Still hair at 81!
Dec 10 2004 By Matt Casey, The Evening Chronicle
At the grand old age of 81 barber Alf Roxby is still cutting it.
And while grandad Alf is probably the oldest crimper in the country, he is also one of the cheapest.
Customers never complain about his prices. The pensioners’ rate is 70p and others range from £1.50 to £2.
He has been in the trade for 68 years and is still working four days a week.
Alf started as a hairdressing apprentice in 1936 and has no plans to retire.
He says: “When people ask me when I’m going to pack it in, I tell them `When I’m old!’”
Widower Alf has only had one break from cutting hair – the five years he spent fighting for his country.
Born in 1922, he was the youngest of five sons and, at 14, started work as an apprentice.
He has been in his present shop, in Front Street, Fence Houses, near Houghton-le-Spring, since 1946.
The only time he thought of packing it in was when Mary, his wife of 41 years, died in 1988 at the age of 66.
Alf considered moving to Hertfordshire where his son, Peter, 52, lives with his wife and three children.
But he decided to stay. Alf said: “I still enjoy what I do and my customers are my friends. I like a laugh and a joke with them all.
“I’m still in good physical condition and my mind is still there, so why should I pack it in?”
“My work keeps me in touch with people and what’s going on in the world. I’ve got no intention of retiring.”
Alf will be 82 on December 20 and says: “I used to tell my mother I was the best Christmas box she ever had!”
He served as a naval gunner for five years during the Second World War and was aboard HMS Webster when she was sunk by a German torpedo in the Mediterranean.
He said: “I never cut anyone’s hair during the five years I was in the war. I enjoyed the break, but I was glad when I got back to it.”
Most of his customers are pensioners but when younger men ask for more than the usual short-back-and-sides he’s prepared for them.
He said: “I can do anything they want – even the fancy stuff they ask for these days.”
Alf has hung up his scissors a couple of years ago now, he is retired and living with his son down South.
What a man.
I remember the time 40 years ago when you use to cut my hair and also when I played football for Dubmire with Peter. It was agood team. I now live in Denmark and I hope everything is well. Best wishes.
Alfie was our next door neighbour when I lived in Front Street. We still (in 2008) send and receive a Christmas card every year, although now its, to his son´s address in the south Keep going Alf
I have a few humourous Alf Roxby stories, probably the funniest being my grandad’s account (as told by my own father) of when he went in to get his hair cut. Apparently he sat down, Roxby did half his hair cut then said ‘I’ll be back in a minute’. He went out of the shop and didn’t come back for ages. My old grandad was just sitting there!
Alf Roxby, good old fashioned barber, and I’m sure a great man but he was renowned for giving dodgy haircuts. When I was at school in the 90s one of my school-mates used to get Roxby to cut his hair and his fringe was all over.
Good old days!
I have been doing my own hair for years because I cant find a barber as good as Alfie
So Alf has hung up his scissors a couple of years ago now, he is retired and living with Peter down here in the south.
IIRC That is someplace like Bognor (25 miles from me in Hampshire). I would look him up if I had the address.
For those who remember me my grandmother Mrs Hicks died back in 1988a and I have been living just north of Portsmouth since 1984, when I switched from being an Electronics Design Engineer to being a Software Design Engineer.
I am an active radio ham G0MGF, and I like touring in my 200BHP Astra
I heard Ian Melvin (with whom I was at school) lives down here somewhere too.
Bob
I saw Alf about 9 months ago he looked a little older but still as smart as a carrot.
I hope he has a long and happy retirement.
Sad news ROXBY Alf Passed away peacefully, on July 4, 2011, aged 88 years, devoted father to son Peter and daughter-in-law Jean, much loved grandad of Lisa, Lindsay and Matthew. The funeral will take place in Essex, on Wednesday, July 13. Family flowers only please, donations if desired to Macmillan Nurses.
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Let’s tell the world what a fantastic man Alf was..
Truly a ledgend.
I was from the Homelands Estate, then the Burnside Estate, i only had my hair cut twice off Alf, but he was known through out the north-east, a great bloke. R.I.P.