Butch Rabic still gives his customers a trim in the same early 20th-century chair he inherited from his predecessor when he took over a Blairsville barber shop in 1980.
Though he doesn’t ring up bills on it, he also uses a vintage cash register that can key in a top value of $5.
“People like coming in here,” Rabic said. “They like the old style. They’ll talk about different things, and they’ll see people in here they haven’t seen for a while.
“It’s kind of a homey thing, like the general store.”
Rabic’s chair finally will get a rest after Jan. 25, when he plans to close up shop after 45 years and head into retirement.
“I don’t want to work until I can’t work anymore,” said the 70-year-old. “I want to take 10 years to just enjoy myself.”
He’s hoping to take a first-time vacation with his wife, Rhonda, who has been understanding during the many years he’s been tied up at the barber shop.
In retirement, he’s also looking to have more frequent visits with his brother in New Jersey and to spend more time with his two daughters and his granddaughter.
“My granddaughter has three more years of high school,” he said. “Maybe I can go see her do things I couldn’t before.”
Not that Rabic’s work ethic will go by the wayside.
He said, “I’m thinking about things I need to do, working around our house and our daughters’ — handyman work.”
Family, handyman plans
Statistics reported by market research platform IBISWorld indicate the barbering profession is on an upswing nationally, with more than 151,000 shops operating across the country in 2024, a number that has grown on average by about 2% annually in recent years.
That trend isn’t reflected in Blairsville, according to Rabic. He said he was one of six barbers in the town when he opened his shop more than four decades ago, but now it is the last remaining in operation there.
Rabic suggests many of today’s barber school graduates are looking to join the staff of a franchise hairstyling location instead of going solo and opening their own shop.
“If you work for yourself, you can’t just get up in the morning and say, ‘I don’t feel like going in today,’” he said. “When you’re self-employed, you don’t get vacation days and sick days.”
Daughter Kaleena Rabic of Youngstown can testify to her father’s hardworking habits.
“He was always there for anything his customers needed,” she said. “When I was really young, my sister and I would go in sometimes and help him sweep up. His customers would tip us, and he would let us sit in his chair.”
Building a clientele
Rabic grew up in Laughlintown and graduated from Ligonier Valley High School. After completing his professional training at the Cambria County Barber School, he started out at 22 — working alongside Ligonier barber Ken Knupp for a few years before striking out on his own.
His future wife, a Blairsville native, provided the connection that led him to open his shop in that town just over the border in Indiana County.
Said Rabic, “She knew somebody whose father was a barber, and he was closing his shop down because he got sick. He asked her if she knew anybody who might want to buy a barber shop, and she thought of me.
“It was tough at first. It was like starting all over; he had closed down and all of his customers went somewhere else.”
It took at least three years for Rabic to build up his own clientele.
Another challenging period was when the covid-19 pandemic shut him down for three months.
“The wives would trim the men up the best they could when I wasn’t open,” he said. But, when he reopened, “I saw a lot of hairy necks.”
Though spouses’ tonsorial efforts may have fallen short, they have definite ideas about their husbands’ hairstyles, according to Rabic. He said those opinions have been an important factor in providing him repeat customers.
“They’re not really too worried about (their hairstyle),” he said. “But. if the wife likes it, I’m in good shape.”
Changing trends, traditions
Rabic has seen trends in men’s hairstyles come and go.
In the ’90s, he said, some younger men wanted their hair sculpted, to depict any number of shapes and images.
“One boy wanted numbers and stripes and stars,” Rabic said. “I said, ‘I’m running out of room.’ You can put only so much on one head.”
“Now, it seems to be the shorter military-style haircut,” he said of the current trend.
Rabic can look back on a long career where many of his clients have become friends — including some families with as many as four generations of men and boys who have trusted their locks to his skill with shears.
With such longstanding customers, he said, “I don’t even have to ask them how they want their hair cut. It’s just ‘Give me the usual.’
“I have guys in here who are retiring now, and I cut their hair when they were in high school.”
“He couldn’t go to Walmart without stopping and talking to someone every few minutes,” his daughter said. “They would say, ‘That was my barber since I was 5.’”
John Cikowski of Brush Valley Township has been coming regularly to have his hair cut by Rabic since 2007, when Cikowski began a job handling maintenance tasks at the National Guard armory in Torrance.
“When my wife says I’m starting to get a little fuzzy, it’s time,” he said of the factor that triggers his visits to Rabic’s shop.
Rabic knows the type of cut he likes.
“He says, ‘Do you want it short?’” Cikowski said. “I say yes, and he knows what to do. That’s what’s nice about it.”
Cikowski likes shooting the breeze with his barber and especially appreciates that Rabic finishes by shaving the back of his neck.
“That’s the best feeling in the world,” Cikowski said. “That tells you you got a haircut.”
Once Rabic retires, Cikowski said, “I don’t know who I’m going to go to. Barbers are few and far between.”
Collecting final memories
As Rabic snips away, his clients will share the latest about health challenges, their children’s achievements and various family milestones.
“I know something is wrong if I don’t see them for a while,” he said. “There was one guy I didn’t see for two years. I didn’t know what happened to him. I thought he was upset with the way I cut his hair.
“All of a sudden, he comes in. I said, ‘Where have you been?’ He said, “We were living in South Carolina. Now we’re back.’”
With just weeks remaining at his barber shop, Rabic has begun collecting customers’ parting sentiments in a book that he will treasure in retirement.
He’s also hoping to find someone to succeed him at the shop.
“It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing this this long,” he said of his career. “All my friends are here at the shop, is what it’s seemed like.”
