From Head Shipper To Head Clipper

The edited version of this story first appeared in Simcoe Life Magazine

Summer 2006

 

When you walk into the small room located at 22 Coldwater Rd., Coldwater, all is quiet. Your eyes wander to the photographs and memorabilia displayed on the painted cheery-yellow walls. Having just finished lunch, Cyrus Lloyd Bell enters from another room, ready for action. Better known as “C-Bell” to the locals, the 95 year old asks you if you’d like a haircut. There is no telephone, no appointment book.

Born March 31, 1911 in Whitby, Ontario, Bell began his working life as head shipper for Eaton’s in Toronto. After completing barber’s college he barbered in Richmond Hill before arriving at Coldwater, in 1950. In the 56 years he’s been cutting hair in the same village, he has cut up to five generations within the same family. He remembers when there used to be a hitching post across the street from his barber shop and people who still rode their horses into town would tie them there.

“I remember when there was a dairy on one side of me and a bake shop on the other – to one side I had the smell of baked bread; to the other sour milk!”

Open six days a week, if you go down to C-Bell’s for a haircut, you’ll pay $7 - a bargain by today’s standards.

“Back then I charged 25 cents for a cut – I had to do a lot of cuts.”
On the topic of his continuing to work, Bell’s one and only child, Barbara Jefferis, is supportive.

“I just want my dad to be happy,” she says. “It makes him happy to work. The community has been very good to Dad, and as long as I know he’s safe and happy, that’s all I can ask for.”

Photo © Elizabeth Bokfi

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