IT’S A CUT ABOVE!
Vintage barber’s chair is restored on The Repair Shop
A VINTAGE barber’s chair which links three generations of the same family has been restored on BBC TV show The Repair Shop.
Joe Davies learnt to cut hair as a teenager in the 1960s, helping out at his dad Bill’s barbering business in Newcastle.
Then when Joe’s daughter Sophie Davies wanted to follow in their footsteps, she also practised her craft by styling people’s locks on the same chair.
Now the vinyl and chrome heirloom is to take pride of place in her salon in Bridge Street, Newcastle, known as Il Capo Barbiere 1949.
It was featured on the October 27 edition of the BBC1 programme, which saw it lovingly restored by metal expert Dominic Chinea and upholsterer Sonnaz Nooranvary.
Joe, who has been working in his daughter’s barber’s shop for the past two years, said: “That chair, it brings everything back for me. I can look at that chair now and my dad will be with us forever.”
On The Repair Shop, he explained how his father’s business began back in 1949, when the shop was called Mayfair. It was later renamed Boss and Sons.
“He bought this chair in 1962 for a brand new shop in the Market Arcade in Newcastle.
“It’s been with us ever since,” said Joe.
“I was about 13. I used to go and sweep up. One of my first jobs was to polish it to get a bit of pocket money.
“It’s not always easy when you work with your dad. But as time went on, we became really like best mates.”
Joe couldn’t remember a time when the exquisitely made chair’s hydraulics actually worked. But with the help of the repair experts, it is now back in full working order.
The father and daughter took the treasured item to be restored after trying to tape together the splits in the vinyl.
The chair itself had also fallen into two pieces when Joe moved it from his old shop to Sophie’s business.
Sophie, who was just six years old when Bill died, told the repair team: “Obviously, my grandad had his career on it, dad had learnt on it, and I learnt on it. It’s been so emotional seeing it broken. It would just mean everything to be brought back to life.”
Dominic set to work pulling the bolts apart and cleaning all the pieces.
Meanwhile, Sonnaz searched high and low for the exact shade of red to replace the old vinyl. She also cut new foam to fit the seat.
She said: “What’s great about vinyl is, unlike leather, it doesn’t really require much care. Not only is it wipe-clean, it can really take heavy use.”
Sophie was the first to try out the chair after the restoration. She said: “That’s incredible. It’s all shiny. I’m going to have to get back to polishing it now.”
As for Joe, he summed it up in one word – ‘marvellous’.