Broad Street Barbers, Where the TV is Off and the Conversation is On

It’s not just hair that gets cut at Broad Street Barbers. The good-natured teasing and cross-fire conversation is tradition and starts the moment the door opens.

“We are like the bartender, the therapist, the minister, and the marriage counselor. We really are just good listeners,” said owner Daniel Brooks, who first joined the shop in 1975. “Being a good barber means being a good listener. But that is part of the fun of this business: all the people.”

Built in the Town Center Plaza in April 1966 by Fred Vest, the shop has stayed in the same spot since Day One. When the Town Center was purchased and renamed Broad Street Plaza, the barbershop kept pace and was renamed Broad Street Barbers. In 1999, Brooks had the chance to buy into the business and purchased it outright in 2012. These days, he keeps up the banter behind the chairs with Keith Fields and Heath Lupo.

Those chairs were updated some time back and the early wood paneling is long gone, but the original barber stations are a time capsule to simpler days. And the television sits silent in the corner.

“We switch it off because that encourages conversation. Most of the time, the conversation comes from the whole shop. It’s like a family visitation — but it’s not a funeral visitation,” Brooks laughed. “It’s what the customers like. We are an old-fashioned barbershop.”

About the only marked difference is the shop stopped offering traditional shaves about 20 years ago. Men quit asking for them, Brooks said, but shaving around the neck and ears after a haircut is still a regular service the shop provides.

The cost of a haircut has gone up a bit as well over the years — from $2.50, when Brooks started, to about $16 today.

“This is one of the cheaper things a man can do to make himself feel better,” said Lupo. “It is reasonably priced pampering.”

His comments encourage a witty rebuttal from Fields and laughter erupts across the room, from barbers and customers alike.

“I’ve been here for two years. Being that it is an old-timey barbershop with those old school values, that is what I like about it,” Fields said. “We talk with the customers. We cut up with the customers. We get to be friends with the customers. That is why we don’t have the TV on.”

Broad Street Barbers at Town Center is located at 155 W. Illinois Ave, in Southern Pines. Call the shop at (910) 692-4427.