BATON ROUGE - Inside Southern University, down a familiar hallway where footsteps echo and students pass each day, sits a barbershop that is much more than a place to get a haircut.

For more than 60 years, the Southern University campus barbershop has been a gathering space, a place of conversation, culture, and connection where young men come not just to look better, but often to feel better.

At the heart of that legacy is 81-year-old Robert Irvin Sr., who has been cutting hair at the barber shop for more than 61 years. His chair has seen generations of Southern students grow up, graduate, and move through life.

“It’s definitely a brotherhood,” Irvin said of the bond inside these walls.

That brotherhood took on new meaning when Alvin “AJ” Judson found his way behind one of those barber chairs.

Judson didn’t arrive at Southern dreaming of becoming a barber. He came chasing a baseball career. But the barbershop kept pulling him back in.

“I used to come to the barber shop every day to ask questions, not knowing I was going to be a barber,” Judson said.

What started as curiosity slowly turned into purpose.

“I walked in and said, 'That’s your identity.' Everybody has their own identity… and this barber shop has this identity because it’s been here for so long,” Judson explained.

Irvin remembers when Judson first asked for a chance behind the clippers.

“He told me he wanted to be a barber and cut hair here, and I said we’d give him a try, and it worked out well,” Irvin said.

Over time, what began as mentorship grew into something deeper, a relationship built on respect, trust, and shared purpose.

For Judson, cutting hair became more than a job.

“This is who I am. I feel free when I’m cutting hair,” he said. “I even replaced going to the batting cage with coming in to cut at least one head a day.”

Inside the shop, conversations often go far beyond sports, classes, or campus life. Irvin says every person who sits in his chair carries something with them.

“They all have a story to tell and I… I just feel blessed to be able to help them,” Irvin said.

After decades in the same seat, Irvin says he recognizes pieces of himself in Judson.

“I see myself in AJ that’s probably the biggest reason he’s here. I can look at him, talk to him, and see where I was when I was that young,” Irvin said.

Judson sees Irvin as more than a mentor he sees him as family.

“He’s 81 years old… I didn’t really have a grandfather before I got here. So when I look at him, in a lot of ways… he’s a good friend, he’s a good mentor” said Judson.