After 70 years, Montrose Barber shop is a cut above

La Cañada Flintridge resident Tom Hokinson can’t remember how he stumbled into the Montrose Barber Shop for his first haircut there.

He assumes that someone must have recommended the place, though he can’t remember, for sure. That was back in the 1970s, and now, Hokinson has been a regular for 45 years.

On Wednesday morning, the shop’s owner, Jack Roscher, was nearly done cutting Hokinson’s hair. Hokinson, who is bald on top, has a ring of hair around the sides and back of his head.

“He knows how to take care of my bald spot,” the 73-year old attorney said, jokingly. “It’s just a spot now, right?”

Last Friday, the shop celebrated 70 years of business with an open house that brought in family, friends and longtime customers spanning generations — families whose sons, fathers and grandfathers each go to the shop.

Many who started off as customers have become friends, and Roscher knows each of their stories.

A week of business can mean 20 haircuts per day for Roscher alone, with the shop open five days a week.

He said that type of steady business has remained over the 47 years he’s owned the shop, having purchased it in 1968, nearly a decade after graduating from Glendale High School in 1959.

Roscher spent nine years working at Johnny’s Barber Shop in La Crescenta before buying the Montrose shop on Ocean View Boulevard.

Among the shop’s three other employees is Roscher’s granddaughter, Lynn Thatcher, who spent a lot of her childhood in the shop and later earned her cosmetology and barber’s licenses.

She began working in the shop in 2011 and, one day, she’ll take it over.

“I’m so excited to be able to carry on this tradition that he started.” she said. “I’m very proud to be here.”

Over the years, she’s observed the environment her grandfather, known as “Jack the Barber,” helped create — a unique chemistry that keeps customers returning for years on end.

“It’s all about companionship and camaraderie. It really is a place where you share news, talk politics. You get all of your information here in the barber shop,” she said.

Thatcher recently led the redesign of the shop, which involved new paint, lighting and removing the floor’s tiles to expose the original, 100-year old concrete subfloor.

But not everything is new. Among the chairs that regulars sit in, two of them are 115 years old, Roscher said.

While there are some female clients, Thatcher said, the majority are men. While many are locals, others have retired out of state, but they make sure to return to the shop for a haircut and visit when they return to the La Crescenta area, she said.

With 30 more years remaining until the store celebrates 100 years of business, Roscher, who is 74 years old, isn’t in any hurry to retire.

“I’m going to be here. I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

His legacy may make him proud, but his joy is in knowing his granddaughter will one day carry on the tradition.

When asked how he feels about his 33-year-old granddaughter someday taking over the shop, his face lit up with a smile.

“It’s great,” he said.

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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan