Some of Graham Rowe's customers have been getting a trim at his Broken Hill barbershop for half a century, and now the city's last standalone male barber is set to be immortalised on film.

Mr Rowe cut his first hair in the far west New South Wales city at the age of 14. Now 74, he has recently returned after having heart surgery in Sydney.

His daughter Tracey Rowe, an internationally-recognised filmmaker and a director of television commercials, seized the opportunity to tell her spotlight-shy father's story.

"He knew everyone in town," Ms Rowe said. "He knew all the stories.

"He would come home sometimes and I'd say dad, I need some help [with schoolwork.]

"And he'd say 'Trace, I've just had 50 conversations today, let me have my tea.'"

Mr Rowe's daughter, Tracey Rowe, filmed at iconic sites around Broken Hill to capture her father's story. ( ABC Broken Hill )

The film is a personal project, but before Ms Rowe left Sydney to drive her father home, two friends and fellow filmmakers volunteered their time.

They spent a day shooting Mr Rowe at work in his barbershop, tucked inside an Argent Street shopping arcade.

It was an opportunity to reminisce about his six decades of cutting hair in Broken Hill.

"I can remember one bloke used to come in when I was working ... as an apprentice," Mr Rowe said.

"If it was too busy, he used to pick up the clippers and give himself a cut."

But the days of getting a short, simple haircut once a fortnight were soon left behind for an era that saw men become more style-conscious.

"When the Beatles come up, everyone was only having three haircuts a year," Mr Rowe said.

"So it was pretty dramatic, you could have walked out and yelled out 'free haircuts.'

"Nobody wanted one.

"I only used to get the young blokes that just refused to go into a ladies' shop, and some of them I reckon looked worse when they went out than when they came in."

Film to capture essence of Broken Hill

Part of Tracey Rowe's film was shot in an old-fashioned milk bar her father visited during his 60 years as a barber. ( ABC Broken Hill )

Ms Rowe said she wanted to use her father's story as a way to capture the character of Broken Hill she experienced growing up in the city.

"My whole childhood was about the landscape, the eccentric characters, the personalities, the mining, everything that this town offered," she said.

"And it's all of that that I want to try, if I can, to put back in this film.

"It's still here, and dad is a part of it."

Ms Rowe said her father's medical treatment in Sydney prompted her to realise the idea she had thought of some time ago.

"Mum said I'm just about to book a flight for your father home, and I said 'don't do that, I'll drive him home, I'm going to make a film,'' she said.

Graham Rowe started out as a barbershop apprentice in South Broken Hill. ( ABC News: Declan Gooch )

But Mr Rowe has no plans to retire soon.

Every time he has tried to walk away from the job, it has called him back.

"I was going to give it away when I was 55, and that went to 60, and 60 went to 65 and that went to 70," he said.

"And here I am, I'm 74 and I'm still going.

"And when I sold the business in Argent Street, I came to work in the arcade for 12 months — that was seven years ago."

He said the treatment in Sydney had left him feeling fit and healthy.

"I feel like a new man, I'm the Bionic Man now, I'm turbocharged."