After 60 years of barbering, John Soprovich said he has a PhD in Barber Shop, or BS as he calls it.
At 78, Powell River’s oldest resident shave-and-a-haircut man is still working, offering advice and opinions to his clients at Westview Barbers two days a week.
“When I get people in my chair they just open up and tell me all sorts of things,” said Soprovich. “I just take it all in, but what happens in the chair stays in the chair.”
Growing up during the depression, Soprovich said he was never school smart but was good with this hands—a talent that got him drafted into service at his family’s Vancouver hair salon in the 1950s.
Earning furlough after an extreme allergic reaction to hairdressing chemicals, Soprovich traded perm chemicals and rollers for barbershop cigarette smoke, shave foam and the threat of being beaten up if a client did not like his haircut, he said.
An expert in figuring out life as he goes along, the elder barber said the secret to a happy life and career is to never stop learning.
“Young people today need to make sure they are always open to new experiences and volunteer for anything they think will help them learn and get a leg up,” said Soprovich, who studied judo and volunteered as a fire fighter in Powell River for almost a decade.
“Don’t give up the ship,” he said, explaining that life, love and careers need the same no holds barred approach. “Make yourself available one way or another.”
Married three times, Soprovich said, “I always gave my wives whatever they wanted, even when what they wanted was for me to leave.”
Now spending only two days a week at the barber shop, he said he uses the much of his free time with his new hobby whittling walking sticks.
“I’m good with my hands, but slow,“ he said, showing his current project a custom made willow staff. “This keeps my me busy.”
Also an avid guitar strummer, Soprovich said his most recent acquisition, a custom-made parlour guitar by Powell River luthier Dan Vincent keeps him pretty happy.
“I just play whatever I feel like,” he added. “If any one wants to hear anything specific they can learn it and play it themselves.”
Still working side by side with Michael Seregely, grandson of Charlie Segerly one of the barbershop’s original owners, Soprovich said he has no plans on calling it quits.
“What I want is for Michael to call up asking why I haven’t shown up to work,” he said. “He’ll find out I’ve died and just keep on cutting.
“I am just one person in a long chain of barbers.”
