Article: A CUT ABOVE THE REST AFTER NEARLY 50 YEARS, RUDY EDWARDS' CUSTOMERS THINK HE'S

Rudy Edwards is an endangered species.

With a comb in one hand and clippers in another, he snips the hair from customers' heads.

He shaves them so close, it's nearly a crime.

He slathers their manes with drugstore aftershave.

And he ribs them enough that they'll still be chuckling later on.

At 79, with snowy hair and a cluster of barbershop relics, Edwards looks like an antiquity in Central Styling Barber and Beauty Shop in Radford.

His buzzing razor is drowned out by salon hair dryers and gossiping stylists.

The hair business has changed since Edwards became a barber in 1946. Longer styles rule, and fewer people are going to barber school.

Luckily, Edwards, who owned Central Styling until ...

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