IQALUIT
It didn't make him rich but George "Scottie" Strong is thankful for the life he's had in Iqaluit after closing up his barber shop earlier this year.

George "Scottie" Strong has closed up his barber business after 27 years in Iqaluit. He's heard dozens of stories from customers but lives by the barber's code that those secrets stay between the cutter and the client. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo

"Never made me rich," he laughed. "Too many kids for that."

Strong is father to five and grandfather to nine.

"I've met a lot of really interesting people in my career, premiers, prime ministers, you name it. It's been good to me. I can't complain. I just hope the people doing it here look after my customers well."

Strong, 62, was sponsored by his sister to come to Canada from Scotland at age 19. He got his barber's diploma and worked almost two decades in Ottawa and St. John's, N.L. Then he decided to come North in 1988.

"Just wanted to come up North," he said simply. "People ask me why I live up here and I say because I want to, not because I have to."

He got lucky and met a girl early on who became his wife.

"I met a very lovely lady and we've been together ever since," he said.

He has no plans to leave now.

"I'll be here 'till they bury me up the rocks there or something."

One rule about being a barber, he said, is that everything clients tell him must stay within the shop's walls.

"Sometimes people tell you things that you really don't want to hear, but that's your job," said Strong. "Whatever people say in the four walls stays in the four walls. Sometimes I'd go home at night and my wife would say, 'Are you OK?' I'd say, 'I'm all right, just getting a few things out of my head.'"

To succeed in this business, a personality is a requirement, he added.

"You have to have a sense of humour," said Strong. "It's a fun trade, it can really be worthwhile and beneficial. It's an honourable trade. But if any young person pursues it, you have to have that personality, or forget it."

And like with any profession, some days were more difficult than others.

"The worst part was when they would come in drunk," said Strong. "I would refuse to do them. They think their head is still but it's really not. It's like trying to write a letter with the paper moving. I didn't entertain stupid people either."

He said standing for 10 or 12 hours a day isn't as easy any more, and with the high cost of living and rent, it was time to close up shop.

"There are a lot of younger hairdressers and barbers coming up so I just decided it's time to take a back seat now," said Strong.

Strong isn't necessarily retiring for good and might do a little part-time work here and there.

He thanked his customers for their support over the years.