ELKHART — After nearly 100 years of hair-cutting between them, Elkhart barbers Chuck Lynn and Ken Ervin clipped their last paying customers' hair on Saturday.

The duo co-own K & C Barber Shop at 921 Johnson St. and decided earlier this year that it was time to retire. A new barber, Ernesto Velazquez, bought out their shop and starts Monday, while Lynn and Ervin join the ranks of the retired.

It's going to be hard giving up the business, said Lynn, 74, but he'll manage. “We'll get over it about 20 minutes after we leave here,” he joked.

Jim Becraft, getting his hair cut by Ervin, said Lynn would probably hightail it to a lake once his shift was complete to do some fishing, one of his favorite pasttimes. “You'll probably be throwing in that night crawler,” said Becraft, a long-time customer from Edwardsburg, Mich.

Ervin, 65, joked that now he and Lynn will have to put up with their wives. “Scratch that,” he quickly added.

CUSTOMERS: 'THE MAIN THING'

Lynn and Ervin first worked together for more than 14 years at a barber shop in the Easy Shopping Plaza here. They moved to the red-brick Johnson Street location next store to Andy's Place in 1980 and stayed put.

All told, Lynn has 51 years experience cutting hair while Ervin has 46-and-a-half years under his belt. Don't ask them how many heads they've cut, though.

“It'd be nice if we'd have kept track, but I have no idea,” said Ervin.

At any rate, though they're hanging up their scissors at K & C, they still may trim a few heads, though probably not for pay. Lynn has a barber's chair in his basement and said he'll still have hair-cutting duty with his sons and grandsons. Ervin, too, will probably continue hair-trimming duties with family.

And all joking aside, they'll probably miss the barber's chairs, at least a little.

Lynn said the relationship with the customers is what he's cherished the most. There's a lot of banter, some serious, some not-so-serious, and it came through as the two men cut hair Saturday, their final day.

“Just the customers we've dealt with all these years,” said Lynn, discussing what he'll miss most. “That's the main thing, the clientele.”