THORNTON, Colo. — Clint Egan, the 88-year-old owner of Eastlake Barber Shop, will cut his last head of hair April 18, ending a 62-year run at his Thornton shop that outlasted lumber yards, cattle farms and the arrival of light rail in what was once a quiet farming community.
Egan, who turns 89 in September, has operated the shop at its present Eastlake location since 1964, inside a building that dates to 1911. He and his wife, Gayle, who co-owned and worked the shop alongside him for decades, sold the business to a new owner but remained on the floor through the transition.
“Never was there one day I didn’t want to come,” Clint said. “It was not a real job. It was just a pleasure.”
The shop’s closing of this chapter carries deep roots, and a backstory that goes back even further than 1964. As a young man growing up in the area, Clint attended high school in Brighton and would come to Eastlake to play pickup football in the streets…