.
For customers who follow Roberts to Fort Walton Beach, their new barbershop's surroundings won’t be entirely unfamiliar.
“We’re actually taking our chairs,” Roberts said. “We’re taking our shop with us.”
'IT'S NOT A SALON'
Neither Brooks nor Johns operated “salons.” Their establishments are barbershops — down to the traditional red-and-white striped barber pole outside, and the aroma of Barbicide inside.
“It’s not a salon, and it’s not a chain stylist,” Roberts said. “It’s a barbershop, plain and simple.”
Banter flies between barbers, customers in the chairs and those waiting along the wall, as a News Bulletin reporter recently observed.
“You mean I got to go all the way down to Fort Walton to get a haircut?” longtime customer Jerry Franklin said as Roberts trimmed Josh Miller’s hair.
“Yes you do, and you know it’s worth it,” Roberts said.
Roberts paused while blasting hair off Miller’s cape with an air hose, and looked around the worn cabinets and mirrors of the barbershop that’s stood beside the Fox Theatre almost as long as the cinema.
“I’m going to miss it,” she said. “But like I said, everything has its season.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Barber shop, a Crestview landmark, closes after 60 years