I ran into the same thing years ago. My old barber, who I patronized once a mobth, sat down in a cafe and totally ignored me. Oh well, c'est la vie.
Oh, well....his loss, not yours, Tom.
Perhaps I'm too nice, but when I first went sly I gave people the benefit of the doubt if they ignored me, and assumed they simply didn't recognize me with my awesome new look!
Sounds like you're putting a healthy, humorous spin on this, cave dweller. I mean, it's not like they butchered your son's hair, or said, "We don't cotton to your kind 'round these parts...there's the door, buddy!"
Self-shaved ten minutes back, I'll be walking by the window of my former barber in about twenty minutes. I smile a little inside, but am sure there are frowns on the other side of the glass. Sorry, guys! Maybe if you started offering pedicures?
Over the years, my barber, at both his suggestion (& my wife's suggestion) & my request cut my hair shorter & shorter, getting down to a 0 buzz. If it weren't for him, I would not have had the courage to go to a buzz cut. Realizing that my hair loss was progressing, I asked the barber if I had enough hair left for a flattop. So, I tried that one winter, then went back to the 0 buzz for the summer. Next winter, I went back to the flattop. After a few months the barber said that he just could not do the flat anymore; that I didn't have enough hair for him to work with. He recommended taking it all off, saying that the 0 buzz looked best on me, and on men in general with hair loss. Shortly after that, I purchased my own clipper with changeable blades, and have been back to him only a few times with my son. Once when he was buzzing me down, I told him that I had razor shaved while on vacation. His only comment, which surprised me, was asking if it "hurt" (It didn't...he doesn't do razor shaves). My point is that a good barber will give you good advice as mine did and help you find a good style haircut, even if that is clipper shaved or bald and he looses the business.
I know the feeling. The last time my son and I went to our cutters, I joked and said that only one of us was getting cut

. Needless to say, the stylist wasn't that amused. My cousin now cuts my son's hair and likes me bald.