J.D. the barber glad to be back in downtown Laconia

LACONIA — John Downs says he's glad to be back in downtown Laconia at a new location on Pleasant Street where he's getting to see his old customers coming back to him.

Downs has spent 19 years cutting hair, most of them in Laconia, and said that in his first three months at J.D.'s Barbershop, he's gotten 90 percent of his old customers back.

''It's nice to see that kind of loyalty. And it doesn't hurt that I'm the first one on the block and have a very visible location,'' said Downs, who most recently worked in Meredith running the former Dick's Barbershop, where he said business was fine during the summer but dropped off rapidly after Labor Day.

''I decided to come back to Laconia,'' said Downs, who was forced out of his Busy Corner location by a fire in January of 2014 and said he'll always be grateful to fellow downtown barber Dan Barbary, who invited him to come and work with him after the fire.

He says he's also glad to have Dwight Barton as his landlord again and said that at one of his former locations, when his lease expired, he was able to move into a new location owned by Barton for $800 a month less than former landlord was asking for.