Sixty years of haircuts in the same Mile End chairs

When Ralph Bou Jaoude took over Hollywood Barbershop, he could have rebranded. Instead, he became the latest custodian of a Fairmount Street institution that's outlasted five different owners.

J.P. Karwacki

September 16, 2025- Read time: 6 min

Ralph Bou Jaoude, the latest owner-operator of Hollywood Barbershop on Fairmount. | Photography by Michael Vesia / @vesiaphotography

Up in the Mile End, there's a line of 1950s Koken Presidential chairs that've been there for about as long as their manufacturing date. Only difference is that their sage green leather's been worn smooth by seven decades of Montreal elbows.

When Ralph Bou Jaoude saw these chairs, "that was it. These are everything."

Everything, in this case, is Hollywood Barbershop on Fairmount. Not to be reductive, but it all came down to three vintage chairs, a vintage cash register, a custom hand-painted clock, and neighbourhood history. A place of greater importance than one might notice at first—the quality of many good old things in Montreal these days. As for Ralph, he considers his stewardship of the business two years ago more like inheriting the weight of keeping something alive than it is a straightforward business acquisition.

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