NC barbershop known for ‘Montross cut,’ hot-lather shave closing doors after 64 years
Over six decades of faded news clippings, Tar Heel posters, and photos of family and friends blanket the walls of Friendly Barber Shop in Carrboro.
Russ Sturdivant, whose father Grady Sturdivant opened the barbershop in 1961, will take those memories with him when he closes the door for the last time on April 30 .
“There’s just been a lot of very special people coming in here over the years that I’m glad I had the privilege to get to know,” he said.
The hours will be reduced until then, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
Sturdivant grew up in the shop, where he and his brother and sisters would sometimes help out. He started cutting hair there with his father in 1995, taking over three years later just before his father died.
The price of a haircut is now $28 to keep up with rent, he said. Not much else has changed.
The barbers still use hot lather and a straight razor for a smooth finish. The vintage barbershop chairs see a steady turn of customers, and the electric razors swing from metal hooks, carving decades-old scars deeper into the plain, wood cabinets.
Few customers help sweep the floor like they did when his dad owned the shop, he said, so hair piles up when they’re busy.
“When I was growing up as a kid, this was a wonderful town to grow up in,” said Sturdivant, who will turn 60 this year.
He recalled playing basketball and football after school on the lawn of the textile mill — now Carr Mill Mall. He and his friends would explore World War II ammunition bunkers that used to be near the South Orange Rescue Squad, he said.
The town is different now, and he’s ready to move on, Sturdivant said.
“A lot of older Carrboro is dying or has died out, and I miss them terribly. It’s not that I really skipped to work every day, but once you got here, it was entertaining,” Sturdivant said.
“Now, everybody looks at their phone, and there’s no conversation,” he said.
People made it ‘best place to work’
Friendly Barber Shop has served some locals for decades, and it still enjoys a regional draw and visits from UNC-Chapel Hill alumni.
Abe Thompson, who plans to cut hair until the day Friendly closes, said he’s going to miss it.
“It’s the best place to work, and it’s a very busy shop,” he said.
Jeff Knox and his son Phillip, who worked at Friendly until Feb. 22, said they enjoyed their time there. They talked with Sturdivant last year about buying the shop, but it just didn’t work out, they said.
“I hate things ended the way they did, but Russ has been nothing but good to me and my son, so I have nothing ill to say about him,” said Jeff Knox, 51. “It saddens me to see Friendly go out of business.”
They’re still working on the next chapter, he said, and thanked their customers for “years of faithful patronage.”
The “people made you feel their appreciation for what you offered, and that’s not true everywhere,” he said.
Diverse customers, and the ‘Montross’
Phillip Knox, 25, worked next to a wall full of memories for over a year, and something new would always catch his eye. It’s “like a museum for Carrboro,” he said.
Their customers were also a diverse group, from accomplished doctors to Vietnam and Korean war veterans, and others “who did very, very, very cool stuff in the military,” he said. One man was a patient in the doctor’s office that preceded the barber shop.
“It’s cool to speak to people like that — the older generation — (and) for a solid amount of time, to where they’re in a position to actually open up to you while they’re in the barber chair,” he added. “You can really learn a whole lot.”
UNC Tar Heels legend Eric Montross, who was on the 1993 NCAA Championship team, inspired his own style, Sturdivant said.
The “Montross cut” was a high and tight flat top that had mothers from all over the state bringing their sons to Friendly Barber Shop, Sturdivant said. A photo on the wall shows Montross with two boys from Statesville who had stopped by to get their own Montross haircuts.
“He was one of the best guys I ever knew,” Sturdivant said.
After packing up his memories and heading home to Alamance County, he plans to spend his time doing electrical work, a career he had for 14 years before becoming a barber. Still, he might make a little time to cut hair for friends and family, Sturdivant said.
“I’ve made some very special friends over the years,” he said.
