Everyone knows who Dean Shore is. Maybe he cuts your boyfriend’s hair, and he’s probably taken your picture at a football game. Maybe you have even visited his Facebook page to check out his Snooki-style face-in-hole profile picture, complete with the caption, “It’s a Shore Thing.”
No doubt, we all know Dean Shore. But you most likely don’t know him well. Perhaps you didn’t know that he is an avid gardener or that he spent 23 years as a youth minister. I bet you don’t even know his middle name. Stop by his on-campus barber shop like I did, and get to know the one, the only Dean Shore.
First off, the barber shop is most definitely a certified man cave. With comfortable couches and sports memorabilia lining the walls, it feels like the coziest frat lounge you have ever seen. When I remark on just how cool the barber shop is, Dean laughs and explains that I am having the typical girl reaction to the place. “Girls will always pop their head in and say “Oooh I just wanted to look inside.”
A haircut is already in progress when I take my seat in an empty chair next to the action. I’m little worried that the poor kid getting his hair chopped might get an awkward cut if I distract the barber. But Dean assures me that it’s no big deal, so I cautiously begin asking a few questions.
I soon find out that Dean is a proud North Carolina native, born and raised in Salisbury, about 40 minutes north of Winston. He began his undergrad at Montreat College before transferring to Belhaven College in Mississippi, graduating with a degree in Christian Ministries.
Sir Shore’s fun fact? He aspired to be a music major! Laughing, he exclaims, “I could have been the singing barber!”
But Dean did not pursue a career in music (or hairstyling) right out of college. Instead, he joined the ministry, becoming a youth pastor in Mississippi and later at Reynolda Presbyterian right across the street from Wake.
So how did he end up at the Wake barber shop? Turns out it runs in the family! Dean hails from a long lineage of barbers and even put his own hidden hair styling talents to use in college by cutting his friends’ hair (with their permission, of course). Things are a little different these days, and he’s used to seeing (and fixing) a good amount of ‘unauthorized’ haircuts.
“I have to fix a lot of stuff that goes on in the dorms, like, ‘Oh my friend did this to me last night . . . can you please fix it?”
After only a few minutes of watching Dean in action, it’s evident that whether he’s fixing a mishap or meeting the same student for his usual Monday morning haircut, he loves what he does. Dean claims to have the best clients in the world, and he enjoys getting to know each student on a more personal level.
“We get people in here from all over the world – all different perspectives,” he explains. “They keep me younger.”
Even as the two of us chat, he remains attentive to the guy in the barber chair, making it hard to believe that he only comes in for a cut once a semester. The two of them seem like great pals.
My biggest curiosity lies in Dean’s ultra-famousphotography. He decided to put his photography hobby to good use in order to meet more students and bring in more business when he joined the barber shop 6 years ago, Dean explains.
He began posting the pictures on his Facebook page and was able to reach out to potential new clients with each and every tagged photo. In no time, business was booming, and Dean was a Wake Forest household name. Students – from freshmen to seniors – were clamoring to have Dean snap a shot of them (that would no doubt show up on Facebook that night). But even with his celebrity status on campus, Dean remains humble.
“Now it’s just a fun thing,” he says. “And to be honest, I just want to get better at it.”
Dean’s camera work has been taken to a new level this year as he was given a sideline photo pass for basketball games. New to the realm of sports photography, Dean admits that he’s learning to adjust.
“The angles are different,” says Dean. “It’s actually pretty hard.”
But Dean’s true goal is to capture everything brewing behind the action.
“I try to find a lot behind the scenes. That’s why I do a lot of the tailgates,” says Dean. “I try to look for the human interest pictures. I’ll take pictures of the sideline, just the guys hanging out with each other.”
And his reasoning behind photographing virtually every campus event?
“These are the pictures I would have liked to have in college,” he says. “I’m documenting your 4 years here for you.”
Ending our chat that sentimental note, I have to (sadly) leave the man cave to get to class. Is he as wonderful as he seems? “It’s a shore thing!” See for yourself.
*All photos taken by our talented photographer, freshman Karleigh Ash