BONAVISTA, NL – While Jade Way didn’t necessarily intend on carrying on her grandfather’s legacy, she literally inherited his barber’s chair this year.
Way has been a hairdresser for four years, renting a chair until she opens her own salon in Bonavista — hopefully early in 2018.
She is the granddaughter of Bill Fifield, who was well-known for his years of cutting hair.
For nearly 60 years Fifield was Bonavista’s barber. There weren’t too many men in the community who didn’t get a haircut at his place off Church Street at one point
Way even remembers first telling him she was going to go to school to be a hairdresser. She says he was in his barbershop when she told him.
“It’s pretty cool,” says Way.
When Fifield put his sign to “closed” this past spring, he fully expected to be putting it back to “open” several weeks after a surgery, Way says.
However, in April he died suddenly.
Way inherited her grandfather’s barber’s chair, along with many accessories, supplies and items from his shop. There are even antique manual hair clippers, which you have to squeeze instead of plugging in.
Way says the idea of continuing her grandfather’s legacy is exciting.
She decided she would try to get someone to restore the professional hydraulic chair, so she could use it when she opens her own salon.
She’s looked into re-upholstering and further restoration but for the time being, she wants to clean it up and incorporate it into her salon.
When Way gets up and running in her new place, she’ll have her grandfather’s old sign, antiques for decoration and the chair.
And the location of the salon? On her pop’s land near Bakeapple Marsh Road.
Anyone looking for a haircut in Bonavista will definitely know where to go — to the granddaughter of the man who had been cutting hair for as long as they can remember.
Twitter: @jejparsons
