Ray Dube has cut into six generations of hair — and five in his own family — over the course of almost 60 years. But on May 31, 2025, the legendary Cranbrook barber cut his last head of hair in his shop in the Mount Baker Hotel on Baker Street.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about my older customers,” Ray said, during a brief respite between clients.
Ray was born in Saskatchewan, but moved to Marysville with his family in 1956, and grew up there. He started barbering at 17, in Lethbridge, in 1966.
“A lot of my customers were World War II veterans, who liked it short,” Ray said. “But the Beatles had just come in, and the young guys wanted their hair long.”
The younger customers would ask Ray to thin out their hair and leave it short enough to satisfy “the old man,” but leave it long enough to as befitted the fashion of the time.
“I knew how to do that,” Ray said. “I was young too.” His boss at the time, an older gentleman, would shake his head. “‘You got to give them their money’s worth,’ he would say. He was from a money’s worth generation,” Ray said.
Ray started barbering in Cranbrook in 1970, operating out of a shop in the then brand-new Cranbrook Mall at the end of Baker Street. He eventually moved his business to the Mount Baker Hotel, and has been there for 40 years.
“I’ve seen a lot of things out of this window,” he said. (“And a few things I wish I hadn’t seen.”)
Fashions certainly have changed over the last half century, but Ray’s expertise has been in steady demand. He can’t even begin to estimate the number of haircuts he’s done over the years, but he has given them all their money’s worth.
“It’s all been fun,” Ray said.
