In honour of the 12 Days of Christmas, we’re taking a stroll back through the stories we’ve published this year about some amazing people in our community. Each day for the 12 days of Christmas (Dec. 25 to Jan. 5), we’ll revisit one (or more) of our favourite people from 2025.
Up today, it’s 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.
This story was originally published on Aug. 27, 2025.
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The reports of Ron the Barber’s demise have been greatly exaggerated over the years. Once every six months, a rumour surfaces that Ron’s closing his shop, or that he’s being forced to move out.
Unfortunately, this time, the rumours are true. Ron Waugh is closing his barbershop—Ron’s Barber Stylists—Sept. 3.
“The owner is going to renovate,” said Ron.
His lease is up and the space will be upgraded with some much-needed renos—something that hasn’t been done in decades.
Ron’s is a unique spot to get a trim. The building he’s in is more than 100 years old. Ron’s floor is slanted. The walls and flooring might be from the ‘60s. 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.
A huge Maple Leafs fan, Ron’s sports memorabilia has piled up since he opened. Posters, books, signed pictures, hockey sticks, pucks, mini–Stanley Cups—you 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.
Ron even has a pint glass that says “Cloverdale Ale Company” on it. But it’s not from a long-closed local brew pub. A customer visited Cloverdale, Calif., and brought it back for him.
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.
“I’m looking for a chair in the local area,” he told the Cloverdale Reporter. He added he’s already been to five, but no luck. “I have a couple more I’m going to. If I have to, I can even go to Langley.”
He wants to stay local though. He’s got a lot of customers here.
A staple on Cloverdale’s main drag since the ’70s, Ron has been cutting hair since 1972.
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’s and was across from his current shop on 176th.
When he arrived, he happened to show up on Rodeo Weekend and everyone was dressed up as cowboys and cowgirls.
“I thought, ‘What the hell is this?’ I thought I was in the Wild West,” he laughed. “It 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.”
Ron’s Barber Stylists was then known as Tom’s and had been open for years before that.
“It was always known by the name of the man who owned the business,” Ron noted.
He started working at Tom’s in about 1974 when it was owned by Tom Milligan. It was a busy place with three chairs and lots of customers.
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.
He tipped Ron a measly 50 cents, but a customer started ribbing Tom and he gave Ron a big tip after that.
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.
After cutting hair for 53 years, Ron, now 76, said he’s got several “good years” left in him. He doesn’t want to hang up his clippers just yet.
“If I want to afford anything, I have to work,” he laughed.
If Ron can’t find a chair, he may resort to house calls. Like the physicians of old, stopping by homes on rainy evenings to visit his customers.
“I have a lot of senior customers and they are having a hard time getting out,” Ron explained. “So I can offer my services that way. And they’d welcome that. People have said, ‘Oh, I didn’t know anyone would do that.’ And my customers are all over the area, Cloverdale, Langley, White Rock.”
And his list of potential customers has been piling up. He’s got pages and pages of names and numbers of folks interested in his hair-cutting services should he find a chair somewhere else—or if he has to resort to house calls.
After 49 years in one spot, Ron find’s himself carried back in time, once again looking for a chair.
He said while things are different now, and his search for a chair is very different than it was in the ’70s, he said Cloverdale offers a touch of comfort in a swathe of uncertainty.
“So much of it has stayed the same,” Ron said. “Like here, the people. It’s 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.”
He said while the population has increased, Cloverdale, for some reason, has retained some of its small-town charm.
“People recognized each other more back then,” Ron added. “They’d come to town from the farms and do their shopping. So things have changed in that way, but I suppose that’s everywhere now.
“But here,” Ron said, pausing to collect his thoughts.
“Here, the guys that come in, they’ve been coming here for years. So that hasn’t changed. I’ve been a fixture here.”
