Bill and Dick’s Barber Shop in Dixon will close for good in March after 60 years of operation.

Bill Heeg and Dick Dir opened the shop at 105 S. Hennepin Ave. in the heart of Dixon’s downtown in 1965. After Heeg died in 1994, Dir became the sole owner and, now planning to retire, hopes to sell the building to someone who will continue cutting hair in the space, Dir told Shaw Local.

“The people of Dixon” is what Dir said he loved the most about his job.

“These customers are not necessarily customers,” he said. “They’ve become friends.”

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Dick Dir works on a client’s hair Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, at Bill and Dick’s Barbershop in Dixon. Dir is calling it a career in March. (Alex T. Paschal)

Some of those customers have been coming to the shop since it opened in 1965 and cycling through as many as four generations of families who sat in Dir’s chair. One of them has been a customer since Dir started as a barber 64 years ago, Dir said.

Dir attended barber school in his hometown of Buda, a village in Bureau County, and moved to Dixon as a newlywed in 1961. That year, he started his first job at the since-closed S&H Barber at 117 W. First St., where he met Heeg, Dir said.

Dir worked there until it closed in 1963 to make way for the current storefront, Venier Jewelers Inc. After that, he joined his wife in Sterling, where she worked as a beautician. In 1965, he and Heeg chose to become business partners.

“I’ve always been grateful to Bill [Heeg] for wanting to be partners,” Dir said. “He’s the reason why I’ve been here all this time.”

The two bought the building, opened the shop, charged $1.75 for a cut and had a number of employees over the years, Dir said.

“As I’ve looked out of these windows, I’ve seen the entire town change,” Dir said.

Sherwin-Williams paint store, also on South Hennepin Avenue, and Trein’s Jewelry, at 201 W First St., are the only two businesses that have been there since Bill and Dick’s opened, Dir said.

Their barbershop mostly stayed the same, but the hair changed. It started short – typically a bowl cut, which was popular at the time – and then, by the early 1970s, long hair became the trend, Dir said.

Keeping up with the times, Dir went back to school in Chicago, learning to style men’s and women’s hair. Back at the shop, he cut the new popular look: mullets, Dir said.

By the 1980s, perms emerged as the new trend. Dir’s wife did that cut and style for men and women at the shop until 1985. After that, the popular hairstyles got short again, Dir said.

The 1990s also brought another change when Heeg was diagnosed with cancer in 1993. He died July 5, 1994, Dir said.

Now in 2025, Dir works at the shop with Sheri Diehl, charging $12 for a haircut. The price hasn’t changed since 2008.

“I’ve enjoyed working with the population of Dixon. [They are] wonderful people,” Dir said.

After his retirement in March, Dir said he plans on doing some traveling to visit his grandchildren, but he will stay here to “enjoy the fruits of Dixon.”