By Skyler Landry

Rory Fisher moves from one side of the barbershop chair to the other, clippers steady in hand as he gives his client a fade. Conversation swells around him— who’s got the best deal from Costco, ASVAB, what going on in town— but Fisher stays focused on the client’s head. 

“I like to be around my clients,” Fisher said. “I like to see the ones that are advancing going from elementary to middle school to high school to college. I get to see that and appreciate that.” 

Fisher, 57, is the owner of Peak Barber and Beauty in Centennial, Colorado. He has been cutting hair for more than two decades. He says being a barber is about making people look good and giving advice to those who need it. 

“I don’t read people,” he said. “I read energy. I feel energy. I pick up quickly. I know if you’re having a bad day, a good day, or you’re upset.”   

That awareness is reflected in the way his clients talk about him. Myron Walker, a retired police officer said that after he’d moved to Colorado, he’d gone to more than a dozen barbers before settling into Rory’s chair in 2017.  

“His appointments be precise on time,” Walker said. “He don’t cancel on you. You can make the appointment the same day, like I did today. I was impressed. He gives you a great haircut, and if you don’t like, he’d change it. Before Rory, people would be like, hey Jonah. Now they call him Smiley. He really looks up to Rory. Then at the other barbershop, I don’t even think they knew his name.” 

Walker said the sense of familiarity extends beyond the haircut. He said Fisher remembers his sons’ birthdays and gives them free haircuts each year. Inside the shop, kids are greeted by nicknames. Walker’s connection to the shop became apparent during one of the hardest times of his life.

“I had a father that passed and he talked to me, and I was like ‘yeah I’ll be alright,'” Walker said. “It’s hard because that was my only father. He was like, ‘I got you if you need anything, let me know,’ he really guided me and talked to me like a big brother. He was like, ‘You the head of the household. You got to be strong.'” 

Fisher’s career didn’t start out cutting hair. He says his previous job taught him there was more to life than making money. 

“I was in corporate America, I was never late, I was on time,” Fisher said. “That particular day, I was working with Airborne Express, and I had 13 computers which you have to scan each computer as an inbound to make sure your freight’s there. Fisher I went to the bathroom. I didn’t scan my freight in. I come back from the bathroom, I get back, scan my freight in. I load my stuff and I go to work. I drop all the computers off.”  

His employer accused him of stealing. The accusation came without warning. 

“A supervisor from Airborne Express called me in the office and said I was supposed to originally deliver 13. There was only 12,” Fisher said. “I remind you, I was never late to work. I was always on time. When I was doing my work, I always helped everybody. I was a consummate driver, loyal. So long story short, he blamed me for stealing a computer.” 

Fisher said the accusation was never substantiated, but it became the turning point that led him to becoming a barber. 

“That put a fire under me,” Fisher said. “I just wanted to show whoever that I was never a thief.” 

Fisher learned to cut hair when he was younger, practicing on his siblings. Over time, that skill grew into something larger. It became ownership, independence and the chance to build something on his own terms. 

He learned what kind of business owner he did not want to be. He now passes those lessons on to the stylists who worked under him. 

Britney Ware is the owner of Iconically.B Hair Studio in Lonetree, Colorado, and a licensed cosmetologist who used to work with Fisher. 

“Everyone there took me under their wing and was like ‘this is how things are done, this is how things aren’t done,’” she said. “I was able to grow as a stylist for myself and then be who I was. I learned a lot of stuff from Rory. I had to practice people skills and he took me through a training, and he was like, ‘Okay Britney, go outside and talk to this person. Go outside and do this and this.’” 

Under Fisher’s tutelage, Ware learned how to build her own clientele.  

“He said every single person you do tell them that if  they bring you three people their service is free, yes a free service is crazy but at the end of the day, you’re going to have four new clients on top of that,” Ware said. “So he really broke down, like, barber math and stylist math. And it wasn’t just about doing hair, because I was going to learn how to get the hair portion. It was, like, how to be, like, a people person.”  

After five years, Ware left Fisher’s shop to open her own. She described the transition as scary but necessary. 

“It felt like leaving family,” she said. “But I had to grow and become my own version of a stylist.” 

Fisher hopes to see all of his former stylists build their own businesses. 

“Life is what you create,” Fisher said. “Every day I come looking to create art.” 

In his barbershop, where debates echo and music hums in the background, Fisher remains at the center, not just shaping people’s hair, but shaping their lives.