sense -- the trade is in his family.

His grandmother, Mrs. Frances Durham said: "He's the only one who took after my uncle for cutting hair. He cuts hair beautifully.'' Mr. Durham recently opened his own business in Somerset.

Now, in his new uniform of white shirt and black pants, he uses some of great-great-uncle Wilfred Smith's original equipment. The old-fashioned electric razor still has the name "Will Smith'' etched in the metal handle.

"After he had passed his tools down, it encouraged me even more,'' said Mr.

Durham.

His tools are simple: combs, brushes, scissors, razors, disinfectant, and aftershave.

"I taught myself,'' he said. "I just tried it one day and liked it. I started with nothing too fancy,'' The styles Mr. Durham can cut are various: fades, high tops, designs cut into the hair...

He said he can even style ladies' hair, if they have a close cut. Mr. Durham is surrounded by role models in the business. Two of his good friends and his great-great-uncle were barbers, and all of them had shops.

A picture of Wilfred Smith is waiting to be put up in the shop when he begins decorating.

Preparing the shop was a family effort. Mrs. Frances Durham said one of her sons, who spray-paints cars, sprayed the bases of the barber chairs, and the entire family supported the venture, financially and emotionally.

Isn't he scared of setting up shop during a recession? "Really, yes, but everyone needs a haircut,'' he answered. Prices are $10 for men, and $8 for boys.

And his shop is in a "pretty busy'' part of Somerset, on the Somerset Road.

He said he hoped to attract friends, his old neighbourhood clientele, and perhaps even sailors from the Navy ships in Dockyard.

"I wanted to have my own business when I saw I could make money,'' he said.

"I just wanted to try working on my own, see how it goes. I know that it's not an overnight type of thing.'' NEW OWNER -- Nineteen-year-old William Durham in his newly-opened shop on Somerset Road. Mr. Durham is holding two razors passed down to him by his great-great uncle, the last barber in the family.