In honour of the 12 Days of Christmas, we\u2019re taking a stroll back through the stories we\u2019ve published this year about some amazing people in our community. Each day for the 12 days of Christmas (Dec. 25 to Jan. 5), we\u2019ll revisit one (or more) of our favourite people from 2025.<\/p>\n
Up today, it\u2019s Ron Waugh, a.k.a Ron the Barber, a Cloverdale fixture who was forced to close his barbershop on Sept. 3. Fortunately for his loyal clientele, Ron decided to keep up his work making house calls, and he was eyeing a possible chair at a barbershop in Clayton Heights. Watch for more Ron the Barber updates in 2026.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on Aug. 27, 2025.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
The reports of Ron the Barber\u2019s demise have been greatly exaggerated over the years. Once every six months, a rumour surfaces that Ron\u2019s closing his shop, or that he\u2019s being forced to move out.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, this time, the rumours are true. Ron Waugh is closing his barbershop\u2014Ron\u2019s Barber Stylists\u2014Sept. 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe owner is going to renovate,\u201d said Ron.<\/p>\n
His lease is up and the space will be upgraded with some much-needed renos\u2014something that hasn\u2019t been done in decades.<\/p>\n
Ron\u2019s is a unique spot to get a trim. The building he\u2019s in is more than 100 years old. Ron\u2019s floor is slanted. The walls and flooring might be from the \u201860s. The shop is heavy with layers of smoke pressed over time. A TV plays old Westerns. And the place is stacked with sports collectibles and souvenirs.<\/p>\n
A huge Maple Leafs fan, Ron\u2019s sports memorabilia has piled up since he opened. Posters, books, signed pictures, hockey sticks, pucks, mini\u2013Stanley Cups\u2014you name it. He has a signed picture of Johnny Bower that he received from a family friend, but the rest of the items have been given to him by customers over half a century.<\/p>\n
Ron even has a pint glass that says \u201cCloverdale Ale Company\u201d on it. But it\u2019s not from a long-closed local brew pub. A customer visited Cloverdale, Calif., and brought it back for him.<\/p>\n
He would like to stay after the renos. However, for Ron, and his one-man operation, the increase in rent will be too much for him to afford.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking for a chair in the local area,\u201d he told the Cloverdale Reporter. He added he\u2019s already been to five, but no luck. \u201cI have a couple more I\u2019m going to. If I have to, I can even go to Langley.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wants to stay local though. He\u2019s got a lot of customers here.<\/p>\n
A staple on Cloverdale\u2019s main drag since the \u201970s, Ron has been cutting hair since 1972.<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Toronto, Ron visited Vancouver for a holiday in about 1970. He fell in love with the place and, a couple years later, he was back. Ron started looking to rent a chair and found one in Cloverdale. The place was called Kennedy\u2019s and was across from his current shop on 176th.<\/p>\n
When he arrived, he happened to show up on Rodeo Weekend and everyone was dressed up as cowboys and cowgirls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018What the hell is this?\u2019 I thought I was in the Wild West,\u201d he laughed. \u201cIt was quite the transition to come from Toronto to here. And Cloverdale at that time was still a small town. In some ways it still is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ron\u2019s Barber Stylists was then known as Tom\u2019s and had been open for years before that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was always known by the name of the man who owned the business,\u201d Ron noted.<\/p>\n
He started working at Tom\u2019s in about 1974 when it was owned by Tom Milligan. It was a busy place with three chairs and lots of customers.<\/p>\n
According to Ron, in 1976, Tom retired and moved with his future wife Marnie to Salmon Arm. Shortly after they got there, Tom won a cool million on the lottery. Soon, the couple were driving down 176th in a brand new pink Cadillac and Tom came into his shop and asked Ron to cut his hair.<\/p>\n
He tipped Ron a measly 50 cents, but a customer started ribbing Tom and he gave Ron a big tip after that.<\/p>\n
Tom offered Ron the spot and Ron said yes. Soon the painted T-O-M was scraped off the window and replaced with a shiny new R-O-N.<\/p>\n
After cutting hair for 53 years, Ron, now 76, said he\u2019s got several \u201cgood years\u201d left in him. He doesn\u2019t want to hang up his clippers just yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I want to afford anything, I have to work,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n
If Ron can\u2019t find a chair, he may resort to house calls. Like the physicians of old, stopping by homes on rainy evenings to visit his customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of senior customers and they are having a hard time getting out,\u201d Ron explained. \u201cSo I can offer my services that way. And they\u2019d welcome that. People have said, \u2018Oh, I didn\u2019t know anyone would do that.\u2019 And my customers are all over the area, Cloverdale, Langley, White Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n
And his list of potential customers has been piling up. He\u2019s got pages and pages of names and numbers of folks interested in his hair-cutting services should he find a chair somewhere else\u2014or if he has to resort to house calls.<\/p>\n
After 49 years in one spot, Ron find\u2019s himself carried back in time, once again looking for a chair.<\/p>\n
He said while things are different now, and his search for a chair is very different than it was in the \u201970s, he said Cloverdale offers a touch of comfort in a swathe of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo much of it has stayed the same,\u201d Ron said. \u201cLike here, the people. It\u2019s still a small town. Of course, the coffee shops have changed and a few buildings have changed, but for me being in here and looking out there. Not much has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said while the population has increased, Cloverdale, for some reason, has retained some of its small-town charm.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople recognized each other more back then,\u201d Ron added. \u201cThey\u2019d come to town from the farms and do their shopping. So things have changed in that way, but I suppose that\u2019s everywhere now.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut here,\u201d Ron said, pausing to collect his thoughts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere, the guys that come in, they\u2019ve been coming here for years. So that hasn\u2019t changed. I\u2019ve been a fixture here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In honour of the 12 Days of Christmas, we\u2019re taking a stroll back through the stories we\u2019ve published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,61],"class_list":["post-373908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}